Teaching Students to Teach Themselves

Abstract

In my previous work as an educator in nonschool settings, I routinely had in volved the learners in setting objectives. When I began teaching university grad uate classes ten years ago, I expected to include the students in planning how to meet the objectives outlined in the sylla bus. I was prepared to modify the design to build on their knowledge of the sub ject and to fit their needs. But the stu dents resisted my efforts to share the pro cess. They clearly held me responsible for all that went on in the class. Years of traditional academic experience had con ditioned my graduate students to be passive, dependent learners. Such an attitude was contrary to the content of the course I was teaching, Foundations of Human Resource Devel opment (HRD). Human resource devel opment is based on the belief that people should participate as much as possible in making decisions that affect them be cause the decision will be better, not just that the people will be more satisfied