From this definition of self-directed learning flows a new idea that steers everything we and our students do. It is the lodestone that guides us, the rule that helps us prioritize our actions. Like the Prime Directive of Star Trek, it is not to be violated. This is the Prime Directive of education.
Self-directed learning is the basis for all
classroom decisions, large and small.
The application of the Prime Directive can be summarized like this: if an action enhances self-directed learning, we do it, and if it detracts from self-directed learning, we stop doing it. Again, this may seem like an elementary idea, but it has a profound effect on what we do as teachers and what our students do as learners. If we take the Prime Directive seriously, it requires us to create new classroom structures, redesigning the day-to-day activities of discussions, lectures, homework, and student activities so that they actively serve this underlying philosophy.
As an example of the way in which the Prime Directive requires us to change what we do, consider the ubiquitous practice of “cramming.” If a student is preparing for a test at two in the morning by jamming as much of the material into her mind as quickly as possible, she is not expecting to actually learn anything. She knows full well that most of what she is “learning” will be forgotten shortly after taking the test. Her purpose for studying is to maximize how many points she will get. How she gets those points — whether she is genuinely learning the material — is secondary, at best.
Cramming violates the Prime Directive. We must therefore work to eliminate it from our classrooms. In order to do this, however, we must explore what causes this unwanted behavior. This small example of an everyday school experience —cramming for tests — highlights deeper and broader changes that must be made.
So why does a student cram? Because her goal is to get the highest score possible, and she understands that the test can’t distinguish between what she has genuinely learned and what she will only “know” for a few days or weeks. To get a good grade, cramming, regurgitating the correct answers on the test, and forgetting the material is fair game.
If we follow the dictates of the Prime Directive, we arrive at an inescapable conclusion: we must redefine the purpose of tests so that the act of cramming no longer makes sense. Instead of giving a test at the end of the unit, grading it, and moving on, we must make test-taking an essential component of the learning process, fully integrated into that process. Rather than a mechanism for accumulating points, it must become a powerful form of feedback; it tells the student (and the teacher) specifically what aspects of the content she has not learned yet. What is needed is a well-designed remediation process that is individually tailored to the work each student still needs to do. If testing is combined with such a process, it can become one of the most potent tools in the learning process. Once the test has shown her precisely what she still needs to work on, a student can focus intensively on learning just that.
Repurposing test-taking in this way directly undermines the extrinsic motivation of collecting points. The student can continue learning after the test, and in the end, her grade will be improved because she has achieved more mastery. It also puts the focus strictly on genuinely learning the material, which is where the Prime Directive insists that it belongs.
Structural changes such as these are discussed throughout this book. But before those changes can be implemented, the Prime Directive requires the creation of a new classroom culture, one that is dedicated to the learning process and to a sense of community that is authentic in the eyes of students. Creating such a culture is a prerequisite to serious student engagement and ownership of their own learning experience. I cannot overemphasize how essential this is. No matter how thoughtfully you construct your classroom structures, no matter how charismatic or dedicated a teacher you may be, the true promise of an effective classroom cannot be realized unless your students become active and willing members of a culture of learning.
Beyond transforming the culture and the classroom structures, the Prime Directive requires finding a new purpose and meaning for grades. As we shall see, grades are one of the central driving forces of the bad habits of doing school. Fortunately, the Prime Directive leads to a healthier way to think about grades that is dramatically better at nourishing learning.
All these changes will result in a redefinition of the role of teachers and students, a shift in the balance of responsibility and power towards the students, and a liberation on the part of teachers from providing external motivation for their students. It is a win-win situation.
