The Self-Directed Learner

Now that the academic year is coming to a close, we at KCELT are taking time to reflect what it means to be a self-directed learner.  The video above provides some engaging and provocative ideas to help teachers imagine or re-imagine their students as self-directed learners.

We would also like to imagine our faculty as self-directed learners.  Many Kirkwood faculty claim to be lifelong learners, especially in that they learn from their students day after day and semester after semester.  From our point of view, we would like to learn and help our faculty grow as self-directed learners in terms of their professional pedagogical development.

Let’s take the video above as an example of professional development.  How do you learn by watching this video?  Do you learn by watching the whole 59 minutes and 45 seconds in one sitting?  By yourself?  Do you need to discuss what you learned with others?  Who are they?  Friends?  Colleagues?  Your dean?  Someone from KCELT?

What will you do with what you learned? Blog it or tweet it (like we are doing)?  Write a report?  Write a proposal for a professional development session at KCELT (wink-wink, nudge-nudge)?  Modify your syllabus?  Your curriculum?  Your teaching philosophy?  Request a departmental meeting to make serious changes?  Integrate some of the ideas with your own to apply for an Endowed Faculty Chair award?

Would you like credit for watching this video?  Why?  Would you like credit for making positive changes to yourself, your class, your department, and Kirkwood based on what you learned from this video?  We are sure you will receive credit for the latter question, especially if you are a self-directed learner with goals that are aligned with Kirkwood’s goals.

How can KCELT best serve you (Kirkwood faculty) to achieve your goals as a self-directed learner of teaching and learning?  Sometimes we think we know, but we don’t know for sure until we hear from you.  If there is an obstacle (that has been) preventing you from making positive changes in the classroom and in the lives of your students, let us know how we can help.  Positive and successful learning experiences are why everyone, especially faculty, is here.