Self-Directed Learning

The image on the top left is of an 8-year old learner at Acton Academy Columbus. He is designing and coding an online video game. In a matter of a few weeks, he has come to understand and write enough code to create an 8-level game. His game is fun, engaging, and difficult - I have not yet been able to beat it.

And he has done this without someone teaching him (Acton doesn’t have a computer science teacher).

How?

He doesn’t need a teacher. He has a lot of other ways to learn: 1) An online video tutorial 2) Peers who are also self-directed learning coding and game design 3) A platform where he can play around with code and test snippets out.

The result is that he is using all his tools at his disposal and learning to learn rather than simply learning to know (memorizing code snippets).

To think we could learn technical skills without a teacher would have been unheard of not long ago. Now you have every learner at Acton Academy doing it every day.

If we took all those resources that go into lectures and tests, and, instead, focused on creating environments for self-learning, I truly believe that we would find magic happening in our classrooms everywhere. We would discover that our teachers would be better off as Guides helping shape a generation of self-learners building transferable skills that could be used in any field.

This young learner didn’t create such complex code to make the adults in the room happy. Nor did he do it to complete an assignment or get a good grade. He did it because he found intrinsic joy in having agency over his own education. Without the pressure of homework and grades, he simply found joy in learning.

That should not be the exception. That should be the opportunity we give each and every young learner.

As John Holt (Author of How Children Learn) stated, "What is essential is to realize that children learn independently, they learn out of interest and curiosity, not to please or appease the adults in power; and that they ought to be in control of their own learning, deciding for themselves what they want to learn and how they want to learn it."