21st Century Competencies - Self Directed/Disciplined Students

I was having a conversation with a parent about what "Self Directed Students" were.  At first, I couldn't understand why this parent was so concerned about students being able to direct their own learning but after a few minutes, it became clear that this parent pictured students sitting in front of computers, not interacting with teachers, peers or others.  The image this parent had was students sitting around just doing their "own thing."

I could see that there was confusion about what 21st Century Competencies really meant as well as exemplifying that we need to work on educating our parents about this topic!

This conversation made me think about how it is essential that we properly model the behavior that we want our students to follow. Below is an excellent series of articles about designing on-line learning classes that do just that.  The principles discussed are just as valid for "brick and mortar" environments as well.

In her five part series, Susan Farber discusses self-regulation strategies. She goes into detail on how, as educators, we must have a well designed course of studies that will guide the learner into becoming self-disciplined.  Unlike the image the above parent had, this is not a "hefker" (Hebrew: "willy-nilly-all-over-the-place") approach but a disciplined, thoughtful process.  In Susan's final installment, I found the four points below as "pearls of wisdom!"

1. Structure learning environment;
2. Organize and transform instructional materials;
3. Monitor learner progress; and
4. Evaluate performance against a standard (measurement of learning aligns with instruction)

Understanding the value of these self-regulation strategies, becoming skilled at modeling them and offering learners several opportunities to develop and employ these strategies will help guide them to success. Instructors may need to become proactive and mindful in their planning and implementation of course activities.  As mentioned above, instructors could demonstrate an openness to collect learner feedback to guide revisions to course materials and activities. Instructors, extending their grasp of learning strategies and complex thinking skills, can offer richer exploration of content and skill, experiment with varied resources and review richer samples of student learning.

I encourage you to read all five installments.  They are well worth your time.

As always, feel free to share this email (and the new blog site http://technorebbe.blogspot.com ).  Your comments are always solicited.

Regards....

Yossie

• Nurturing Online Learning Environments: Introduction 
• Nurturing Online Learning Environments: Frequency, Type and Quality of Communication
  
• Nurturing Online Learning Environments: Atmosphere Created Within Online Courses
• Nurturing Online Learning Environments: Course Design and Structure
• Nurturing Online Learning Environments: Integrating Self-Regulation Strategies

Yossie Frankel
Director - Consortium for Information and Academic Technologies
Member Schools:
Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy - yfrankel@hillelhebrew.org
Oakland Hebrew Day School - y.frankel@ohds.orgShalhevet High School - y.frankel@shalhevet.org
Arete Preparatory Academy - yfrankel@areteprep.org
Yeshivat Yavneh - www.yha.org
Checkout my blog @ technorebbe.blogspot.com
Twitter:  @yossiefrankel
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