SELF DIRECTED LEARNING

"School, at best, prepares children for more school.  Real life prepares children for real life.” Peter Gray

Curiouser and Co is real life learning, in real life situations, for real life people.

WHAT IS A SELF DIRECTED LEARNING COMMUNITY?

‘Education is the sum of everything a person learns that enables that person to live a satisfying and meaningful life’ (Alliance for Self Directed Learning)

The natural drives that motivate us through adulthood and childhood are:

CURIOSITY                 the drive to seek new knowledge and understanding

PLAYFULNESS             the drive to practise new skills and use them creatively

SOCIABILITY               survival and wellbeing depends on our ability to socialize

As children grow up, they begin to develop the ability to PLAN, which distinguishes us from other species; the ability to make goals, plan and work towards those goals is a distinct cognitive ability.

“Cognitive scientists refer to this capacity to make plans and carry them out as self-directed executive functioning. Research by such scientists has shown that children who have ample free time to play and explore on their own and with other children, independent of adults, develop this capacity more fully than do children who spend more time in adult-structured activities.” The Alliance for Self Directed Education

Children who are given the space to create their own activities without adult control are continuously practising the ability to make plans and carry them out, learning from the mistakes they make.

The six optimising conditions for self directed learning, as defined by the Alliance for Self Directed Education are:

Expectation that learning is each individual’s responsibility.

Space and time to explore and be bored.

Opportunity to play with the tools of the culture

Access to a variety of caring adults who are helpers not judges

Free age mixing between different aged children

Immersion in a supportive and respectful community

‘Education is the sum of everything a person learns that enables that person to live a satisfying and meaningful life’ (Alliance for Self Directed Learning)