The challenge of self-directed learning in a teacher education programme

Abstract

In the 2004-2005 Academic Year, the PGDE programme at the University of Hong Kong introduced a significant new element into its course, namely a Self-Directed Learning (SDL) component. This was part of a general re-structuring of the programme and was intended to help students effectively integrate the theoretical and field experience components of the course and, through the process of self-directed learning, to empower them to become autonomous, critically reflective professionals. Two-hour sessions were regularly time-tabled throughout the year during which groups of students had complete control over what their learning objectives would be for each session and how they would organize the session. In other words, they were driving their own learning agenda. However, self-directed learning does not necessarily imply unsupported learning, and various support mechanisms (such as an SDL Guidebook) and monitoring processes were also put in place. This paper reports on the first stages of an action research project focusing on this innovation. It describes how this new component was implemented, and analyses the experiences of the students, the outcomes in terms of benefits and difficulties, and the implications for the ongoing development of SDL within the programme. Data were collected from questionnaires completed by all student teachers, video recordings of a number of different groups, and structured group interviews.