As always, when I am reading the topic in the Adult Learners
textbook, I tend to apply what I am reading to my college students and to
myself. This week’s chapter on Self Directed Learning is no different. College
students are in the process of making the transition from teacher directed
learner to self-directed learner. They have spent the past 12 years of their
lives being directed in their learning by their teachers and schools. Aside
from some electives, and any extra-curricular activities that they are involved
in, they have very little control over their learning. I see college as a
transition from the teacher directed learning of primary and secondary schools
to the self-directed learning of adulthood. Once I came to that realization, I
started thinking about how I could help my students make that transition.
According to Merriam and Bierema in Adult
Learning: Linking theory and practice (2014), self-directed learners take
more responsibility for their learning and have such personal characteristics
as “creativity, critical reflection, enthusiasm, life experience, life
satisfaction, motivation, previous education, resilience, and self-concept.
(page 61)” Some of those characteristics only come with time and maturity, but
others can be nurtured in the classroom.
When I started to think about how I could help instill some
of these characteristics in my students, I began to think about an area of
teaching that I am currently investigating for use in my classroom:
gamification. Gamification can be used
with all ages of students from preschool on up, but is beginning to be considered
a valuable tool for adult learners.
 |
| Ok, Maybe not like that, but you know it is a "thing" if it shows up in a Dilbert cartoon |
In his article “5 Easy Steps to #Gamifying #HigherEd,”
(2013) Justin Marquis discusses what gamification can add to higher education.
This includes things like engagement, flexibility, competition, and
collaboration. It also allows the students to learn from their failures instead
of having to be perfect all of the time. These correlate nicely with many of
the attributes of a self-directed learner, especially creativity, critical
reflection, enthusiasm, motivation, and resilience – all of which have been
shown to be characteristics of successful gamers. When a student is given the flexibility
of choosing their path to learning, as well as control over the approach they
take towards that learning their motivation tends to increase. Add to this the
fact that they are “competing” against their classmates for high scores as well
as collaborating with their classmates to “defeat bosses” (could be passing a
test or completing a project), and you have an environment where students are
eager to learn. Ideally, this eagerness will stay with them when they leave the
classroom.
The following video talks about using gamification to turn
students into self-directed learners, and while it isn’t specifically about
adult learners, everything that they say can be directly applied to students in
a college classroom.
Extra Credit: Gamifying Education
I feel that any tool that can help students to become excited and self motivated learners is worth investigating. Becoming a self directed learner is an important part of their passage into adulthood.
References
Adams,
Scott. (2013, May 19). Dilbert.
[Cartoon. Retreived February 8, 2015 from http://dilbert.com/strip/2013-05-19].
Extra
Credits (2013, May 13) Extra Credits: Gamifying education [YouTube Video. Retrieved
February 8, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuDLw1zIc94].
Marquis,
J. (2013, July 25). 5 Easy Steps to #Gamifying #HigherEd -
OnlineUniversities.com. Retrieved February 8, 2015, from
http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2013/07/5-easy-steps-to-gamifying-highereed/
Merriam,
S. B. and Bierema, L. L. (2014). Adult learning: linking theory and practice.
San Francisco, CA: Josssey-Bass.
I selected an article titled, “The Journey to Becoming an Adult Learner: From Dependent to Self-Directed Learning” as an additional resource for Jenny’s post. This short article opens with a quote from a doctor to his medical students challenging them to learn how to learn on their own as half of what they are taught in medical school will be obsolete in five years. This is at the heart of what Jenny describes in her post as educators move students from memorization to learning how to learn on their own whether through gamification or another motivational endeavor. This article gives a nod to andragogy and Marcus Knowles and though it is geared toward those in the medical profession, the content is applicable to any learner, therefore any person. The recommendations in this article are perhaps the most useful. My personal favorite is #7 Learn from your colleagues. This idea goes back to Knowles’s second idea that adults accumulate a reservoir of knowledge and it is up to the adult learner to seek out others. This article specifically mentions seeking out “those with different training and background” which is an excellent suggestion. Cool feedback is difficult to produce for this article. It clearly accomplishes what it sets out to do and does it in a concise and easy to follow way. Perhaps Daily and Landis could consider writing a follow-up article and keeping it more general so that other publications would pick it up because the content should be shared with more than just the biomedical community.
