scholarly journals Renegotiating the TOEIC: A self-directed learning approach

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Tanya McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
International Communication ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
Specific Practice ◽  
Target Set ◽  
Main Component ◽  
Level Student

The TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) is currently the main examination used in Japan as an employment requirement and in several institutions, to streamline students. For non-English majors, it can be especially difficult to reach the required target set by each organization. A self-directed learning model for TOEIC study was thus designed to encourage students to renegotiate their learning goals and try a new style of learning in order to achieve their TOEIC target in a more focused manner. The acronym FITE (Focus – Input – Training – Evaluation) was used to help students focus on specific areas of their learning, find a good balance for their self-directed activities and self-monitor their development each month as they prepared for the test. This study follows the progress of a lower-proficiency level student who was struggling to achieve his target. After eight weeks of self-directed learning, he showed gains in both reading and listening scores. The research concluded that whereas a program of daily study of TOEIC-specific practice exercises from textbooks was the main component in learner success, it was also essential for students to be cognizant of strengths and weaknesses; to focus on a particular area of improvement; to expose themselves to other forms of learning for enjoyment; and to self-evaluate their learning progress in order to increase their overall abilities. TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication)は現在、日本で雇用に必要な条件として、また教育機関における学生の効率的なランク付けのために、使用されている主要な試験である。英語専攻でない学生にとって、企業や学校の定める必要スコアに到達することは大変である。そこで本論ではTOEICのための自主学習モデルを考案した。それは学生に学習到達目標を再設定させ、より集中的に学びTOEICの目標スコアに到達できるように、新しい学習スタイルを取り入れさせるものである。ここでは、「Focus(重点の絞り込み) – Input(インプット) – Training(演習) – Evaluation(評価)」の頭文字を取ったFITEというモデルを使用した。これは学生がTOEICの勉強をする際、ある特定の学習分野に重点を置き、自主学習行動の適切なバランスを発見し、毎月自らの進歩を自己観察することを促すものである。本論では、目標達成に努力していた習熟度の低い1人の学生の進歩を追った。8週間の自主学習の後、この学生はリーディングとリスニング両方のスコアを伸ばした。結論として、TOEICに特化した練習問題テキストの日々の学習が学習者の成功の主な要因である一方、学生が自分の得意不得意を認識し、特定分野を重点的に改善し、他の学習形態への挑戦を楽しみ、学習進度を自己診断することも、総合力強化のために非常に重要であった。

scholarly journals Relationship between learning style and readiness for self-directed learning among nursing students at king Saud university, Saudi Arabia

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nesreen AbuAssi ◽  
Hanan Alkorashy
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Students ◽  
Learning Styles ◽  
Learning Style ◽  
Nursing Faculty ◽  
Nurse Educators ◽  
The Self ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
King Saud University ◽  
Directed Learning

Self-directed learning and other prevalent learning styles are important aspects of nursing education because they help nurse educators to predict differences in learners’ needs, abilities, and interests. Moreover, nurse educators depend on these predictors when they choose the most suitable teaching strategies, which enable them to manage adult learners effectively. This study’s objective is to explore the relationship between learning styles and the willingness to adopt self-directed learning among nursing students in King Saud University (KSU). Using a cross-sectional descriptive correlational design, the study was conducted with 230 undergraduate nursing students (female and male) from the third to eighth academic levels at the College of Nursing at KSU, Saudi Arabia. Kolb’s learning styles inventory and the self-directed learning readiness scale were adopted to determine the effects of the self-directed learning approach. The study’s findings suggested that the majority of nursing students had a “Diverging” style of learning. The “self-control” subscale was used to determine the willingness for self-directed learning. It recorded the highest mean score compared to the subscales of “self-management” and “desire for learning.” However, no statistically significant association was found between learning styles and self-directed learning readiness. Additionally, the findings showed that the majority of the students who participated in this study had little interest in the self-directed learning approach. Thus, this study recommends that the nursing faculty needs to assess students for their preferred learning style and readiness for self-directed learning before and throughout the students’ enrollment in the college. Further, the nursing faculty should apply a variety of teaching methods to manage students’ learning needs effectively.

