The Journal of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children

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Self-directed learning themes Knowledge of self-directed learning The responses to the interview indicate that gifted students have detailed knowledge of selfdirected learning. Gifted students described self-directed learning in terms of teaching yourself and learning by yourself. I think it’s about where somebody if they want to learn something they will go on their own path and do it instead of getting help or something. One child mentioned the benefit of self-directed learning being related to a person’s future ability to learn by him/ herself. All gifted students agreed that they were self-directed on some activities with most of the students mentioning being good at being self-directed on projects. Um yeah. Projects. I’m better on other things. Probably because its much more free-er because say you are working on the topic and you use the internet or look in the book. You’ve got more choice. School related activities like language, spelling, and mathematics were cited, and art was mentioned by one student as well. Two students referred to effort as the reason why they were self-directed on some activities. Most of the gifted students said that they did not know anyone who is really good at selfdirected learning, but four of the students were able to describe the actions of a person they believed was self-directed. Two students described others as being good at self-directed learning because they completed their work, while one student described his friend as being very independent. My friend is pretty good at self-directed learning. He’s independent, very independent, he likes to find out stuff on his own, looking at his own reference books before going into the asking someone else Knowledge of the SDL process Six of the ten gifted students said they would learn about something by carrying out inquiry. They mentioned thinking and asking questions as well as using resources such as the computer, encyclopedia, reading books, and looking for information on the internet. Three students described strategies for being self-directed in learning that included actions such as teaching yourself a strategy, trying to figure out an answer, and setting goals. You’d be talking about it, you’d be thinking it through probably writing it down and once you’d finished thinking about it you put all your ideas together and create what really is what you were learning. The majority of the gifted students recognised that self-directed learners would check what they are doing with the most frequent explanation being that they would proof read the work or ask another person to proof read it. Maybe get a parent to proof read what they are doing or spell check if you’re doing it on the computer and they do it themselves if they have a good sense of what they are doing and how to correct it. Nine of the ten gifted students said a self-directed learner would plan the use of time to find out about a topic. Yeah, I think they would because you would have to like one day read some books and find some information and like next day you go on the internet and yeah. One student explained that a self-directed learner might not plan but use their time carefully. One student said that a selfdirected learner would plan the use of time at school but not at home, and another indicated a motivational orientation indicating that if a person is motivated to be a self-directed learner he/she would want to plan in order to find out about other topics. All of the gifted students were able to suggest ways they could get better at self-directed learning, with most saying they could get better at self-directed learning by wanting to learn and encouraging themselves. Encouraging yourself and saying to your mum if I ask you this just don’t tell me what it is ‘cos I want to be self-directed and things like that. Eight of the ten gifted students said that they would reflect on what they did in learning about a topic and the process of learning about it. I usually think about what I could have done and what mistakes I made. Often I think well I could have done this better. Other explanations included thinking about mistakes and thinking about what was done and how that could be used on subsequent learning. Yeah and then you can use that sequence that you worked well in to do something else properly. Self-directed learning at school The gifted students were able to describe a person becoming self-directed at school by taking initiative and working out problems alone. First you try to work it out first but if you can’t work it out then you get a friend to help. Four of the students answered that they would work out how to do something at school by looking it up in a book. I’d read about things that I want to know about. There was also mention of teaching yourself, finding your own way and finding your own resources. Gifted and Talented International – 26(1), August, 2011; and 26(2), December, 2011. 115
The World Council for Gifted and Talented Children However, the majority of answers mentioned asking the teacher for help or asking another person for help. I think you could probably look it up. Look it up on the internet or maybe go to the library or you could ask your teacher, yeah you could. The answers to the question about handling mistakes at school indicated the view that students would ask the teacher or someone else about a mistake. You could probably ask the teacher and if he doesn’t know I’d try to do it again by yourself and come out with the best answer you can get. One student answered that he/she would fix the mistake alone. I sort of think about what I’ve done wrong and then I try to fix it Self-directed learning out-of-school The gifted students answered the question about what they would do as they worked out how to do something out-of-school by placing a strong emphasis on asking their parents or other people to help work out what to do. They said they would use resources such as the library, the internet and books. You can go to the library, at the public library, go on your home internet thing, you can ask your parents maybe, just ask people. Two students mentioned effort attributions in comments about trying to work out how to do something. I first try myself and then if I can’t get it I just ask my mother. The answers to the question about what makes a person good at working out how to learn about things at home indicated the view that resources are important. The strategy of asking people was mentioned, as was the strategy of not asking other people. One gifted student mentioned motivation as the reason for a person being good at working out how to learn about things at home. Um sort of wanting to do it and using as many resources as possible. The majority of gifted students indicated that at home they would respond to mistakes by fixing or correcting them. Four students mentioned the strategy of telling or asking someone as a way of handling a mistake. The answers suggest an independent view of handling mistakes. Um probably you try and correct it you know, don’t cry over spilt milk but you just work out what the mistake was and fix it. In general, the answers to questions about working out how to do things at home suggest that students worked more independently at home than at school. Comparison of self-directed learning at school and out-of- school All but one of the gifted students said there are differences in the way they learn about things at school and the way they learn about things at home. The characteristics of learning about things at school that were suggested by the students can be summarized as working alone, being directed by the teacher, having more resources at school, school being more focused on learning, that being in a class of thirty students makes it hard to concentrate, being dependent on other people, having to do things, and having a big library. I think there is a big difference because in the classroom there’s thirty other people and at home sometimes there’s just either you or two or three other people. Probably be a lot easier to concentrate. The characteristics of learning about things at home can be summarized as doing activities alone, thinking for yourself and using your own brain and resources, not having computers or the internet to use as well as not having a big library, it being easier to concentrate with only two or three people around, and at home there is more time to do things. Yeah I think so because at school you just depend on other people and if they’re not at home you can be self-directed. The majority of gifted students said they were usually more self-directed at home than at school. Yes because normally at school you’re directed by your teacher to what you are actually learning but at home you um think for yourself on a project it’s partly directed by your teacher say in homework but you use your own brain to find it out like your own resources. The reasons given for this were that they liked working by themselves and using their own resources, that it was easier to learn at home because there were not so many people to be distracted by, they were not rushed at home, and that there were more books and the internet to use at home. At home mainly. Probably because I like to learn about that stuff. I just normally just get taught at school and I normally just learn that stuff at home. 116 Gifted and Talented International – 26(1), August, 2011; and 26(2), December, 2011.
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Book Reviews The World Council for
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Examining Opinions and Challenging
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Finally, many thanks go to Kevin La
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Name Full-time Gifted Class Gail* A
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About the Authors The World Council
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Table 4: The results of the (2x2) t
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undertaking the unit, with many com
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Figure 1: Pre & post scores for ite
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(1 st , 3 rd & 4 th were negatively
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egulated and possible with almost n
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The Journal of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children

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