Self-directed learning in innovative learning environments

School teams are currently fully experimenting with innovative educational organizations in which subject-year class systems are broken, teachers collaborate cross-curricular in team teaching and students work on 21st-century skills on a project basis (Biesta, 2015; Van den Branden, 2015). Characteristic of this innovation is the shift in emphasis from learning environments based mainly on guidance and instruction by the teacher to a learning situation with an emphasis on construction by the student: from teacher-driven to student-centered education, in other words (Hattie, 2009; VLOR, 2007). Self-directed learning, student autonomy and ownership in the learning process are trendy concepts in education. Self-directed learning means that the pupil directs his own learning processes independently and with a sense of responsibility (Boekaerts & Simons, 1995).

Research into the success of self-directed or student-centered education has shown that different preconditions are important at different levels, namely in terms of strategies or skills of the student, requirements of the learning environment and skills of the teacher. A review study shows that motivation for self-directed learning is crucial and that pupils in pupil-oriented education still have relatively little freedom in the learning process (Kostons, Donker & Opdenakker, 2014). The authors point out, among other things, the importance of giving students the opportunity to gradually take control of their own learning processes.

In addition, self-directed learning can have a negative impact on vulnerable groups of pupils in education. When certain preconditions are not met, vulnerable children with a low socio-economic status and boys can unintentionally become victims of this and reap less benefits from student-centred education than their classmates with a different gender and a different socio-economic status (Power, Rhys, Taylor & Waldron). This means that other variables play a role in the concrete design of student-centred learning.

Previous research points to implicit expectations that teachers have or an 'invisible pedagogy' that assumes implicit guidance from the teacher and where evaluation criteria tend to remain implicit – including many students for whom the school's frame of reference is rather unfamiliar (Power, Rhys, Taylor & Waldron, 2018). The limited case study by Morais and Neves (2001) indicates that self-directed education can also be successful for vulnerable pupils, for example on the condition that evaluation criteria are made explicit for the pupils in advance. However, there is still little practical scientific insight into the way in which a theoretical concept such as self-directed learning can take concrete form within an innovative learning environment.

Moreover, it is still insufficiently clear how the guidance works best so that vulnerable pupils also benefit from it. In short, it is still insufficiently known how the preconditions of self-directed learning (eg learning strategies of the student and the teacher as coach) can be operationalized in an innovative educational practice with a view to quality education for all learners.