Personal Learning Networks

2010 ◽  
pp. 226-240
Author(s):  
Teresa J. Carter ◽  
Jeffrey S. Nugent
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Personal Learning Networks ◽  
Personal Learning ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
Virtual Communities Of Practice

Twenty-first century information communication technologies are enabling learners to create personal learning networks (PLNs) tailored to individual learning goals, needs, and interests, with implications for self-directed learning in the digital age. New, readily available digital media tools, open courseware, and other Web 2.0 technologies are changing how learners interact online, creating a participatory culture of knowledge sharing and content creation that is very different from early uses of the Web for accessing content. As learners participate in the multiple virtual communities of practice that comprise a PLN, they require new skills that merit reconsideration of the role of the educator in helping learners to become self-directed in both formal and informal learning contexts.

Examining Motivational Orientation and Learning Strategies in Computer-Supported Self-Directed Learning (CS-SDL) for Mathematics

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (8) ◽  
pp. 1168-1188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Chan-Chio Lao ◽  
Hercy N. H. Cheng ◽  
Mark C. L. Huang ◽  
Oskar Ku ◽  
Tak-Wai Chan
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Second Graders ◽  
Motivational Orientation ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Computing Device ◽  
Extrinsic Goals ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
And Mathematics

One-to-one technology, which allows every student to receive equal access to learning tasks through a personal computing device, has shown increasing potential for self-directed learning in elementary schools. With computer-supported self-directed learning (CS-SDL), students may set their own learning goals through the suggestions of the system based on their e-portfolio and strive for the goals with efforts and mathematics capability. However, unlike adults who hold specific purposes that lead to enhanced motivation for SDL, children’s motivation is crucial for learning individually. Therefore, this study examines the differences in motivational orientation and learning strategies between second graders with different intensities of intrinsic and extrinsic goals. The results indicate that students with high intensity of both intrinsic and extrinsic goals demonstrate significantly higher motivational orientation and learning strategies than those with low intensity of goals. These results provide supportive evidence for the design of CS-SDL at the elementary level and offer a reference for exploring children’s motivational differences in CS-SDL.

scholarly journals The importance of Metacognitive Strategies to Enhance Reading Comprehension Skills of Learners: A Self-directed Learning Approach

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-195
Author(s):  
Shabnum Iftikhar
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Metacognitive Strategies ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Reading Comprehension Skills

This article “The importance of Metacognitive Strategies to Enhance Reading Comprehension Skills of Learners: A Self-directed Learning Approach” deals with an in-depth study and implementation of Metacognitive strategies. This study investigates as to what extent the teaching of metacognition is feasible in the classroom and how students could get the maximum from applying metacognitive strategies and styles. This research aims at emphasizing the use of metacognitive strategies as a useful resource to enhance reading comprehension of students. The purpose of the literature review in this study is to more elaborate this topic to get the profound insights into the actual framework of metacognition so that implementations could be made as much as possible. Furthermore, to explore literature review is an authentic source to know as how much research has been conducted so far. It will be identified also that what is missing that needs to be addressed. The themes that would be explored in the review of literature are as following: Theoretical Framework, Motivation and Performance, Metacognitive strategies, Metacognitive instruction; and Empirical evidence of teaching metacognition.

scholarly journals Using online multiple choice questions with multiple attempts: A case for self-directed learning among tertiary students

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 553
Author(s):  
Ng Wen Lee ◽  
Wan Noor Farah Wan Shamsuddin ◽  
Lim Chia Wei ◽  
Muhammad Nur Adilin Mohd Anuardi ◽  
Chan Swee Heng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Multiple Choice ◽  
Independent Learning ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
Multiple Choice Questions ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Learning Skills ◽  
Taking Charge ◽  
Directed Learning

