Plenary Speaker 1
Promoting EFL Students’ Self-Directed Learning in the Hybrid Class:
Lessons Learned from the New Normal Teaching Practices
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Daniel Ginting
Universitas Ma Chung, INDONESIA
Abstract
The pandemic shows us how important it is to keep adapting to the always changing environment that requires learning. The pandemic has taught about the importance of becoming self-directed learners. Our students and we must keep learning throughout our lives. Self-directed learning is a lifelong learning strategy. To survive, we must be adaptive to understand and overcome those difficulties to survive. When students are able to take control of their own learning, they tend to be more motivated and engaged in the process. This is because they feel a sense of ownership over their learning and have a greater sense of purpose and meaning in their actions. Self-directed learning promotes student autonomy, which is the ability to make choices and decisions that affect one's own life. While self-directed learning has many benefits, it is not suitable for everyone, and it is not always the best approach. It works best when learners have a high level of self-awareness and can set clear and realistic goals for themselves. In fact, we do not always have and face ideal conditions in our classrooms. This learning approach does not work well with students with low motivation and specialized subject areas. This paper examines the behavior of self-directed learning in the report writing class in a classroom action research design. This study has found that building students’ self-directed learning behavior is not easy. It requires careful efforts to design a structured program, giving freedom to students to express their ideas while continuing to build students’ reflective performance. This study also found that students still had difficulty working together.