How to Encourage Self-Directed Learning
Some children naturally seem to love learning new things and taking on challenges. These children enjoy trying to figure out a problem and are confident in their abilities. Other children feel more hesitant about new challenges. They quickly turn to someone else for direction and answers. If they encounter a problem – if they feel the uncertainty of confusion, they wait for others to either fix it or tell them what to do.
In his book, What if the Secret to Success is Failure, author Paul Tough sums up the growing belief among educators that traditional measures of “learning” — i.e. standardized tests — don’t measure what really leads any of us to succeed in life. Instead, what educators should be measuring (and, more importantly, developing) is far less measurable, an imprecise mix of character, resilience, curiosity and grit.
Children need to learn that the struggle is what leads to accomplishment – that struggle is not a bad thing. If children are consistently rescued from their struggles, they may feel temporarily relieved but what they have subtly learned is that they are not competent. We think we protect children’s self esteem when we help them. Ashley Merryman, coauthor of NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children, says we protect children because we have the mistaken idea “that children are very fragile and that any bad outcome they experience, no matter how big or small, could damage their developing self-esteem.” But, she adds, “science has proven that it’s just not true. Achievement builds self-esteem, not the other way around.” There is nothing more destructive than stealing the struggle of learning by doing too much for a child. Each time they achieve something difficult on their own, their self-esteem grows stronger and they are better prepared for the real world.
At the Episcopal School, when a child comes to us with a problem, rather than immediately offering the answer, we ask questions like, “What do you think you’re going to do?” or “What have you thought of so far to solve this problem?” If they are stuck we ask, “Would you like to hear what others have tried?” and then we give them choices. Armed with some ideas, we send the child (or children) to work out the problem saying something like, “Let’s see what you can work out now.”
As teachers, we work hard to create an environment where success isn’t black and white and there is not one right answer to everything. Even in areas such as math or history, children are given choices about how they show what they’ve learned. We encourage children to experiment and be creative, allowing for multiple drafts and revisions. Failure is not thought of as the end of the road but as the beginning to a new lesson. We emphasize that it is better to try something and find it doesn’t work than to not try anything. We view set backs as opportunities for a child to become more resilient. Failures can help a child become a better, kinder, stronger and wiser human being. Paul Tough wrote in The New York Times Magazine, “We all know — on some level, at least — that what kids need more than anything is a little hardship: some challenge, some deprivation that they can overcome, even if just to prove to themselves that they can.”
It is also critical that we make sure every child has many successes and many opportunities to take on responsibilities. From carrying their own backpack to making a sandwich for themselves to tying their own shoe, we gently teach children to take care of themselves. We make sure each child feels the pride of success and we refer to those successes when they struggle. Each time a child is successful with a challenge, small or large, they learn to tell themselves, “I want to try because I bet I can do it!”
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Today, we heard from ESK second grade teacher Lucy Tyler and her thoughts on the importance of play based on the recent article titled AVOIDING “LEARNED HELPLESSNESS” from Edutopia.