<span lang="EN-GB">Criticisms on multiple choice questions (MCQs) include the possibility of students answering MCQs correctly by guessing, and MCQs generally are said to fall short in cultivating independent learning skills, such as taking charge of their learning goals. Countering these common concerns, this research used online MCQ exercises with multiple attempts to investigate the experiences that drove students to become self-directed learners. In this research, 60 students completed two sets of online MCQ exercises with multiple attempts outside of classroom time for six weeks consecutively. Both focus group interviews and an online survey were conducted to investigate the experiences of using online MCQ exercise with multiple attempts in relation to the development of self-directed learning (SDL). The findings of the study showed that the criticisms may be unfounded. Data leads to the conclusion that the majority of the students do not just try to guess at the correct answers. Rather, many of them attempted the online MCQ exercises more than once to improve themselves indicating that they were interested in self-learning. Students also reported that they utilised search and inquiry skills that clearly showed motivated initiatives to plan how to overcome their weaknesses by independently looking for relevant resources, determine their own learning goals, and evaluate their own learning performance as a firm indicator of SDL development. Based on the findings, this study is able to refute the claim that MCQs are unable to cultivate independent learning skills.</span>

scholarly journals e-Portfolios enhancing students’ self-directed learning: A systematic review of influencing factors

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorrick Beckers ◽  
Diana Dolmans ◽  
Jeroen Van Merriënboer
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
Learning Tools ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Inclusion Criteria ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Plan Implementation ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
Process Factors

<p>e-Portfolios have become increasingly popular among educators as learning tools. Some research even shows that e-portfolios can be utilised to facilitate the development of skills for self-directed learning. Such skills include self-assessment of performance, formulation of learning goals, and selection of future tasks. However, it is not yet clear under which conditions e-portfolios optimally facilitate the development of these skills. We conducted a systematic review aimed at identifying and understanding influences on the development of self-directed learning with an e-portfolio. Inclusion criteria were used to select recent, high quality studies that focused on e-portfolios and reported an influence on self-directed learning. There were 17 articles that met the inclusion criteria. Institutional factors, curriculum factors, learning process factors, personal factors, and portfolio factors were identified. Portfolios are used most effectively when faculty development aimed at supervising self-directed learning skills development is provided, when the portfolio is integrated into the educational routine, when teachers coach students regularly, when scaffolding is applied to increase motivation, and when the portfolio is designed to facilitate at least goal-setting, task-analysis, plan implementation, and self-evaluation.</p>

Adult Education and Adult Learning Processes with ICT

2009 ◽  
pp. 14-20
Author(s):  
Y. Inoue
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learning ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Learning To Learn ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
Mobile Context ◽  
Assisted Instruction

Cognitive walkthrough (CWT) is a usability inspection method which allows users to learn a system by using it to achieve tasks rather than studying a manual or documentation. It starts with a task analysis that specifies the sequence of steps required by the users to complete a task, and the system responses to those actions. The users then walkthrough the steps as a group and questioning themselves at each step. Data and information are gathered during the CWT and potential problems are identified. However, problems rose if the CWT and user based evaluation were being conducted in the mobile context environment. It became clear that static lab is not ideal for the CWT to be carried Brookfield (1995) has identified four areas as representing unique and exclusive adult learning processes: (1) self-directed learning (which focuses on the process by which adults take control of their own learning—in particular, how they set their own learning goals); (2) critical reflection (which is the idea of the decade for many adult educators who have long been searching for a form and process of learning that could be claimed to be distinctively adult); (3) experiential learning (which is based on the notion that “experience” is the adult’s continuing process of evaluating experiences); and (4) learning to learn (which is the ability of adults to learn how to learn to become skilled at learning in a range of different situations). Brookfield has further noted that one of the trends in the study of adult learning that emerged during the 1990’s, and that promises to exercise influences into the 21st century, might be the ways in which adults learn within the systems of education (distance education, computer assisted instruction, and open learning systems, for instance) that are linked to technological advances.

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