Borich's Strategies For Implementing Self-Directed And Reructivist Learning

In this chapter, Borich aims to inform teachers of strategies for implementing self-directed and constructivist learning. He begins with a discussion of self-directed learning, an approach to teaching and learning that actively engages students in the learning process in order to acquiring outcomes at higher levels of cognitive complexity. In order to implement self-directed learning, Borich suggests teachers implement a sequence of activities: provide information for implementing mental strategies for learning; illustrate how to use these strategies for real-world problems; encourage students to restructure the content to fit their own ways of thinking; gradually shift the responsibility for learning to students through activities that engage …show more content…
Borich begins by discussing cooperative learning, which promotes critical thinking, reasoning and problem-solving skills through collaboration with others. In order to implement a cooperative learning activity, Borich suggests teachers plan accordingly for teacher-student interactions (to promote independent thinking), student-student interactions (to encourage the active participation of all students), task specialization and materials (to create an activity that promotes collaboration), and role expectations/responsibilities (to promote sharing in the group). Borich also suggests five steps for establishing a cooperative task structure: specify the activity’s goal, structure the task, teach and evaluate the collaborative process, monitor group performance and debrief. Borich also suggests that, when specifying the goal of a cooperative activity, the teacher should identify the outcome, check for understanding and set a cooperative tone. When structuring the cooperative learning activity, teachers should decide how large the groups will be, how members will be selected, how much time will be devoted to group work, what roles members will be assigned and what incentives will be provided for individual and group work. Borich provides several methods for selecting group members, including distributing passive learners, randomly …show more content…
Borich begins the chapter by explaining the differences between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests. A norm-referenced test (NRT) determines a student’s rank among other students; it is useful because it covers many content areas in one test, but is too general to be useful in identifying a students’ specific strengths and weakness. A criterion-referenced test (CRT) compares a learner’s performance to a standard of mastery; it is useful because it yields highly specific information about individual skills or behaviors (and whether a student needs additional instruction), but it requires several tests to make decisions about the range of skills taught in school. Next, Borich discusses the use of a test blueprint, a table for matching test items to content areas and levels of behavioral complexity taught; this table ensures that a test samples learning across a range of covered content areas and important cognitive processes. Next, Borich discusses and makes suggestions for different objective test item formats, including true/false, matching, multiple choice, and completion (short answer). Borich also discusses essay test items, explaining that their use is most appropriate when the instructional objectives specify high-level cognitive processes, there are few test items, and test security is a consideration. He