The purpose of this study was to examine the reflective essays of first-year, first-generation college students for evidence of self-directed learning at the conclusion of their first semester at the university. A phenomenological qualitative method was employed and a content analysis rating rubric used to identify and code evidence related to four themes: Self Awareness, Decoding and Pattern Fit, Autonomy/Responsibility, and Academic Success. The study findings indicated that first-year, first-generation college students have the capacity to take ownership of their learning in ways exemplified by self-directed learners. Participants demonstrated deep reflection and metacognition and their essays revealed unexpected student vulnerability as they voiced fears and hopes with a nearly innocent transparency and candor. Study findings also emphasized the importance of a support system that includes coursework designed to facilitate understanding of individual learner characteristics, emphasize strategies to maximize learner efforts that lead to successful outcomes, and empower students to become more self-directed. This study also expands the field of adult education by providing evidence that learner control is a key component of self-direction and is positively correlated to academic success. Ample evidence related to metacognition, self-regulation, and learner control was identified in the essay data.

Esta investigación doctoral tiene como objetivo principal plantear un conjunto de estrategias de formación en TICs para dos grupos de profesores pertenecientes al Departamento de Ingenierías Electrónica, Eléctrica, Telecomunicaciones y Sistemas de la Universidad de Pamplona en Colombia y al Departamento de Electrónica, Eléctrica, Automática e Ingeniería Informática de la Universidad Rovira i Virgili de Tarragona en España, a partir de la aplicación del sistema de aprendizaje Let Me Learn®.Los objetivos específicos planteados son: elaborar o adaptar y aplicar instrumentos metodológicos para conocer la utilización e importancia que los profesores y estudiantes involucrados en los dos casos de estudio dan a las TICs; aplicar el inventario de conexiones de aprendizaje suministrado por el sistema de aprendizaje Let Me Learn® a los profesores y estudiantes de nuestros estudios de caso; elaborar un análisis de los resultados obtenidos a partir de la aplicación de los instrumentos sobre utilización e importancia de TICs y patrones de aprendizaje Let Me Learn® en profesores y estudiantes de los dos estudios de caso; realizar una aproximación comparativa entre los dos estudios de caso, colombiano y español, de los resultados obtenidos en la aplicación de los instrumentos metodológicos; construir el conjunto de estrategias de formación en TICs para los profesores de los estudios de caso, basadas en el sistema de aprendizaje Let Me Learn®.Este sistema consta, de manera general, de una teoría, el Modelo Interactivo de Aprendizaje y un instrumento validado desde 1998 y utilizado en aproximadamente 40.000 personas, llamado LCI (Learning Connections Inventory). Esta metodología presenta ventajas para el conocimiento de los procesos de aprendizaje adoptados por los individuos y se plantea como una herramienta para descubrir las razones que llevan a los docentes a utilizar o no los recursos tecnológicos en su labor profesional. La autora de esta investigación es profesora de la Facultad de Ingenierías y Arquitectura de la Universidad de Pamplona. La recolección de información se hace a través de dos cuestionarios para conocer la utilización e importancia que los profesores y estudiantes involucrados en los dos estudios de caso dan a las TICs y de un inventario para conocer la combinación de patrones de aprendizaje Let Me Learn®. Se analizan los resultados obtenidos y se hace una aproximación comparativa de los dos estudios de caso. Finalmente, se plantea un plan de formación en TICs partiendo del sistema Let Me Learn® y se presentan las conclusiones y el futuro de la investigación. La metodología utilizada es de naturaleza mixta, cuantitativa en el sentido que se describen los usos que los profesores hacen de las TICs y los patrones de aprendizaje y cualitativa a través del análisis de los estudios de caso (Colombia y España) y la generaciónde soluciones a través de un conjunto de estrategias de formación. / The main goal of this research is to propose a set of ICT formation strategies for two groups of teachers who belong to the Electronics, Electrics,Telecommunications and Systems Engineering Department of University of Pamplona in Colombia and to the Electronics, Automatic and Informatics Engineering Department of Rovira and Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain.These strategies are based on the application of the Let Me Learn® learning system.The specific objectives are: To create or adapt and to apply methodological instruments to know the use and importance that our case studies teachers and students give to the ICTs; To apply the Learning Connections Inventory from Let Me Learn® to teachers and students of the case studies; To analyse the results obtained from the application of the instruments about the use and importance of the ICTs and about the Let Me Learn® learning patterns for teachers and students of the case studies; To carry out a comparative approach between the two case studies about the results obtained from the application of the methodological instruments; To produce a set of ICTs formation strategies for the teachers in our case studies based on Let Me Learn® learning system.Generally speaking, this system has a theory, the interactive learning model and a validated instrument called the LCI (Learning Connections Inventory).This instrument has been validated and used with more than 40.000 people since 1998. This system presents several advantages for the knowledge of the learning processes adopted by individuals and it is used as a tool to discover the reasons teachers have to use or not the technological resources in their professional activity. The author of this research is by herself a teacher in the Engineering Faculty at University of Pamplona in Colombia. The data collection is made through two questionnaires to know the use and importance that teachers and students of the case studies give to ICTs and an inventory to know their Let Me Learn® learning patterns combination. Finally, a ICTs formation plan, based on Let Me Learn®, is presented as well as some conclusions and the future of this research. The methodology used has a mixed nature: quantitative in the sense of the description of ICTs used by teachers and the learning patterns and qualitative through the case study analysis (Colombia and Spain) and the proposal of formation strategies.

