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Self- Directed Learning: Presented by Patrick Farenga NM Association for the Education of Young Children March 1, 2014 Challenges and Concerns

Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

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Page 1: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Self-Directed Learning:

Presented by Patrick Farenga

NM Association for the Education of Young ChildrenMarch 1, 2014

Challenges and Concerns

Page 2: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

What Is Self-Directed Learning?

Page 3: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Challenges and Concerns

Not learning from a structured curriculum. Kids won’t learn important things unless they are taught to them.

Not learning from a certified teacher. Not learning at the same pace as other children. Children who prefer to play, read, or converse rather than be instructed are loafing and need to be reprimanded.

Page 4: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Learning All the Time

Page 5: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Research by Alison Gopnick

•Your Baby Is Smarter Than You Think in the NY Times, 8/16/2009

•Why Preschool Shouldn’t Be Like School in the NY Times, 3/16/2011 “While learning from a teacher may help children get to a specific answer more quickly, it also makes them less likely to discover new information about a problem and to create a new and unexpected solution.”

Page 6: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

The double-edged sword of pedagogy:

Instruction limits spontaneousexploration and discovery

Published in Cognition, 2010

Journal homepage:www.elsevier.com/locate/COGNIT

Page 7: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

The Good-Enough Parent and Competent Children

John Bowlby

D.W. Winnicott

T. Berry Brazelton

Claudia Gold

Page 8: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Informal Learning Workers reported that informal learning was three times more

important in becoming proficient on the job than company-provided training.

Workers learn as much during breaks and lunch as during on- and off-site meetings.

Most workers report that they often need to work around formal procedures and processes to get their jobs done.

Most workers developed many of their skills by modeling the behavior of co-workers.Source: CapitalWorks [www.capworks.com/] surveyed hundreds of knowledge workers about how they really learned to do their jobs.

Page 9: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Say Something

In the last few months, what did you learn that wasn’t formally taught to you?

Page 10: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

School-Directed Learning

• The role of educational research is “to control and predict.”

• The goal of the educational process “is to equip students to achieve specific, desirable outcomes.”

• BUT “The capacity to achieve an outcome is different from the ability to explore the world and understand experience.”

Sources: • The Power of Mindful Learning by Ellen Langer.• The Gift of Imperfection by Brené Brown

Page 11: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Schooling is not the same as education . . .

And education is not the same as learning!

Page 12: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.”

— Plutarch

Don’t put the fire out—feed it!

Page 13: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Multilingualism

• Children can handle being bilingual!

• Parents can use conversation and involvement with other adults and children in their native tongue.

Page 14: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Not Just Books . . .• Keep abreast of public resources and events using

smartphones, tablets, computer for awareness of local bulletin boards, news, events.

• Learning is not just quiet studying.

• Sing, dance, play with children. Encourage activity at home.

• Involve young children in your daily activities as much as possible.

Page 15: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Sugata MitraSugata Mitra's "Hole in the Wall" experiments have shown that, in the absence of supervision or formal teaching, children can teach themselves and each other, if they're motivated by curiosity and peer interest.

http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html

Page 16: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

The Hole in the Wall Experiment

Page 17: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Teaching Themselves

Page 18: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Learning is about Relationships

•Social

•Personal

•Places

•Things

Page 19: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Video Games Can Be Valuable Connections

Page 20: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Say Something

Technology increased the connections between adults and children for Erik Martin. How can you increase and strengthen the connections between adults and children you know?

Page 21: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Work through strengths and interests

Page 22: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

A Question versus a Quiz

Page 23: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Play

Page 24: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Six characteristics of child rearing that were common to

our distant ancestors:•Lots of positive touch – as in no spanking.

•Prompt response to baby’s fusses and cries.

•Breastfeeding, ideally 2 to 5 years. •Multiple adult caregivers.•Free play with multi-age playmates. •Natural childbirth.

Source: http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/16829-research-shows-child-rearing-practices-of-distant-ancestors-foster-morality-compassion-in-kids/

Page 25: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Help Parents Appreciate Themselves and

Their Kids•Be a good-enough parent. •Read or tell stories about when you were a child to your kids. Share your life but don’t overwhelm them with it.

•It’s okay to make mistakes with your children as long as you correct them ASAP (disrupt/repair). You are providing a learning model to your children.

•Watch shows together and comment on their content and presentation. Discuss the stories and issues you watch.

Page 26: Self-Directed Learning: Challenges and Concerns

Children are good at learning