Are we missing something; are today’s learners ‘independent’ learners?

[John Pallister]

Since I drifted across a link to this article
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/5550410/A-levels-being-turned-into-sat-nav-qualifications.html
on Twitter a couple of weeks ago I have been worrying. I do worry for
learners; a lot of what we are being ‘told’/expected to do is designed
to ‘create’ independent learners. I have argued that the ePortfolio
process can support this move.

If "students were less likely to study independently than 15 years
ago" , something must have gone wrong. Has it? Can anyone point me
towards research that either shows that our learners NOW are, or are
not, better ‘independent learners?

[Ray Tolley]

John,

You and I were both teaching 15 years ago and we are also aware of the
work of many colleagues at that time. As much as we might have
encouraged our students to 'do' their own projects I am not sure that
we used the term 'independent learners' or had even given thought to
the term.

I cannot see, therefore, how anyone can compare today's independent
learners with those of 15 years ago if we have no baseline from which
to work. Is there any available research from that time? How would
we have defined 'independent learning' 15 years ago? Although I was
very keen at that time for students to identify original areas of
research for their projects and was convinced that the 'ownership' of
their work was independent, I'm not sure that I ever used the phrase
'independent learning' - did anyone?

Ray Tolley NAACE Fellow
ICT Education Consultant
Maximise ICT Ltd
P: http://raytolley.v2efolioworld.mnscu.edu/
B: http://www.efoliointheuk.blogspot.com/
W: http://www.maximise-ict.co.uk/eFolio-01.htm
Winner of the IMS 'Leadership Regional Award 2009'


On 15 July, 07:19, John Pallister <jpallis...@aol.com> wrote:
> Since I drifted across a link to this articlehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/5550410/A-levels-b...

[mjmontagne]

Hello John,
I am unable to point to any research one way or the other relating to
your question about how well (or poorly) we are fostering self-
directed, independent learning.

I work at a college preparatory school here in the San Francisco Bay
area and I do have some anecdotal evidence that says we are not doing
the best job in promoting a movement toward helping students become
more self-directed and independent. In many ways, I think traditional
school enables learners to become more dependent upon the school. I
can't find the link right now, but a recently published study about
online schools suggests that students who attend virtual schools are
more self-directed and independent in their learning compared to
students who attend brick and mortar schools. I'll try to dig up a
link to this article and post it here.

I am in agreement with you in terms of the promise of ePortfolio
methodology. I definitely think this methodology can play a central
role in helping our students become more independent and self-directed
in their learning.

~Matt

On Jul 14, 11:19 pm, John Pallister <jpallis...@aol.com> wrote:
> Since I drifted across a link to this articlehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/5550410/A-levels-b...