The Question
“My colleagues and I want to develop some type of tool for students to use to promote their own ability to be self-directed. We came to recognize that goal-setting per se was not enough, especially if it was driven externally. Can you recommend any professional resources that frame a student’s ability to be self-directed and establish learning targets that are consistent with self-regulated learning?”
My response
We are at the beginning stages doing this work with grade 6/7 at my current school. Much is still in the beginning stages as we grow the school culture and build capacity in the students.
There is no shortage of resources about what and why but less about the specifics of how. Three I would recommend for starting are:
- Embedded Formative Assessment by Dylan Wiliam: chapter 7 pulls it all together with Students as Owners of their Own Learning
- Make Just One Change: Teaching Students to Ask their Own Questions by Rothstein & Santana
- Leaders of their Own Learning by Ron Berger
You might want to check out the Discovery 1 school in New Zealand
- Senior school — Managing My Learning — more on this page on their site
- Discoverer Indicators — big picture of goal setting (something to build towards)
For what it’s worth, all the stuff I’ve come across (local and international) has the formative assessment piece as the foundation.
With the solid formative foundation one can shift the focus onto student ownership/SRL*/SEL* etc. Your staff needs to see that their learning about formative assessment and their embedding it into their practice as an ongoing piece that is continually refined —> the SRL is one way in which the formative assessment practices are refined.
BTW: you may find your staff find this Formative/Summative post by Anne Davies helpful.
*SRL = Self Regulated Learning
**SEL = Social Emotional Learning
Renovating My Classroom 