Recognition for lifetime achievement

April 24, 2007

Dr. Maurice Gibbons was recently honoured by the International Society for SDL as this year's recipient of the Malcolm Knowles Memorial Award for significant lifetime contributions to self-directed learning.

The award recognizes Maurice, an emeritus professor from the Faculty of Education at SFU, for his contributions to the understanding and promotion of SDL over the past two decades. The International Society for SDL's award honours Maurice for his work "to change the vision of our schools from a focus on preparing students who memorize and report back on tests, to developing students who take responsibility for and a more active role in their own learning experience".

Informed partly by his experience as an elementary and secondary school teacher, and then as a university professor, Maurice became "a specialist in the creation of innovative approaches to instruction, designing unique programs that emphasize self-direction, challenge and excellence.

Maurice reminisces that the Faculty of Education at SFU was so vibrant with new ideas and initiatives when he joined it in 1969 that it was a very stimulating and challenging working environment. "You had to have something going," he said, "and I got going on self-directed learning. After I published 'Walkabout' in the Kappan, I met Gary Phillips who was running a Walkabout program in Indiana. We wrote an article together and then he came to SFU to work with me, and we had two of the most productive years imaginable together."

Retiring from teaching hasn't slowed Maurice down at all. He recently made a keynote address at the 21st Annual International SDL Symposium and is providing consultation to SFU on its new cross-campus writing program.

To learn more about Maurice's work and self-directed learning, go to www.selfdirectedlearning.com