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Women The Women The Criticai l Issue: Terms of Engagement--Rethinking Teach The rs' Indepeent Learning Traits Women The Women The

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Independent learners are students who are responsible for their own learning: They take charge and are self-regulated. Such students are one of the critical indicators of any engaged learning environment (Jones, Valdez, Nowakowski, & Rasmussen, 1995).

As the learning community changes, rethinking the traditional traits within this evolving community is important. Teachers need time and support to re-examine, redefine, and reabsorb what it means today to be a student who is responsible, who takes charge, and who self-regulates in the context of today's changing learning environment. This rethinking process may help teachers both foster lifelong learning in their students as well as realize the goal themselves.

This Critical Issue begins with a look at the trend toward creating new learning organizations. It then identifies three learner challenges to realizing such an engaged learning community populated by independent learners. These challenges include:

1. Overcoming learned behaviors
2. Fostering motivation
3. Aligning pedagogy

Finally, it outlines the relevance of two learning mechanisms—professional development and technology—meeting those learning challenges.

OVERVIEW: Just as independent learners inspire an engaged and effective classroom, teachers who are themselves independent learners inspire vital and engaged learning communities. Classroom teachers have both an easier and enjoyable time teaching when their students are responsible: when students take charge and are self-regulating. But are teachers mirroring the behavior that they try to foster in their students? Are teachers becoming the independent learners they try to develop in their classrooms? If not, how will they address the challenge of lifelong learning for their students and for themselves?

Growing emphasis on lifelong learning is supported by research and evidenced by several current factors. Research has effectively documented the connection between high quality teachers and improved student performance. Research continues to expand the definition of what that means. What makes a quality teacher? For instance, the Teacher Quality Collaborative's "Principles of High Quality Teacher Development" attempts to "…re-establish the role of the teacher as a professional who is central to the teaching/learning process" (Bernard-Powers, et al., p. 2). Bernard-Powers et al. state, "Fundamental…is the idea that adults are learners just as are children, and that everyone learns best when there are ongoing opportunities to develop questions, investigate, reflect, apply and share knowledge in real-life contexts" (p. 4).

Also, more time and money are being spent on professional development. (For a detailed appendix of selected major state funding programs for teacher professional development, compiled in 1999, see "Selected Major State Funding Programs for Teacher Professional Development".) In addition, an increase in the number of online courses offers teachers flexibility of time and place to pursue learning. (For an in-depth look at the scope of research emerging on this topic, see NCREL's E-Learning Knowledge Base.) Further, district and state learning plans mandate that teachers continue learning. However, despite such support and mandates, there are indications that teachers are not taking full advantage of learning opportunities.

This raises a dilemma: On one hand, few would disagree that the vast majority of teachers are responsible, that they take charge and that they are self-regulated. Most possess those traits inherent to all independent learners. However, perhaps some rethinking of these traditional traits is required, in light of a trend toward expanded communities of learning in which teachers find themselves members. What does it mean to be responsible, to take charge, and to be self-regulated in today's learning environment?

The New Learning Organization

Independent or self-directed learning can be defined as "a process in which individuals take the initiative, with or without the help of others" (Knowles, 1975, p. 11), to diagnose their learning needs, formulate learning goals, identify resources for learning, select and implement learning strategies, and evaluate learning outcomes. Ideally, citizens of a learning community are such individuals.

Before we can fully examine this element of teachers as independent learners, some groundwork must be established about learning. In a 1995 interview, Peter Senge, director of the Center for Organization Learning at MIT's Sloan School of Management, was asked the following question: "Schools are considered to be institutions of learning, but are most of them learning organizations?" He answered, "Definitely not." He also expressed his concern that "there's very little sense of collective learning going on in most schools" (O'Neil, 1995, p. 20). (See "On Schools as Learning Organizations: A Conversation with Peter Senge".)

If the ideal is a school in which collective learning takes place, how do schools move toward this goal, and how does the individual teacher add to this community?

The classroom setting offers context. Teachers know that the classroom learning environment changes for better or worse depending on the group of students in any given year. Years when there are more challenging students and less motivated learners in a classroom make for greater frustration for the teacher. Years when a majority of the students are enthusiastic and responsible are remembered as good years. Teachers report getting more done in the curriculum, more hands-on activities occur, and more learning takes place during years with self-directed learners in a classroom. During these school years, a classroom learning community is created. Extend that dynamic to the outer walls of the building and beyond, into the community. Imagine teachers as enthusiastic, responsible, take-charge, and self-regulated members.

Creating a learning organization mirrors creating one in a classroom and it requires teachers reading professional material, attending classes, enrolling in online courses, reflecting on what they need to understand to become better teachers. Money for professional development is not always available, and mandates for professional development are not always sufficient motivators. Each teacher must become an independent learner and thinker. This is the vital first step toward growing a learning organization in every school.

Marsick and Watkins' (1999) Model of the Learning Organization outlines three levels of interrelated learning: individual learning, team learning, and organization learning. This Critical Issue supports the idea of individual learning as the first step toward building well-rounded learning organizations.

The authors constructed their model around the following seven action imperatives that are needed to implement learning organizations:

• Create continuous learning opportunities.
• Promote inquiry and dialogue.
• Encourage collaboration and team learning.
• Create systems to capture and share learning.
• Empower people toward collective vision.
• Connect the organization to its environment.
• Provide strategic leadership for learning. (p.80)

The first two of these action imperatives are crucial for individual learning to occur. There must be continuous learning opportunities, and inquiry and dialogue must be promoted (Watkins and Marsick, 1999, p.85).

Many teachers do indeed have continuous learning opportunities. For instance, they can take an online course. They can learn a new computer software program that will benefit their students or themselves. They can take a workshop, then practice and reflect upon results. Both Educational Service and Teacher Learning centers distribute comprehensive catalogs of educational choices.

Once teachers choose independent learning, they want to share the excitement with others. Typically learners want to discuss what they have learned, give opinions, and debate. Through discussion, they begin to promote inquiry and dialogue—the authors' second imperative is crucial for individual learning.

As teachers assume responsibility for their own learning, they want to share this knowledge with colleagues. The need for dialogue introduces the third imperative of encouraging collaboration and team learning. The Team Level of learning sets the stage for the Organizational Level of the Learning Organization. The connectivity is clear: A powerful learning organization begins when a single teacher becomes an independent learner. But the goal is not without challenges.

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