ReplyDeleteReference
Daily, J. A., & Landis, B. J. (2014). The journey to becoming an adult learner: From dependent to self-directed learning. Journal Of The American College Of Cardiology (JACC), 64(19), 2066-2068. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2014.09.023
As an aside I recommend the following title for those interested in another gamification in education resource:
Kapp, K. M. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction : game-based methods and strategies for training and education. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
Jenny, I am actually using gamification in another class I am teaching and have been viewing it through the lens of each theory we have studied, so reading your post made my heart sing!
ReplyDeleteI think we have all struggled with finding ways to teach young adults - those in transition - how to be responsible learners.... perhaps gamification can do this.....would this work with older students?
Jessica - Learning from others is such an important tool for all of us to use. What impact, if any, do you see age having on this tool?
great posts!
Jenny,
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up an excellent idea about gamification. Honestly though, it is often that I find it being used far more in places of business, similar to the Dilbert comic, as opposed to educational settings. However, I did find that when I took candy to my class last semester to encourage my students to be more vocal and share their perspectives, rather right or wrong, I found that it worked tremendously and made for one of the best open discussion about the material I've had all last semester. Teacher-directed students often feel that education is an obligation, rather than a choice or opportunity. Because of this, students do sometimes need a push and gamification is quite effective, where in the case of self-direct learners, that may not be the case.
Thanks for sharing!
Deondra, I think we all like to be appreciated/rewarded for what we do....and gamification with the associated badges - can do that. I have also used the candy approach and found that to be useful. I even combined it with a Jeopardy-style review game....and then the students wanted that every class period!
DeleteWhat I am seeing in using gamification with college students, the more SD the learner is, the better the student's performance in gaming. those who need to become more self-directed need to be taken through the gaming process step by step, almost forcing them to follow rules and regs to help them adjust.... I have even begun meeting individually with those learners who are not quite as self-directed to help them stay on task......
According to Merriam and Bierema (2014), self-directed learning evolves as a person matures and becomes more comfortable with taking control and full responsibility of their learning. I believe making a leap from teacher-directed learning to a more self-directed mode can be quite challenging for college freshman. I whole-heartedly believe that faculty who work with college freshmen, particularly, should help them to make that transition. I also agree with the notion of using gamification to help this group of students to make that leap.
ReplyDeleteBased on research, gamification encourages learners to be more self-directed by giving them the opportunity to choose what task they will work on in order to earn badges and points instead of grades. Lieberoth (2015) indicates that there is research that suggests “dressing” any activity up as a game, even if it doesn’t yield a reward, motivates people to work toward completion of the activity or task. In my opinion, regardless of the method used, I believe gamification could be a helpful strategy to encourage self-direction in the learning process.
Gamification is not only being used in the arena of education, more and more businesses are using it to encourage productivity in the workplace. They have found that gamification makes work more fun and engaging, encourages teamwork in project management activities and increases employee morale. Overall, gamification as a tool for the adult learner has been proven quite useful.
References
Merriam, S. B. and Bierema, L. L. (2014). Adult learning: linking theory and practice. San Francisco, CA: Josssey-Bass.
Mr2percent (2012, Apr 19) Gamification in the Workplace – Research Only. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/ivyhGpkRmCE
Lieberoth, Andreas (2015, Feb 2). Dressing Activities as a Game is Enough to Shift Motivation. Retrieved from http://gamification-research.org/2015/02/aarhus-gamification-experiment/#more-1082
great resources, Stephany! thanks for connecting gamification to the workplace as well :-)
ReplyDelete