Learning, management, and leadership

Learning, whether self-directed or other-directed, requires both management and leadership. What does that mean? Is there a difference between management and leadership? I think so, and so does Jack Hayhow, as shown in the video below.



I believe learning requires good leadership to generate and maintain motivation, and to keep the goal (vision) clear and in mind throughout the learning process. Learning also requires capable management skills to plan and facilitate the necessary activities, and to maintain forward momentum, to prevent slowing down (or stopping!) after reaching milestones throughout the learning process. This holds true wheather the learning is self-driected or other-directed.

Management and leadership: different, but equally important in learning!

Hayhow, J. (2006). Are management and leadership the same? [video]. Retrieved October 10, 2007, from http://youtube.com/watch?v=s_AIbuF-R-4.

Self-direction myths & misunderstandings

There are many myths and misunderstandings surrounding Self-Directed Learning (SDL), and Brocket1 listed 10 of those myths in his chapter on resistance to self-direction in adult learning, in the book he co-edited with Hiemstra1 in 1994 entitled New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education.

The myth that most strikes home for me as an adult learner, and an instructor of adult learners, is myth 6: "Facilitating self-direction is an easy way out for teachers". Many people seem to think that when an instructor employs self-direction as a teaching method, the learners do all the work and the instructor just sits back and watches. Nothing could be further from the truth!

I have taught classes that include very little self-direction, classes that fully employ SDL, and many in between those two extremes. Believe me, there is often a great deal more work involved in preparing and facilitating a class with SDL as the primary instructional method. I'd have to agree with Brocket1 when he states: "self-direction typically involves a deeper commitment from instructors because they need to focus their energy on each learner, as well as on the group as a whole" (p. 8), and it involves "a very active approach to working with learners".

I'm not saying SDL is easy for the students, but neither is it easy for the instructor. Self-direction in learning isn't about making teaching or learning easy, it's about making them more effective - and it works.

1Brocket, R. G. (1994). Resistance to self-drection in adult learning: Myths and misunderstandings in overcoming resistance to self-direction in adult learning. In Heimstra, R., & Brocket, R. G., (Eds.), Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Self-directed learning

Wow. There's more to self-directed learning (SDL) than I had imagined. I understood the fundamentals of SDL, and was aware that I had applied it in my own learning. I didn't, until recently, have a grasp on the correlation between SDL and cooperative learning.

Grow's (1991) Staged Self-Directed Learning Model (SSDL) explains a lot of what I had experienced as a college instructor, introducing cooperative learning to business students. I use cooperative learning and SDL to teach project management fundamentals and Internet-related skills courses.

One of the most confusing things for me was how, in the same class of 15-30 students, I could be simultaneously rated in their feedback as 'extremely helpful 'and 'a great instructor' and as 'of no help' and 'a terrible instructor'. How could these two extremes be represented in the same group being taught the same material in the same class?

Using Grow's (1991) SSDL Model, I found I had inadvertently created a mismatch between my instructional style and the learning styles of some of the students. The mismatch was between my 'facilitative' style, decribed by Grow as T3, and the S1 'dependent' learning style of some students in the class. According to Grow, T3/S1 teacher/student mismatches are severe, often resulting in "students [who] may resent the teacher for forcing upon them a freedom they are not ready for" (1991, p. 13)

Now I have a model to apply to my instructional delivery tools and processes that allows me to better match my instructional style with the various learner styles in the class.

For more information on the SSDL model, see Gerald Grow's Spring 1991 article in Adult Education Quarterly.

Grow, G. (1991, Spring). Teaching learners to be self-directed. Adult Education Quarterly, 41(3). Retrieved September 30, 2007, from http://www.longleaf.net/ggrow/SSDL/SSDLIndex.html