Grow's SSDL Self-Directed Learning Model

Grow, Gerald O. (1991/1996). “Teaching Learners to be Self-Directed.” Adult Education Quarterly, 41 (3), 125-149. Expanded version available online at: <http://www.longleaf.net>.
Used with permission. Original at http://www.longleaf.net

So often the time and space that is needed for student-centered strategies is lost in the constraints of the institution, the programming, and even the classroom itself.  Such as what is involved in Grow's self-direction spray label, as shown below. 

Also, check out Grow's model here http://longleaf.net/wp/cartoons/cartoons-on-teaching-styles/ Cartoons on Teaching Styles

From the article, “Teaching Learners to be Self-Directed” by Gerald Grow.  Available at: www.longleaf.net

Hope On the Yellow Brick Road

The learning journey for basic education students is very similar to following a yellow brick road similar to that in the Wizard of Oz. 

Adult basic education learners arrive to their courses to Glinda, the good witch saying, "It's always best to start at the beginning - and all you do is follow the yellow brick road."  Yet, this glistening and beautiful road of yellow, paved with good intentions, student-centered curriculum, integration of technology, and standardization to make sure everyone gets to the same destination, isn't the same road that the students see.

The road the students see, especially at the beginning, is one similar to what Dorothy and her entourage face on foot. It is a road that is scary and unimaginably long. A journey fraught with unexpected risks and high emotions. 

Students begin at a place where they "just want..." to ...go home, ..get a heart, ...get a brain, ...get courage, and achieve their academic goals.   Anyone who has worked with basic education students knows that these learners are the composite of the lion, the tin-man and the scarecrow. 

Adult basic education learners arrive with courage - a lot of it - to come back to school in order to make things better for themselves and their family.  Sacrifice and committing to school when you really weren't successful in the first place is, in a lot of cases, a lot like closing your eyes and stepping into the abyss.  The monsters that these learners left behind will often resurface. It might be addictions, abuse, teen angst and rebellion, teen parenthood, learning disabilities, inter-generational affects of residential schools, and/or mental health issues and disorders. Our learners are courageous. 

Our learners arrive with a huge heart full of fear, anticipation, hope. Getting to the heart of the matter, being heartfelt, are student centered approaches that led students to trust in their own strengths.     Very low self-efficacy has convinced them that they don't know how to learn.  Nor do they know how they learn, or recognize how much they already know.  They are convinced, like the scarecrow, that "I would not be just a nuffin' my head all full of stuffin'/My heart all full of pain" if they only had the brain for academics.  

Hope is really represented by that yellow brick road. We walk with learners through the perils, potential shortcuts, and winding avenues of their academic path, trying to mirror sentiments of 

Read more: Wizard Of Oz - If I Only Had A Brain/Heart/Nerve Lyrics | MetroLyrics  

What is "student-centered?"

What is student-centered?  No, seriously, what is student centered?  How does a teacher or administrator know he or she is making decisions that are truly student centered?

Simple Answer: by examining narrative - both the teacher's and the students'.

Explanation:  Narrative is the complex interconnection of experiences, categories, and influences that make up the individual.  Experiences range from where people are raised, how they are raised, where they went to school, who they learned from (formally and informally), social integration or isolation, and more. Categories are those labels that connect to identity - gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation. 

So with it being so complex and individualistic, how can we truly be student-centered? When we look at a top down hierarchy in an educational institution and start at the bottom, with the student, it should be easy.  As we move up the ladder to the pointy point at the top, where standardization is key to organizational continuity and capacity, it gets more difficult. 

The answer is to develop a number of ways for students to be heard. In courses we teach student exit slips, surveys, and opportunites for feedback about the course and activities is necessary.  

Programming needs to rely on more than just the one-off survey that a student may or may not take. Student advisory groups, information portals or emails that grab immediate feedback, a "how did we do today" dropbox.  

Narrative means having open-ended discussions. It centers on how individual is navigating a course or a program. Hearing beyond institutional guidelines and limitations can open the way to innovations and programming that centers truly on the student experience. 

Presentation: IMPACT UDL Conference, Edmonton, Alberta January 2016

A presentation combining research on adult basic education learners in an online learning program, with universal design for learning concepts. Pictures used come from the research project, personal photos, and Pixabay. 

