How Cognitively Coached Teachers Design and Facilitate Self-Directed Learning in General Education Classrooms

Abstract

The purpose was to describe how cognitively coached teachers design and facilitate instruction for self-directed learning in general education classrooms. Vygotsky's social development theory and Bronfenbrenner's development ecological model of human development provided the theoretical frameworks for this study. The two sources of data that were utilized in this study were semi-structured individual interviews and a lesson plan artifactual document review. The results indicated that cognitively coached teachers design and facilitate instruction for self-directed learning through a description of the following five themes: 1) developing individualized learning with challenging expectations, 2) preparing meaningful and transferable content, 3) establishing an active learning environment, 4) engaging learners in authentic tasks, and 5) supporting student responsibility for learning.