Preparing Students to be Self-directed Learners

by Spencer Roper, PharmD, PGY-1 Pharmacy Practice Resident, University of Mississippi Medical Center

Learner-centered teaching, problem-based learning, self-directed learning, active learning; these terms are all used to express a concept that has become more and more common, especially in higher education. Broadly described, learner-centered teaching transitions the primary basis of learning from passive listening of teacher-led lectures to active self-directed learning activities and multi-sided discussions. This transition in higher education has been prompted by research showing active learning strategies might be better when compared to traditional methods, especially when it comes to exam scores and long-term retention of information.¹ Despite these benefits, it can be challenging for students and many resist the transition from being "spoon-fed" information to being required to actively seek out answers.

While previous research seems to have addressed many of the barriers to the implementation of active learning strategies, there has been less focus on the mitigation of student reluctance to trust this method of instruction. Weimer discusses some common reasons for resistance that instructors may encounter including increased workload, fear of failure, sense of loss, and not being intellectually ready for certain activities requiring self-sufficiency.²  As students transition to this new form of instruction, no longer are they given polished PowerPoint notes that require no more than reading and memorizing what the instructor deems important. Rather, students have to determine what information is most important, must decide when to take a deeper dive into available literature, and must develop original ideas in response to case-based questions. This can produce anxiety because students who are unaccustomed to this way of learning are often unsure of their conclusions and wonder if the information sources they’ve used have led them down the wrong road, to the wrong insights, to the wrong answers.

With this knowledge of what causes students to be resistant to change, how do we as instructors address their anxiety? There honestly is no easy, single-solution answer. Instead, new and experienced instructors alike should use a multi-faceted approach when introducing self-directed learning to students. At first, it is important to promote student awareness about the (long-term) utility of independent thinking. A 2012 study evaluating problem-based learning implemented in a chemical engineering course suggested that contextualization helps to motivate students toward becoming self-sufficient learners.³ The writers explain that providing real-world problems that parallel the sort of work students would be doing in the future is critically important. By providing real-world problems, the instructor stimulates student motivation because learning the material falls in line with students’ goals – learning how to solve similar problems throughout their careers.

Once students understand the value of self-directed learning, instructors must find ways to keep students motivated/engaged during a time where they've had more independence than ever. One educator wanted to reduce student resistance to practice-based learning by identifying and implementing potential solutions.  He classified these solutions as either explanative or facilitative. ⁴ Explanation strategies served the purpose of helping students meaningfully participate in active-learning activities by showing how participation would help meet their personal goals as well as the goals of the course. Facilitation strategies can be used before and during instructional activities to reduce resistance by making tasks seem less daunting, by providing encouragement, and by ensuring students can make mistakes without consequences. Using these strategies was met with increased student involvement, less perceived distractions, and an increase in positive evaluations. Table 1 lists the specific strategies that any instructor can use when implementing active-learning methods.

Table 1: Strategies to reduce resistance⁴

Explanation Strategies	Facilitation Strategies
Explain the purpose of the activity	Walk around the room
Explain course expectations	Approach non-participating students
Explain activity expectations	Have an encouraging demeanor
	Invite questions from students
	Promote feedback from students
	Develop a routine
	Make participation grades
	Design activities that require active participation
	Break down tasks into incremental steps

While the table above lays out potential strategies one may use to keep students engaged, it's important to be adaptive in your approach. Each student reacts to challenges differently, and some students require more attention than others. That is why it is so important to be present physically and mentally during these active learning activities so that one can evaluate which students may be struggling and require more encouragement. Today classrooms are more likely to be the virtual variety, so may require rotating through break-out rooms and facilitating discussion among students.  If a student seems to be less engaged, it is appropriate to ask their opinion on the current problem or asking if they require help. Approaching these situations should always be done in an encouraging manner rather than a confrontational one so that the classroom is seen as a safe space for learning rather than a place to be punished for mistakes or lack of knowledge.

Keeping students engaged during class is important, however, it is also important to help students develop self-directed learning skills. Dr. Maryellen Weimer provides some great ideas for building student’s self-directed learning skills.⁵ For instance, letting students summarize the material allows each person to evaluate their own habits. By quizzing students with a few questions relevant to the day’s discussion and having them read verbatim from their notes, an instructor can promote the students’ critique of their note taking skills. It is also imperative to allow students to defend what they have taught themselves by permitting the acceptance of additional multiple-choice answers as correct if they can provide written evidence either from their notes or the text that supports the alternative answer(s).

As educators, it's important to realize that students' fear of a new learning style is warranted. Being uncomfortable with change is something that everyone experiences. While it is a common experience, combatting the reluctance to change requires the application of few different strategies. By being aware of how students may respond to active learning methods, instructors should implement a few strategies to ease the students’ transition from passive to active learning and then facilitate their growth into self-directed learners.

