Lisa Marie Blaschke (Senior Learning Consultant)

We live in a world where change is inevitable and swift, often unpredictable and even radical. Our students need to be able to adapt quickly and with agility to changing work environments. They need to be equipped with the necessary skills for lifelong learning, life skills such as critical and analytical thinking, communication and cooperation, self-organization and self-directedness, creativity, reflection, and digital literacy.

So, how can we help our students gain these life skills and prepare them for successfully navigating this rapidly changing world?

Heutagogy, or self-determined learning, is one potential framework that can be used when grappling with this question. The theory was first defined in 2000 by two Australians, Stewart Hase and Chris Kenyon, who argued for a holistic approach to developing learner capabilities and allowing the learner to be the primary agent of their learning (Hase & Kenyon, 2000). Based on principles of learner agency, self-efficacy, capability, metacognition and double-loop learning, non-linear learning, and learning to learn (Blaschke & Hase, 2015), the theory cultivates the kind of skills our students will need to equip themselves for a volatile, unpredictable, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world. It has been successfully utilized around the world and in a multitude of disciplines, including health and medicine, engineering, education, technology and media design, mathematics, business management, and the social sciences. The theory has also been applied in diverse learning environments — from primary and secondary education to vocational, higher, and professional education, as well as face-to-face, online, and blended learning.

This keynote will give you a brief introduction into Hase and Kenyon’s theory of heutagogy and to the pedagogy-andragogy-heutagogy (PAH) continuum, before diving into the wide range of developments and applications of the theory since its inception in 2000. Based in quantitative and qualitative research studies from the last decade, these developments include new frameworks and applications of the theory; realization of heutagogic design principles (explore, create, collaborate, connect, share, and reflect); further developments of the PAH continuum; new tools for measuring self-determined learning; and policy developments related to heutagogic learning. We’ll also explore how heutagogy fits into the current and future education landscape, as well as address the challenges that can arise when implementing a self-determined learning approach to teaching and learning. You can learn more about heutagogy by checking out the articles below. Looking forward to seeing you at the Heutagogy: Then and Now keynote session at Ascilite!

References:

Blaschke, L.M. (2012). Heutagogy and lifelong learning: A review of heutagogical practice and self-determined learning. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 13(1), 56-71.

Blaschke, L.M., & Hase, S. (2015). Heutagogy: A holistic framework for creating 21st century self-determined learners. In M.M. Kinshuk & B.Gros (Eds.), The future of ubiquitous learning: Learning designs for emerging pedagogies. Springer Verlag.

Hase, S., & Blaschke, L.M. (Eds.) (2021). Unleashing the power of learner agency. EdTech Books.

Hase, S., & Kenyon, C. (2000). From andragogy to heutagogy. Ulti-Base In-Site.

Moore, R. L. (2020). Developing lifelong learning with heutagogy: contexts, critiques, and challenges. Distance Education, 41(3), 381–401.