Self-directed learners – developing adaptive expertise

Empowering Health Professions Students: The Journey to Becoming Self-Directed Learners.

In the realm of health professions education, cultivating self-directed learners is paramount to preparing future healthcare professionals for the dynamic and complex healthcare landscape. The path to becoming a self-directed learner involves mastering adaptive practices that foster autonomy, critical thinking, and lifelong learning skills essential for success in the healthcare field.

Self-directed learners in health professions education exhibit a proactive approach to learning, taking ownership of their educational journey and setting goals aligned with their professional aspirations. By actively engaging in self-assessment and reflection, these students identify their learning needs, strengths, and areas for growth, enabling them to design personalized learning strategies and seek resources that cater to their individual preferences and learning styles. Mastering adaptive practices requires flexibility, innovation, continuous learning, creativity and curiosity. A self-directed learner will seek out challenges in the learning phase, thus truly demonstrating lifelong learning skills.

The challenge for educators is how to train learners to be self-directed. By simply asking learners to go through certain “topics” on their own, can we make them self-directed? What does self-directed learning actually mean? How can teachers develop these skills amongst learners? Join our workshop to know more.