Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Autonomous Learning: SWIM

I am attending the conference organised by the Centre for Promoting Learner Autonomy (CPLA, at Sheffield Hallam University) on Enquiry, Autonomy and Graduateness. I blogged the first plenary session on the Inquiry Based Learning blog here, but I thought I would just pick up on one aspect particularly relevant to this blog. Ivan Moore (who is Director of the CPLA) identified Characteristics of an ‘effective’ autonomous learner, and put forward a SWIM model of autonomous learning:
Stance towards Learning ("Orientation to learning, Appropriate conceptions of learning, Deep approach to learning, A range of appropriate learning styles")
Willingness to learn ("Balance of vocational, academic,personal and social motivations to learn, Intrinsic motivation, Extrinsic motivation, Goals Short - Medium - Long, Confidence")
Information ("Information handling, Access to resources: On line and Paper-based, Role models (people, exemplars, designs), Equipment, Other learners, Contexts")
Management ("Study Skills, Planning and problem solving, Overview & co-ordination, Evaluation & Metacognition, Self-assessment, Focus & ‘stickability’, Time and project management, Balancing social, work and learning needs, Assessment")
Obviously I would expand "Information" to "Information Literacy", but I think it is also interesting to see "role models" identified as important for IL, and note that "contexts" are mentioned (which links up to one of the points I have been making in recent talks). I haven't got a copy of the presentation he did today, but I found another presentation that includes this material (here).
Photo by Sheila Webber: lunchtime

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