Standardization.  Make everything the same and it's easier to manage. It's a conundrum that has faced front-line instructors since the inception of standardized curriculum and tests.  Online development, especially at an institutional level, is undergoing the same issues.  Balancing administrative and instructional needs can be an awkward balance. 

At the adult level, assumptions are made that standardization and even research around online design applies to all levels of learners.  Yet, a basic education student doesn't manage information in the same way a student in a post-secondary college program does.  It's not about being an adult, common sense, or a weird assumption that smart phones and computer literacy are the same thing.   It's about the level that a person is at with their prior knowledge, skills and abilities.  Self-efficacy and confidence plays a part, as well as prior learning experiences, learning deficits and digital and critical literacy.    

When it comes to ideas like Universal Design, you wouldn't say I'm not making that doorway bigger to ensure wheelchair access because it doesn't fit with the design elements of our hallway. Or,  I am not painting that door so that my residents with dementia won't get confused.  In my opinion, someone who has never met with a person who is in a wheelchair should probably not be designing their accessible kitchen. 

Universal design for learning takes the idea of design into the virtual world in wonderful ways.   It is even incorporated into checklists when it comes to online design. Yet, when it becomes a matter of aesthetics and checklists, unfortunately the level and reality of a learner isn't always taken into consideration. 

Design elements and decisions such as monochromatic, small print, and nothing flashy in order to make courses institutionally the same are the norm.  But it should be recognized that these decisions are often being made by individuals with a much different worldview and understanding than our adult basic education students. As a result, the creative is abolished. And it is the creative that is most needed to bring in those learners who exist on the margins, in order to better facilitate their online experience.  Ensuring the decisions being made relates to the learner at their particular level becomes a matter not of personal preference or inappropriate research applications, but of what really works for our learners. 

Anatomy of ABE Students

Why do we need to be conscious of the research and the tools connecting to our students' reality?

For anyone who has worked with pre-high school level students it is obvious. The reasons for separate, intentional and flexible programming reflects that the reasons behind adult basic education students not achieving success in prior schooling are many and varied.  

 "The lesson eventually learned is that ABE/GED students with high expectations and equally high vulnerability to physical, psychological, and family stress are less likely to believe that persistence pays. For many ABE students, getting through two classes may take more persistence and energy than it took their teachers to get through two years of college… imagine enrolling in a graduate program where you have no idea how many years it will take to get your master's, and seated beside you is a student who has been in the program for twelve years (Dr. Nancy Boraks)." 


(Excerpted from "What I Wish They Had Told Me" by Dr. Nancy Boraks). 

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UDL

Universal design.  The first time I heard about UD was at a conference for persons with disabilities in Hermisilio, Mexico.  Based on principles "developed in 1997 by a working group of architects, product designers, engineers and environmental design researchers, led by the late Ronald Mace in the North Carolina State University, UD led the way towards awareness and accommodations for people with disabilities.  

That conference also brought to light the systemic and financial barriers inherent in implementing Universal Design.  One of the students in our group was in a wheelchair and was often prevented from continuing on an outing due to physical barriers, like the height of curbs or condition of a sidewalk.   My Mexican counterparts advocated for the same principles of UD: Equitable, Flexibility in, and Simple and Intuitive Use, as well as Perceptible Information, Tolerance for Error, Low Physical Effort and Size and Space for Approach Use.  However, the ability to achieve these goals were impeded by many obstacles. Not the least of which was a sort of disability illiteracy, that didn't take into account the realities of the individuals that benefited from UD. 

Connecting this to teacher training and curriculum design courses, these same principles are transferred to a Universal Design for Learning.  Online accessibility within the virtual environment encompasses many facets.  Adult basic education learners arrive with learning issues and a host of other needs that should be recognized and supported by principles such as those found in UDL. 

Just as Universal Design connects to architecture through considerations such as wheelchair ramps that are a one-size fits all, there are also considerations such as right-left handedness, or access to anyone who is either sitting or standing that acknowledges the individual.  These same principles need to take into consideration the adult basic learner. 

This is achieved not only by accessing and implementing various tools through learning management systems and assistive technologies, but by strategizing the delivery of content to meet each learner's needs. A focus on holistic delivery and the whole learner, ensures that any potential illiteracy by the developer or the teacher towards basic education learners can be overcome.