2018 Inquiry

self-directed vs teacher directed

learning

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 Survey -initial - summary
Click here for student comments in full. Our summary of the student comments:

Q2 What experiences have you had in any of your subjects on self-teaching and student directed
learning in any form that is not teacher directed learning?
● Consolidation of material rather than learning new material is ok
● Research after an introduction to a topic or further research is ok
● Revision is ok
● Time management is an issue for some
● In some cases lead to stress

Q3 Explain if the above experiences were positives.

● Spend as much time as needed on a topic, learn at own pace, focus on concepts do not feel confident
in
● Time to catch-up on notes, tasks, worksheets, mindmaps, flash cards
● Time to check-in with teacher
● Use the time as we see fit
● Good when teacher has set notes or activities
● Sense of accomplishment being able to teach oneself, fosters independence, confidence, keep
persevering 2
 Survey -initial - summary
Click here for summary

Q4 Explain if the above experiences were negative.

● Some issues indicated included difficulties in being distracted/ concentration on

the task/ maintaining motivation
● Some found it could be frustrating/ overwhelming/lack of focus
● Time management could at times be an issue
● Learning incorrect concepts / much harder to learn and takes longer to
understand new concepts
● Difficult to get help from teacher- busy with other students
● More interactive when teacher teaches us
● Difficult to learn maths whereas biology and health - fine - as content is more
broad and general knowledge
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 Survey -initial - summary
Click here for summary

Q5 What are your thoughts on this style of teaching (self-teaching and student directed learning)
Positives:
● Benefits those that prefer learning on their own, Setting us up for university study
● Should be choice to do self directed learning
● Encourages important skills to do with self management- but resources need to made available, rewarding, Independence,
Flexibility - own pace
● effective for revision after the teacher has taught
The teacher...
● Dependent on individual study style, effort, teachers need to be there to answer questions and explain clearly, often it is the
way the teacher explains that is important, easier to understand when you hear things explained, gives thorough and clear
explanations
● NCEA is so specific - more time trying to understand marking - teacher knows it, The teacher breaking down of the topics,
Do not waste time learning wrong things
● A slower process, teacher directed is efficient/effective way to learn
● Important to interact with teacher and ask questions
● Like the guidance of my teacher being aware of my progress in class
Negatives:
● Difficult with content based subjects as could be understanding it wrong
● Could be more stress for some
● Ok for literacy subjects but not chemistry as harder to learn 4
● Dependent on self motivation, Need to stay on task more
 Survey -initial - summary
Click here for summary

Q6 How confident are you in making notes?

● Most felt fairly confident at writing notes, but these were usually based on teacher resources/ powerpoints

Q7 How confident are you in making accurate notes?

● Most are confident
● Confidence improved if they have a reliable, trustworthy resources to get notes from ESA Study Guide,
can check with teacher, teacher’s notes are on a Powerpoint
● Some students - take too many notes, hard to condense down, may miss key points

Q8.How confident are you in making relevant notes?

● Mostly felt very confident

● Some students felt they tend to overwrite unless there were clear guidelines about what needs to be
written

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 Survey -initial - summary
Click here for summary

Q9 How would you intend organising your time if given such tasks as self teaching and student directed
learning?
● Make notes using resources given, complete tasks, worksheets, flashcards, mindmaps
● Solve past NCEA questions, problems
● Study, learn, memorise, use study periods, recap, plan, use a diary, make a timetable, set goals, try to
work on a daily basis, watch relevant videos
● more work out of school - too distracting in class, use class time more effectively
● Concentrate of weakest areas of knowledge

Q10 Explain how you will know when you have fully understood a given task.

● Most answers indicated being able to answer NCEA exam questions

● Some said---being able to explain the ideas to others

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Recorded interview - summary
The students’ view on the three approaches

Positives
● Did not matter that two standards being taught at the same
time - provided interest (approach 3)
● Knowing the teacher is available for clarification, support if
you need it
● Approach 3 was the preferred option
● Students have different ways of learning

Negatives
● Needed more time for revision
● Want teachers to go over the content before students do the
revision in approach 1
● Need more guidelines, resource bank, google classroom
● Students need to be told how to manage their time
● Cannot find a quiet room
● Should not use the time in class for revision as chemistry is
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taught up to week 2 in term 4.
 Recorded interview - summary
The students’ view on the three approaches

Tips
● Manage your time throughout the year
● Do not copy out notes
● Write notes in your own words
● Use LearnCoach, nobraintoosmall as back-up
● Do not be afraid to ask the teachers questions
● Find a quiet space - it might be your timetabled study
room

Our perspectives
1. Students to be more confident in their own ability
2. For students to learn the value of opening up the textbook, look at the table of contents + page number
+ chapter titles for themselves
3. Students to be less needy and teacher-dependent - as it is difficult for many of them to study on their
own
4. To realise that the teaching is done in topics + subtopics + SLO but most importantly at the pace
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dictated by the class
Final survey
We did a final survey to find out students thoughts about the three different
approaches, positives and negatives, impact on learning and exam results, did
they have a preference, could the teacher have done more and did they have any
tips.