 

References:

1. Freeman S, Eddy SL, McDonough M, et al. Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2014; 111(23): 8410–8415.
2. Weimer M. Learner-centered teaching: Five key changes to practice. John Wiley & Sons; 2002. 237 p.
3. Harun NF, Mohd-Yusof K, Jamaludin M, et al. Motivation in Problem-based Learning Implementation. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 2012; 56: 233-242.
4. Tharayil S, Borrego M, Prince M, et al. Strategies to mitigate student resistance to active learning. IJ STEM Ed 2018; 5:7.
5. Weimer M. Learner-Centered Teaching: 10 Ideas for Getting Started. Faculty Focus; 2019.

Teaching to Learn

by William Gust, PharmD, PGY-1 Pharmacy Practice Resident, G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery V.A. Medical Center

Former French inspector general and poet Joseph Joubert once wrote that “To teach is to learn twice over.”¹ Joubert’s maxim is rooted in the idea that while the learner is only responsible for his or her own understanding, the teacher’s added responsibility to accurately communicate a concept to others incentivizes more active engagement of both the subject itself and one’s own deficiencies with it. Furthermore, teaching often necessitates the creation of educational materials, which requires the highest level of cognition.² Thus, promoting the sort of active engagement that teaching requires can be a powerful tool in expediting the learning process. By creating and presenting educational materials to teach others, students enhance their knowledge, comprehension, and confidence related to the subject far more than they would through traditional instructor-led methods.

Encouraging students to develop learning materials for themselves or fellow students bolsters their comprehension. Uskokovic demonstrated this during his employment of a co-creational classroom, in which students developed not only lectures and presentations but also the curriculum itself.³ In this model, the instructor assigns students a broad topic and encourages them to break it down into a series of questions that will be answered by their learning materials. Once questions are assessed for appropriateness of scope by the instructor, students are free to develop learning materials however they see fit. Following the creation of their learning materials, students present to the class for discussion who then ask questions and suggest revisions. In this study, the investigator compared exam performance using this co-creational model compared to the students' exam performance using a traditional didactic instructional model and a flipped classroom model, in which students read the material before class in preparation for elaborating on that material during class meetings. Although the sample size was small (n=8), students performed significantly better on exams when the co-creational model was used when compared to exams where the material was delivered via traditional didactic or flip methods.³

Student teaching also improves knowledge retention. In a crossover-study evaluating the benefit of peer-teaching on learning, Peets et al. randomly assigned medical students to serve as peer educators in small groups at different periods during a Gastroenterology/Hematology course.⁴ Peer educators were not given outside resources by the investigators but were responsible for coordinating and leading their assigned small group discussions. At the end of the course, the investigators administered a 94-item multiple-choice examination broken down by the various clinical cases covered during the course. After comparing student performance stratified by clinical case, students who served as peer educators for a given clinical case performed significantly better on questions than their group members who were only responsible for their own learning (Mean Score 80.7% vs 77.6%, Cohen’s d = 0.33; p < 0.01).

Taken together, these studies support the idea that student-teaching with student-created learning materials enhances student knowledge and comprehension. The results of Uskokovic make a particularly compelling case for the student involvement in the teaching process given the improvement in exam performance with the co-creational method when compared to the flipped classroom method. Had the results in both groups been similar, the better exam performance could have been explained by the presence of active learning, which is central to constructivist theory. The results of Uskokovic, however, suggest that student construction of the content to be covered as well as the learning materials promotes enhanced engagement that cannot be replicated by other active learning methods. Students who serve as peer teachers spend more time engaged with the material.  Peets et al. showed that student peer educators spent significantly more time engaging with the learning material (99 +/- 60 minutes vs 36 +/- 33 minutes, Cohen’s d = 1.3, p < 0.001) when compared to the other group members.

By encouraging (or perhaps requiring) students to create their own learning materials, teachers can improve student knowledge, confidence, and long-term retention. While the studies above focus on the creation of learning materials as a tool to teach other students in traditional classroom settings, this teaching strategy can be adapted to an array of settings, including patient education during practice-based experiences. It is important to note, however, that allowing students to teach with their own learning materials does not eliminate the need for a teacher. Critically, instructors that choose to employ student-generated materials as a teaching method must reduce cognitive load by choosing the right topics to cover and the right questions to ask. In this way, teachers can foster maximal learning in the students’ zone of proximal development while minimizing the chances the students will feel overwhelmed or bored. Overall, student-created learning materials offer a powerful way to enhance knowledge and retention by making the student an active participant.

References:

1. Joubert, J. Joubert: A Selection from His Thoughts [Internet]. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.; 1899. Accessed 2020 Nov 23.
2. Armstrong, P. Bloom’s Taxonomy [Internet]. Nashville (TN): Vanderbilt University, Center for Teaching. Accessed 2020 Nov 1.
3. Uskoković V. Flipping the flipped: the co-creational classroom. Res Pract Technol Enhanc Learn 2018; 13(1):11.
4. Peets AD, Coderre S, Wright B, et al. Involvement in teaching improves learning in medical students: a randomized cross-over study. BMC Med Educ 2009; 9:55.