Last night saw the first Twitter discussion take place as part of the #crit101 course. It began with an opportunity for participants to have any questions they had about the course answered, before turning their attention to the topic in hand: Independent Learning.
The participants on the course, for the most part, range from 14 to 18 years of age and for many this was their first ever Twitter discussion that had a specific educational angle. Given this fact, I felt that it was a tremendous success, with everyone demonstrating that they had engaged actively with the course material. Although the chat was limited to an hour, many important ideas were raised, and I hope that some of the resurface in blog posts shortly.
We tackled the question of what Independent Learning is. Opinion varied with some seeing it as a disposition whereas others sighted specific attributes. Here are a few highlights:
#crit101 Independent learning is a way of learning about something in a way that is best for you to understand
— Wierdo Gore (@RosiePlaysBass) January 23, 2013
@jamesmichie I’d say using initiative to expand knowledge and understanding #crit101
— Tyrell J Burton (@TreksArtist) January 23, 2013
I don’t think independent learning means working on ur own. It means finding things out 4 urself+admiting when u need help. #crit101
— Lily (@ItsLilyBridget) January 23, 2013
One idea that began to come up from several participants was the notion of maturity – being integral to being an independent learner. I asked if it was simply then an issue of time or could IL be taught/developed? This was a challenging question that garnered a variety of responses. One response that captured the duality that I often wrestle with when considering this myself came from Rosie:
@jamesmichie #crit101 Both, People need maturity to decide to participate in a course, and others may need a course to bring out abilities
— Wierdo Gore (@RosiePlaysBass) January 23, 2013
This is the challenge, isn’t it? Autonomous learners is what many of us (as educators) want to see but do all learners want to be autonomous, do they know how and is it something that can be learned? Another participant asked, what I felt was a significant and thoughtful question:
But isn’t all learning independent learning? #crit101
— Lily (@ItsLilyBridget) January 23, 2013
Learning is happening all of the time, and it is not happening en-mass, although too often we try to teach that way. For the learner, their education is personal to them, therefore to answer Lily’s question: Yes, all learning is independent learning. However, if this is so, is maturity an issue or is it about reframing how we understand and interpret what independent learning is?
As the end neared, I wanted to challenge the group further by considering if independent learning is something that can be learned. What if I have got this all wrong? The participants responded with maturity and candor…
#crit101 what does it matter if its wrong we still are developing the skill that we have no matter wht the situation is. In any sistuation.
— Heather Harris (@HevJustKnows) January 23, 2013
I hope you can learn to become an independent learner, that’s why I am on this course! #crit101
— Emma (@smiley24) January 23, 2013
Finally, as it had come up and few times, I broached the idea of school eroding a learners ability to work independently…
#crit101 @jamesmichie It does doesn’t it! We dont learn by doing any more we learn by being told which might be less effective.
— Heather Harris (@HevJustKnows) January 23, 2013
Indeed, it might and that is one of the many reasons underpinning #crit101. I want to challenge the very idea of traditional classroom-based education. Here was a group of learners from different year groups, with different backgrounds, abilities and interests, engaged in a thought provoking discussion about the way they learn. What could be more ‘in(ter)dependent’ than that?
*You can read all of the tweets from the discussion here.
Your closing sentence identifies the problem: isn’t interdependence what we really want? A lot what we mean when we say ‘independence’ is actually ‘resilience’. I wrote about this here: http://learningspy.co.uk/2012/05/05/sir-im-stuck/
Not sure whether this I a helpful adjunct to your discussion. Thanks for sharing – sounds fascinating.
Actually, that is why I included it… and if you look at the tweet archive (now added to the post) – several of the students made that point, that collaboration and knowing when to ask for help were an integral part of independent learning. Validates my definition which I have been including in recent presentation s on the topic here: http://jamesmichie.com/presentations/leashesnotrequired.html
I agree with LearningSpy. Independence is a step in the right direction, but it is not the destination. As Steven Covey wrote:
“Certainly, independence is vital; however, the problem is that we live in an interdependent reality. Our most important work, the problems we hope to solve or the opportunities we hope to realize require working and collaborating with other people in a high-trust, synergistic way—whether at home or at work. Having an interdependent mindset, skills and tools are vital, especially now as we work through challenges unlike anything most of us have ever seen in our life time.”
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Thanks for the comment Tim, I certainly agree; see the link in my reply to David above. I also hope in(ter)dependence is something that all of the participants on the course will come to understand and value as they progress.