About this question of promoting self-study, I consider it to be one of 
my more important aims as an educator, and virtually everything I do in 
my school attempts in one way or another to encourage an attitude of 
continual lifelong learning. I am a radical constructivist in my 
philosophy of learning and education. Constructivists subscribe to the 
belief that we all construct our own knowledge from experiences that are 
personally meaningful. Over the past few years constructivism has been 
corrupted into notions about teaching in a certain way, but really it is 
a description of how we learn. Whether we believe it or not, it is what 
we all do all the time. We have an experience. We take things from the 
experience and build them into a larger structure of knowledge that is 
relevant to ourselves.

Our current educational practices sometimes lose sight of this reality. 
We begin to think of learning as something people do in a school at a 
certain time and place, or even worse, we think of it as the outcome of 
something that people do to us when they teach.

In my teaching I try to "cure" people of those notions, as A.S. Neill 
would say. A big component involves modeling. I, myself,  love to learn, 
and I share that love with my students. By modeling, students see my 
attitude and they see how I do it. Another component involves giving 
students freedom to make their own educational choices.  I will make 
suggestions about learning goals and how to pursue them, but I'll never 
tell my students what courses to take or what to study. That is for them 
to tell me. A third component involves accepting my students' learning. 
As a constructivist I know that even though two students may share the 
same experience, they will learn very different things from it. Each 
learns what he or she is ready to learn. I have to accept that. I have 
to refrain from forming expectations about what I want them to learn and 
instead let the "what" come from the students. This has an extremely 
powerful effect. It places responsibility for learning on the student 
where it belongs. It removes the possibility for failure. It creates an 
environment in which students can form and pursue their own goals 
instead of a teacher's goals or a curriculum's learning objectives.

I feel like I may have digressed a little from what seems to be a 
straightforward question, given program and self-study, do students who 
engage in both make the most progress? The question is deceptive. It is 
interesting, if somewhat disconcerting, to think about how easily we can 
view and treat program-study and self-study as being separate things. 
When we do, how does it affect our ideas about progress and effectiveness?

Tom Woods
Community High School of Vermont.

Steve Reder wrote:


>Thanks for those questions, Julie.  Since Clare will probably respond to the

>"learning to learn" question, let me mention something else.  Other LSAL

>findings that will be coming out in future publications indicate that both

>program participation and self-study activities contribute to the growth of

>literacy in adult life, with the largest apparent impact coming from the

>combination of both programs and self-study -- learners who engage in both

>(not necessarily at the same time) seem to make the most progress over a

>long period of time.  

>

>We would love to hear from teachers who have tried to build/encourage

>self-study in their students.  Many of the LSAL subjects who have gone to

>programs spend time in learning centers working independently, drawing on

>the teacher's support and assistance as needed (sort of a facilitated

>self-study).  It seems plausible that these type of experiences may prepare

>some students to self-study more effectively on their own (especially if

>they could easily get help when needed).  

>

>-Steve     

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: focusonbasics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:focusonbasics-bounces at nifl.gov]

>On Behalf Of Julie McKinney

>Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 10:53 AM

>To: focusonbasics at nifl.gov

>Subject: [FocusOnBasics 608] Re: self study discussion

>

>Thanks, Steve and Clare for sharing the LSAL results and your

>interpretations. It seems from your results that self-study is both more

>common and more effective than we have tended to think over the years,

>and that it could be very significant to work harder at encouraging it.

>

>I wonder if learners who have "learned how to learn" as Clare says, or

>focused on self-study skills during their program participation, are

>more likely to self-study, and if their self-study is more effective?

>Steve, Clare, is there any data to answer this?

>

>If we assume that our students are likely self-study at some point,

>wether combined with or outside of a program, there is probably a lot we

>can do to encourage that while they are with us. I, too, would love to

>hear some answers to Clare's question about "how teachers incorporate

>the project of "learning how to learn" into the curriculum, giving

>learners tools for self

>study and lifelong learning."

>

>Teachers, please tell us what you have done in this regard!

>

>All the best,

>Julie

>

>Julie McKinney

>Discussion List Moderator

>World Education/NCSALL

>jmckinney at worlded.org

>

>  

>

>>>>"Clare Strawn" <clare at pdx.edu> 01/22/07 3:55 PM >>>

>>>>        

>>>>

>Hello - This is Clare Strawn. I have been working with Steve on the

>Longitudinal Study since the start. Most of my analytic work has been on

>understanding patterns of participation in adult education programs. I

>am

>interested in hearing if and how teachers incorporate the project of

>"learning how to learn" into the curriculum, giving learners tools for

>self

>study and lifelong learning.

>

>I'm looking forward to participating in this discussion with you.

>

>Clare

>

>In response to the question about how we retained our sample.  From the

>beginning of the study we decided to invest in building relationships

>with

>our respondents. We value their contributions with payment. We have an

>in-house system for keeping in touch with people by calling them every

>three

>months to update our information. It is also very important to ask them

>for

>contacts of friends and relatives who can help us find them when we

>loose

>contact with us.  

>

>Clare

>

>

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