Self-managed Learning
Reviewed and Updated: January 2008
This page has been kept for reference.
It will no longer be updated by ICVET.
Taking responsibility for your own learning is 'the key to lifelong learning and development' (Long, 1990).
With the move towards a new paradigm of teaching and learning, learners are being encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning by making decisions as to what they will learn, and how they will learn.
The role of the teacher is changing to that of a facilitator of learning where the teacher and the learner become co-learners. Learning contracts are being established between the teacher and the learner to support the process.
More collaborative approaches to learning such as action learning, mentoring, learning partners, and workbased learning strategies are being implemented.
These strategies require individuals to become comfortable with challenging, as well as being challenged, and to become more reflective practitioners.
Websites
Building Communities Managing Community Content: So You Want To Be An Online Moderator?
This a great VET resource for learning about establishing managing and facilitating students online.
UTS: Oval Research
This website contains a wide range of WBL literature covering aspects of WBL self-directed learning an excellent website for current WBL theory and research.
Publications
LONG, Douglas G 1990, Learner Managed Learning. Kogan Page, London.
This text is excellent for those teachers who are keen to support learners to take responsibility for their own learning. It includes ideas to support the learner in a more autonomous learning environment.
BROOKFIELD, Stephen 1986, Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, California.
Brookfield explores the notion of self-directed learning and the negative impact on learning in an educational institution which sets the curricula, the exams and the educational calendar. This is done within the context of an adult learning environment.
CUNNINGHAM, Ian 1994, The Wisdom of Strategic Learning: The Self-Managed Learning Solution. McGraw-Hill, London.
The term Self-Managed Learning appears to have originated with Cunningham, although antecedents to the approach already existed. Cunningham considers self-managed learning to be an umbrella strategy for 'a family of approaches' (p.137) and in this text he examines a variety of these learning approaches.
EVANS, Val 1999, A Framework for Self-Directed Professional Development, Professional Development Network, TAFE NSW.
Evans managed an action research project to investigate strategies to support staff to take responsibility for planning and meeting their professional development needs. The project resulted in the development of a framework of strategies with the individual and the organisation taking joint responsibility.
KNOWLES, Malcolm 1975, Self-Directed Learning: A Guide for Learners and Teachers. Cambridge Adult Education, Prentice Hall Regents, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Knowles is recognised as a leading authority in the field of adult education. He has divided this text into two parts: Part 1 for the Learner, and Part 2 for the Teacher. It is designed to develop the roles of self-directed learner and facilitator of such together, with resources and strategies provided to support the acquisition of competence as a self-directed inquirer.
Linking thinking - Self-directed learning in the digital age
Published on the Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), in 2004, This report examines the effect of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the fields of education and training, particularly on the self-directed learning of adults.