TITLE:
Cognitive Skills in Adolescents’ Self-Directed Learning Efficacy
AUTHORS:
Õnne Uus, Kadri Mettis, Terje Väljataga
KEYWORDS:
Self-Directed Learning (SDL), Cognitive Executive Functions, Outdoor Learning, Cognitive Load, Prior Knowledge
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.13 No.2,
February
18,
2022
ABSTRACT: Hands-on science lessons to motivate and engage students as well as to enhanceself-directed learning (SDL) have been suggested as the main goals of the 21st century through the knowledge-in-use perspective. Compared to conventional learning methods, SDL requires more advanced self-directedness andcritical thinking skills applied by learners to conceptualize properly in sub-tasksto reach the relevant final conclusions. Achieving this requires one’s sophisticated executive functions to choose the best alternative,because proper processing is enabled only by resisting mental distractions and inhibitingprepotent answers. The aforementioned skills, however, markedly vary amongschool students, as they are still in the stage of normal maturing. Thus, possible individual and gender-based differences among school-age learners shouldbe studied more carefully, as the majority of the SDL suggestions have been given based on adult learners. To enhance scientific literacy and explore thelearners’ individual characteristics for that, we conducted a study of self-directedoutdoor learning with school students aged 15 y (N = 82) examining their evidence-based concept construction in a real-life context. We measured: 1) participants’ cognitive executive skills, and 2) their prior and post-knowledgelevels; with both variables compared also by gender. The results showed differences in participants’ knowledge acquisition trajectories and relations betweentheir prior and post-knowledge as well as individual characteristics in predicting the outcome of self-directed learning (SDL). Further research onthe heightened cognitive demand accompanying complex learning is neededin order to implement SDL efficiently.