Tongues of fire wagging wild, They dance around me merrily (Don McLean)

Number three of Ann McMullan's 5 critical skills that students need.

3 Self-Direction. 

Ann (quite rightly from where I'm sitting) places the emphasis squarely on students to create "student-centered learning experiences, rather than relying solely on teacher-delivered content".

She points out employers increasingly want self-directed learners. That means those who have the skills necessary to set their own learning goals, institute plans to accomplish those goals, analyze and solve problems, own and manage their own learning and improvement, while always wanting to improve and learn more. 

This year my senior English classes were asked to do these things and many loved the change from teacher centred lessons.

But not all. Many of my students still want me to direct them at best and spoon feed them answers at worst.

I can see the concept of self directed inquiry learning improving over successive years as overtly inquiry based methods are embedded more and more.

At the moment then, I'd give my students a solid convincing pass grade (a B+, a merit, a 7/10) but I have a strong feeling that we'll get to A star, excellence, 10/10, in two to three years.