This research set out to explore how a group of nine educators from a Catholic Church school in Malta, who have attended the Let Me Learn professional Learning process (LMLpLp), experienced personal and professional transformation. This study investigates those factors influencing participants in their transformative learning journey. It also explores the dynamics of transformative learning and whether individual transformation affects the school’s transformative learning experience. More specifically this study set out to explore how teachers who participated in the Let Me Learn professional Learning process have experienced transformative learning. This study takes a qualitative phenomenological approach. It seeks to identify phenomena of personal and professional transformative learning through the perceptions of the educators participating in this study. Through the use of the semi-structured interview it seeks to gather ‘deep’ data. This data represents the voices of these educators in narrative, thus emphasising the importance of the personal perspective and interpretation. This allowed this research to understand the subjective experience, motivation and actions of the participants. The Literature review informs the questions asked during the interview. The interview was used as a tool for gathering information regarding values, attitudes and beliefs of participants. Each interview was transcribed, translated (when response was given in Maltese) and categorised according to Mezirow’s ten stages. Excerpts from each stage were further processed to generate themes. The themes were later streamlined and an acceptable interpretive framework was created. Each interview excerpt was then analysed through the framework. Once all interviews were coded, detailed narratives were written. These narratives are meant to help the reader reflect on the process of transformative learning. It underscores those factors highlighted by the participants, which helped bring about both personal and professional transformative learning. This research has identified that individual constructs are strongly determined by an individual’s personal learning characteristics. Awareness of these personal learning characteristics (self-knowledge) helped educators assess their practice and understand how their personal characteristics were determining their approach to teaching and affecting their interpersonal relationships with students and colleagues. This research showed that transformative learning is a mutually interdependent experience. Individual transformation amounts to, and is influenced by, the collective transformation. This study highlighted the role of the school community in the pursuit of personal transformation. Yet another important finding of this research is the importance of a shared language of possibility. Through a shared language, a learning community can create a dialogic environment through which intentions, beliefs and interventions can be shared among the professional community. This research accentuates the importance of a shared language as a means of articulating a change in perspective. The study identified three main agents of change. The Let Me Learn team, as promoters and experts of this particular learning process; the teachers, who internalised the process and applied it to their practice; and the school’s senior management team, who internalised the Process, positioned it into the larger vision of the school and created a conducive environment through which the whole school community was empowered to take responsibility to bring about change in practice. A number of implications emerge from this study that could inform policy on teacher professional learning. A major implication concerns the importance of a shared language – a language that reflects the shared values and ideological position of the community. Such language frames the learning process, makes learning visible for teachers to be able to respond effectively with strategies that respect each learner’s learning preference and makes learning visible to the learner himself. Another implication from this study arises from the finding that the transformative learning process of any individual educator and effectively of the whole school community, goes beyond the effectiveness and limitations of any one professional development programme. True and deep-seated transformative learning comes from within the individual educator. This statement has serious repercussions on any professional development programme that aims to aid participants in their quest to transform their practice. This study also emphasised the importance that any professional development needs to be seated in the local experience and needs of the school community. Any attempts at developing comprehensive, nation-wide projects with pre-packaged approaches, are doomed to fail. What this research has shown is that for effective professional development, the identified outcomes need to correspond to the local needs of the school, rather than the national guidelines, detached from the realities of the particular school. Finally, this study accentuated the importance of incorporating mentoring support in any professional development proposal. Delivery of information and skills without follow-up tend to lead to superficial application. Transformative learning presupposes a period of shared reflection on practice and collegial mediation of ideas through contact between teachers and their leaders and on-the-job support from their professional development mentors.

