Independent Learning and the Use of Resources: VCE Australian Studies

Abstract

Independent learning and the use of resources are important to most, if not all, Victorian Certificate of Education subjects. This paper reviews the literature on independent learning, preference for resources and the teaching of information skills and then reports on a study carried out during 1990 which focused on the VCE subject, Australian Studies. The study included an examination of attitudes of teachers to independent learning, the use of resources by students and teachers and the level of students' information skills. A significant finding was that many students were not competent in using resources and few teachers were trained in teaching information skills. Information skills teaching was ad hoc and only limited moves had been made to integrate it into the curriculum on a co-ordinated, whole-school basis.