Page 14 - International Journal of Process Educaiton (Special Issue)

3. Student-centered instruction in learning processes
The first piece is learning skills and the growth they
make possible. But now we also have an educational
environment marked by continuous assessment. The third
statement, though seemingly trivial, is actually critical and
should be discussed in some depth.
Self-Growers
A “student-centered” approach in learning processes is
what puts the “self-” in “self-grower;” this is more than
mere ownership of learning (itself a strong principle; see
the section on Culture of Success); when understood in
the context of the first statement, this is ownership of the
growth process. This formula was strengthened in Process
Education — A New Educational Mission (Apple, 1997),
in which a self-grower was described as "a life-long learner
who continues to grow by utilizing strong self-assessment
skills to improve future performance." Self-Growers:
1. Create their own challenges
2. Seek to improve their own learning performance with
every experience
3. Take control of their own destiny — “there are no
bounds”
4. Serve as a leader and mentor to others
5. Self-assess and self-mentor to facilitate their own
growth
This formulation offers learning skills, assessment, and
ownership of the growth process (“self-mentor”). But
what is the relationship between taking control of one’s
own destiny and growth or self-growth? It is also part
of taking ownership of the growth process, but there is
another aspect as well: the idea of creating a life vision
was first included in Foundations of Learning, (1st ed.)
(Krumsieg & Baehr, 1996) as a way to help students make
meaning of their current life and set a direction for their
Figure 1
LIFE VISION: DIRECTION
LEARNING SKILLS ASSESSMENT IMPROVING PERFORMANCE: GROWTH
LEARNING SKILLS
ASSESSMENT
LEARNING SKILLS
ASSESSMENT
LEARNING SKILLS
ASSESSMENT
LEARNING SKILLS
12 International Journal of Process Education (February 2016, Volume 8 Issue 1)
future life plan. This provided the motivation needed for
students to begin their journey of self-growth to realize
the life plan articulated in their life vision. See Figure 1
for a visual summary of how these pieces and dynamics
interrelate. (Each subsequent chapter of Foundations of
Learning provided tools and challenges to support the first
few steps of the student’s journey of self-growth.)
Scholarship on Growth and Self-Growers
The description of a self-grower was expanded in the
Faculty Guidebook module Performance Levels for
Learners and Self-Growers (Myrvaagnes, 2007) with a
rubric for determining performance level as a self-grower
(see Figure 2). According to Myrvaagnes,
Self-Growers have defining characteristics which
include an enduring interest in assessment and
self-assessment in order to maximize performance
in every aspect of life. High-level self-growers...
are both motivated and able to use their life vision,
self-assessment skills, self-control in the face of
challenging situations, positive orientation toward
growth, and aptitude for servant leadership to
move to the next level.
In Becoming a Self-Grower, Leise offers the means for
developing into a self-grower. He focuses on the aspects of
life vision, self-assessment, control, and servant leadership,
adding that, "Individuals who focus on growth find it to be
the most compelling motive in their lives" (2007). While
the bulk of the focus is on helping learners become self-
growers, Hurd speaks directly to the importance of faculty
making the same commitment in Self-Growth Plans for
Faculty Members (2007):
If faculty members hope to model the behaviors
that they are expecting from their students, and
to mentor students to become self-growers, they
must themselves aspire to become better at their
own self-growth, and must consciously work at
such development in a disciplined fashion.
The most recent scholarship on self-growth, What Is
Self-Growth? (Jain, Apple, & Ellis, 2015) offers 10 key
components that enhance self-growth (see Figure 3).
Self-Growth in Curricula
While both Foundations of Learning (Redfield & Hurley
Lawrence, 2009) and Learning to Learn: Becoming a Self-
Grower (Apple, Morgan, & Hintze 2013) predate What Is
Self-Growth?, all 10 of the components of self-growth are
targeted by both books. This should not be surprising; the
very definition of Process Education calls for “the con-
tinuous development of learning skills through the use
of assessment principles in order to produce learner self-