course details

Self-Directed Learning: Making Learning Meaningful for Adolescent Students

Course #: EDUC_714Z

Semester Credits: 3

Cost: $375.00

Course Description

The possibilities for student motivation, achievement, and success are exciting for both teachers and students when teachers move from teacher-directed activities to a self-directed learning environment. Teachers can motivate and empower students to take responsibility for their learning by assisting them in goal setting, self-monitoring, reflection, and independent course work. Resources will include sample lessons, contracts, self-monitoring tools, and assessment strategies to make learning relevant and meaningful to adolescent students.

Goals

Educators will be able to:
* define self-directed learning (SDL)
* describe how to develop an SDL program
* use the teaching techniques and tools required for helping students to become skilled in SDL
* identify the fourteen intellectual dispositions that characterize self-directed learners
* perceive the need for learners to be self-directed as they face an increasingly complex future
* focus on developing students' intellectual capacity for self-assessment
* assess themselves, their environment, and their efforts to build self-directness in others
* examine their own role and identity in order to become catalysts for unleashing the motivations of their students
* utilize some practical suggestions about getting started on establishing a school dedicated to self-directed learning

Course Contents

a. The Case for Self-Directed Learning
b. A Framework for Teaching SDL
c. Rethinking Student Coursework
d. Planning Lessons and Projects
e. Teaching Independent Thinking
f. Negotiating Student Learning Agreements
g. Motivating and Empowering Students
h. Assessing Student Achievement
i. Pursuing a Path of Excellence
j. Why We Need Self-Directed Learners
k. The Intellectual Dispositions of Self-Directed Learners
l. Developing the Capacity for Self-Assessment
m. Assessing the Conditions for Self-Directed Learning
n. The Teacher's Role in Self-Directed Learning
o. Adapting the Assessment Strategies for Your School and Classroom

Professional development courses for teachers.

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* Receive books and/or DVDs in the mail
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* Online Chat available
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