This research set out to explore how a group of nine educators from a Catholic Church school in Malta, who have attended the Let Me Learn professional Learning process (LMLpLp), experienced personal and professional transformation. This study investigates those factors influencing participants in their transformative learning journey. It also explores the dynamics of transformative learning and whether individual transformation affects the school’s transformative learning experience. More specifically this study set out to explore how teachers who participated in the Let Me Learn professional Learning process have experienced transformative learning. This study takes a qualitative phenomenological approach. It seeks to identify phenomena of personal and professional transformative learning through the perceptions of the educators participating in this study. Through the use of the semi-structured interview it seeks to gather ‘deep’ data. This data represents the voices of these educators in narrative, thus emphasising the importance of the personal perspective and interpretation. This allowed this research to understand the subjective experience, motivation and actions of the participants. The Literature review informs the questions asked during the interview. The interview was used as a tool for gathering information regarding values, attitudes and beliefs of participants. Each interview was transcribed, translated (when response was given in Maltese) and categorised according to Mezirow’s ten stages. Excerpts from each stage were further processed to generate themes. The themes were later streamlined and an acceptable interpretive framework was created. Each interview excerpt was then analysed through the framework. Once all interviews were coded, detailed narratives were written. These narratives are meant to help the reader reflect on the process of transformative learning. It underscores those factors highlighted by the participants, which helped bring about both personal and professional transformative learning. This research has identified that individual constructs are strongly determined by an individual’s personal learning characteristics. Awareness of these personal learning characteristics (self-knowledge) helped educators assess their practice and understand how their personal characteristics were determining their approach to teaching and affecting their interpersonal relationships with students and colleagues. This research showed that transformative learning is a mutually interdependent experience. Individual transformation amounts to, and is influenced by, the collective transformation. This study highlighted the role of the school community in the pursuit of personal transformation. Yet another important finding of this research is the importance of a shared language of possibility. Through a shared language, a learning community can create a dialogic environment through which intentions, beliefs and interventions can be shared among the professional community. This research accentuates the importance of a shared language as a means of articulating a change in perspective. The study identified three main agents of change. The Let Me Learn team, as promoters and experts of this particular learning process; the teachers, who internalised the process and applied it to their practice; and the school’s senior management team, who internalised the Process, positioned it into the larger vision of the school and created a conducive environment through which the whole school community was empowered to take responsibility to bring about change in practice. A number of implications emerge from this study that could inform policy on teacher professional learning. A major implication concerns the importance of a shared language – a language that reflects the shared values and ideological position of the community. Such language frames the learning process, makes learning visible for teachers to be able to respond effectively with strategies that respect each learner’s learning preference and makes learning visible to the learner himself. Another implication from this study arises from the finding that the transformative learning process of any individual educator and effectively of the whole school community, goes beyond the effectiveness and limitations of any one professional development programme. True and deep-seated transformative learning comes from within the individual educator. This statement has serious repercussions on any professional development programme that aims to aid participants in their quest to transform their practice. This study also emphasised the importance that any professional development needs to be seated in the local experience and needs of the school community. Any attempts at developing comprehensive, nation-wide projects with pre-packaged approaches, are doomed to fail. What this research has shown is that for effective professional development, the identified outcomes need to correspond to the local needs of the school, rather than the national guidelines, detached from the realities of the particular school. Finally, this study accentuated the importance of incorporating mentoring support in any professional development proposal. Delivery of information and skills without follow-up tend to lead to superficial application. Transformative learning presupposes a period of shared reflection on practice and collegial mediation of ideas through contact between teachers and their leaders and on-the-job support from their professional development mentors.

As educational professionals strive to help students become efficient and effective learners, they must assist in the development of student learning strategies and a greater understanding of the learning process. The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the learning pattern preferences of middle and high school students in general education and special education settings. The results of this study were intended to help guide teachers and other education professionals to make informed decisions about differentiating instruction in a way to reach more, if not all, students in their classroom. The results could furthermore assist educators in fostering greater self-knowledge and self-advocacy in students, which then can assist them to become active participants of their own learning experiences. Archival data was examined using scores of middle and high school students on the Learning Connections Inventory (LCI), the survey associated with the Let Me Learn Process®. 251 students LCI scores were studied on the basis of grade level and special education classification.<br>Research questions utilized one-way MANOVA's in order to determine preference for particular individual patterns on the LCI. The first set of research questions compared students in special education and students in general education. The second set of questions compared students in special education broken down by classification, specifically, Other Health Impairment and Specific Learning Disability. Analyses revealed preference for certain LCI patterns between the groups examined. This study was intended to be a starting point for the analysis of the learning patterns of special education students. Once pattern preferences and the interactions between preferences are identified, and the utility of the Let Me Learn Process® is examined, a greater understanding of learning will occur in combination with the development of self-advocacy skills in the classroom. Overall, the Let Me Learn Process® has been shown to have promise in utilizing cognition, conation and affectation approaches in order to assist in developing effective learning strategies. As each of these elements is taken into consideration, this process can allow learners to become active participants in their own learning process. / School of Education; / School Psychology / PhD; / Dissertation;