STUDY OF STUDENTS’ SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING COMPETENCIES AT SINGAPORE POLYTECHNIC

A key goal of higher education is to prepare graduates to be self-directed lifelong learners imbued with the ability to continuously learn, unlearn and relearn to keep pace with the rapidly transforming industry needs.  Singapore Polytechnic has implemented Flipped learning in all its programmes. Studying a flipped learning module requires students to use self-directed learning strategies to review and comprehend the learning materials before class. As a preliminary check on the impact of implementing Flipped Learning on students’ learning, a dipstick survey to study students’ SDL competences was administered to all students at the end of the academic year in Feb 2023. The objective of the survey was to ascertain students’ self-directed competencies in terms of their self-efficacy for learning and their use of different learning strategies. Two components of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, the ‘Self-Efficacy for Learning & Performance’ (SE) and ‘Metacognitive Self-Regulation’ (MSR) scales were adopted for the survey. The findings from the survey showed that students perceived themselves as confident of learning concepts taught in their flipped learning modules and believed that they have the ability to do well. They adopted strategies like self-assessment and questioning that helped them monitor how well they understood the material. The paper will present the analysis of the quantitative data findings of the study and the learning and future work that emerged. The study aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the importance of SDL in higher education and provide valuable insights for educators and policymakers.