We also decided to have a recorded interview that was student led. (slide 22-24)

Click here for final survey

59 responses, 69.4%

Decrease in 16.5% (14

students out of 85)
responses

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 Survey -final - summary
Click here for student comment in full

1. Please comment on the positives of approach 1. Approach 1 was the revising of Year 12 alkanes, alkenes, alkynes,
polymers with no resources provided, except the objectives and one period of study. A pre and post quiz was sat.
● It was good, easy, did not require much time/effort, helpful, useful, own pace, refresher, re-jog memory, able to take charge,
effective
● Pretest help to gage what had been forgotten and what was needed to focus on, a safety net
● Practice self-directed learning
● Having teacher readily available was nice

2. Please comment on the negatives of approach 1. Approach 1 was the revising of year 12 alkanes, alkenes, alkynes,
polymers with no other resources given except the objectives and one period of study. A pre and post quiz was sat.
● Needed- Quick overview from teacher, going over crucial ideas, a summary sheet, more resources (as L2 notes thrown
away!), more structure , objectives a bit vague, teacher to give basic notes, more support from teacher
● More stressful, difficult to motivate, difficult to find time, difficult to find resources, difficult if I wasn’t well taught or did not
understand L2 chemistry
● More time needed in class, revise as a class
● Not waste time on what already knew, Focus on new year 13 content in class

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 Survey -final - summary
Click here for student comment in full

3.Please comment on the positives of approach 2. Approach 2 required independently learning a new concept of entropy, with a
variety of resources provided and one period allocated for study. A pre and post quiz was sat.
● Good to be able to study in own way, work at own pace, independently, prepare for tertiary education; practise self-
management
● Variety of Resources provided which was helpful
● Could also find other resources ourselves
● Pretest helpful as basis of awareness of what we knew/ didn’t know/ types of questions that we needed to be able to answer
● Plenty of time outside of class to complete the work

4. Please comment on the negatives of approach 2. Approach 2 required independently learning a new concept of entropy, with a
variety of resources provided and one period allocated for study. A pre and post quiz was sat.
● Difficult to teach ourselves a new concept from scratch--especially a difficult concept---and to feel confident that we had a
thorough grasp of the concept/ full understanding/ gain a clear picture/ unsure of the depth of understanding we needed
● Needed self Motivation to learn and study on my own
● Missed teacher guidance as we studied
● Lack of time outside of class to study this/ had to go over material many times to gain understanding/ made learning topic
more stressful
● Did not feel prepared for exam questions
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 Survey -final - summary
Click here for student comment in full

5.Please comment on the positives of approach 3. For approach 3 spectroscopy was taught for one week, then one period per week
was provided for a further five weeks for independent study with a variety of resources provided. Then the internal was sat in week
10.
● Taught by the teacher then time, lots of time, time to practice questions, time to cement, enough time to practice, time to
ask the teacher questions, time to ask questions
● Time to consolidate understanding, less stressful,
● Resources provided were helpful, a good range
● Great to progressively learn, spaced repetition, refresh learning, study independently
● Less stressful, it was all good
● No negatives

6.Please comment on the negatives of approach 3. For approach 3 spectroscopy was taught for one week, then one period per week
was provided for a further five weeks for independent study with a variety of resources provided. Then the internal was sat in week
10.
● No positives
● Resources not relevant,
● Confusing, challenging
● Too much time loss of urgency, too long a gap between initial learning and assessment, more time needed - 2 periods per
week, relies on students having the time and motivation outside the classroom
● Better to focus on one standard at a time, large workload with two standards at a time, confusing switching back and forth
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● Workbook - extra information - extra stress
 Survey -final - summary
Click here for summary

7.List the three approaches in order of preference. List the most preferred first.
● Least preferred was Approach 2----50% of all votes
● Least preferred for Approaches 1 or 3 was 25% each
● Approaches 1 and 3 were split evenly as most and least preferred---44% each as preferred option leaving
only 12% who preferred Approach 2

8.What impact do you feel self-directed learning (compared to teacher-directed learning) had on your
understanding of new concepts and your exam results?
● Less time to gain a great understanding so that it impeded our results/ don’t have a lot of time outside of lessons to study
● Much more difficult to learn a new, unfamiliar concept by ourselves
● Felt much more unsure of whether I had a good grasp of the topic /Had learned the correct material when learning
independently versus being taught by the teacher
● Would gain a deeper understanding if taught by teacher/ teacher helps make it all make sense/ fewer gaps in knowledge/
teacher simplifies complicated topics
● Needed to self manage myself well in order to gain understanding
● Less time-efficient
● Felt less confident and more stressed
● Used my tutor to go over material and that helped
● Exam results weren’t too bad---but it just took more time and effort on my part to get there 13
 Survey -final - summary
Click here for summary

9.Is there anything else that your chemistry teachers could have provided you with to improve any of
the three approaches?

● Better resources, more notes, more interactive resources, tasks per lesson/study period, reliable
resources, list of explained resources, resources related NCEA standards, resource bank with ESA pages
+ NCEA past questions + link/web pages, summary for each sub-topic
● More class time
● More guidance, better support, clear instructions, more guidelines
● Question/answer session in class - whole class discussion
● Track people's progress, walking around the room and actually checking up on people during independent
study
● Revision sheets similar to internal, more revision quizzes,
● A suggested plan of how to start your self directed learning

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 Survey -final - summary
10.Are there any tips for those approaching more self-learning next year?
● Use class time effectively and efficiently (while the teacher is there)
● Get onto it as soon as possible
● Ask teacher questions for clarification
● Set aside time for self-learning rather than leave it to the last minute
● Make a weekly study schedule and keep track of things you have to study and due dates .
● Study is only optional if you don’t care about your results
● Plan time, make check lists
● Keep your notes together somewhere neatly, as this is very helpful for study later in the year
● Develop a good system of note-taking
● Highlight and take notes rather than just reading notes
● Chemistry moves quite quickly, so try to stay on top of the learning
● Be self-motivated
● Manage your time carefully---stay up-to-date
● Work with friends to go over material and consolidate
● Don’t be afraid to ask the teacher for help
● Stay on task/ put your phone away/ positive attitude/ be patient

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