Educators’ Beliefs, Perceptions and Practices Around Self-Directed Learning, Assessment and Open Education Practices

Abstract

AbstractIn the wake of a global pandemic, educators need to reflect on their practices, and deeply question whether and how they are ensuring that their teaching provides opportunities to develop 21st century skills such as adaptability, flexibility, a growth mindset and self-directed learning (SDL). Open educational practices can develop student’s SDL by actively engaging them in the co-design of curriculum and assessment processes. Such co-design of assessment practices may mitigate existing stressful, high-stakes examination focussed assessments with more holistic, continuous learning approaches to democratise teaching and learning and make it more relevant to students. To achieve these ideals, current education practices were examined to identify areas where these can evolve to support SDL goals through open education practices. Following an interpretivist epistemology, this mixed-methods study surveyed educators about their assessment practices, beliefs and perceptions, to understand how this aligns to their current learning outcomes, how/whether they develop SDL, and their use of open education resources (OER) and practices (OEP). The survey was completed by 42 educators, some were lecturing in higher education contexts, and others were school teachers who had recently graduated from post-graduate education programmes. The concerns based adoption model (CBAM) was used to analyse the survey responses. Findings identify the need to encourage changes in educators’ beliefs, perceptions and practices around OER and OEP, assessment and SDL competencies. It is suggested that educators be exposed to diverse assessment practices that emphasise regular, meaningful feedback toward developing students’ metacognitive judgement and calibration as critical SDL competencies.KeywordsSelf-directed learningAssessmentOpen education resourcesOpen practicesDemocratisation of education