Self-Directed Learning: Individualizing Instruction – We Still Do It Wrong! Roger Hiemstra

Self-Directed Learning: Individualizing Instruction –

We Still Do It Wrong!

Roger HiemstraProfessor EmeritusSyracuse University

(rogerhiemstra@gmail.com)(www-distance.syr.edu)

I First Presented on This Topic in 1986 at the First SDL Symposium

• I was younger

• Had more hair

• Tried to appeal

with my charm

• Fell on deaf ears?

I Try Once Again Today!

Learners can be helped to take increasing responsibility for their own learning!!

So Why 25 Symposia Later Am I Once Again Making This Plea?

• My observation that many instructors still use teacher directed techniques

• There has been much SDL research in the past three decades but are we applying it well with learners?

• To suggest that we must and can do a better job of applying what we know about SDL in our work as teachers

What I Hope to Accomplish with This Presentation

• Describe how I developed my views on helping adults take increasing responsibility for their own learning

• Mention some of my and others’ related research for your later review

• Make suggestions on where we go from here and seek your feedback

Started in Ice Age as Extension Agent Working w/ Farmers & Youth

That’s Me in the Middle

Two Adult Educ. Graduate Degrees - Iowa State Univ. and

the Univ. of Michigan

Fate Intervened – I met Howard McClusky – an early leader in adult education and a masterful professor – he became my mentor and quickly convinced me to pursue the professoriate

My Professorial Career Began in 1970, the University of Nebraska

Fate Stepped In Again – In 1972 I met Allen Tough and Malcolm Knowles – their work convinced me to change my teaching approaches and begin my own research in self-directed learning

My Teaching Evolves

I began using learning contracts and giving more responsibility back to the learners, developing what I came to call individualizing the instructional process.

My 1986 Presentation – The Individualized T-L Process

• Learners make many of their own decisions

• Use of learning contracts

• Focus on individual learner needs

• Learners taking on increasing responsibility for their own learning and corresponding evaluation

_________________

Hiemstra (1988); followed up with Hiemstra (1992)

Some Instructional Roles

• Providing content resources

• Locating needed learning resources

• Helping maintain/enhance learner focus and motivation

• Providing encouragement, feedback, and positive critiques

• Stimulating critical thinking

• Stimulating self-evaluation

What Did This Lead to For Me?

• Three related books (Hiemstra & Sisco, 1990; Brockett &

Hiemstra, 1991; Hiemstra & Brockett, 1994)

• Several related book chapters and journal articles

• Long term involvement with the SDL symposia and IJSDL

• Advisor for 30+ SDL dissertations

• Solidification of my Individualized Instructional teaching f2f and online

Have We Progressed Much in 25 Years?

– Supportive research by such scholars as Boyer, Bulik, Coe, Guglielmino, Long, Maher, and several others

– However, my observation still is that “most” teachers of adults simply fall back on previous modeling and use teacher-directed techniques

– Am I just a voice in the wilderness crying “wolf?”

– I want you to challenge me and dialogue with me

Where Do We Go From Here?

– Encourage more research on teaching in relation to SDL

– Encourage all teachers of adults to develop a personal statement of philosophy

– Encourage authors and presenters at this and future symposia to include teaching implications emanating from their SDL research

– Work with adult education professors to utilize individualizing instructional components

What You Can Do!By Author Alan Kay:

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it!”

Let’s work together to help future learners take more responsibility for learning

IT IS YOUR TURN!

Let’s dialogue about your ideas about my presentation and your experiences in instructing adults – we will start with my reactor and then I will appreciate your thoughts now and later!

ReferencesBrockett, R. G., & Hiemstra, R. (1991). Self-direction in adult learning. New York:

Routledge. Retrieved January 31, 2011, from http://www-distance.syr.edu/ sdlindex.html.

Hiemstra, R. (1988). Self-directed learning: Individualizing instruction (pp. 99-124). In H. B. Long & Associates, Self-directed learning: Application & theory. Athens, GA: Department of Adult Education, University of Georgia.

Hiemstra, R. (1992). Individualizing the instructional process: What we have learned from two decades of research on self-direction in learning. In H. B. Long & Associates, Self-directed learning: Application and research (pp. 323-344). Norman, OK: Oklahoma Research Center for Continuing Professional and Higher Education, University of Oklahoma.

Hiemstra, R., & Brockett, R. G. (Eds.). (1994). Overcoming resistance to self-direction in adult learning, No. 64), San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved January 31, 2011, from http://www-distance.syr.edu/ndacesdindex.html.

Hiemstra, R. & Sisco, B. (1990). Individualizing instruction. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved January 31, 2011, from http://www-distance.syr.edu/ iiindex.html.