SELF: Self evaluating learning framework

SELF: Self-Evaluating Learning Framework

SELF is Jong Bhak's model of education.
The student is treated as a biological information processing intelligence/entity/object (BiO):
==> an active information-processing entity with its own intrinsic directionality,
==> not a passive vessel to be filled.

Teaching is not transmission.
It is the construction of a learning symvironment in which the student co-constructs their own knowledge.

This reframes the standard education model, which is Neo-Darwinian in Jong's opinion:
==> an external pressure (grades, exams, ranking) selects and shapes a passive student.
SELF rejects that.

Learning direction comes from inside the student.
The teacher does not push.
The teacher builds the field the student's directionality responds to.

The three roles

• The student is the BiO. Learning is self-directed and self-maintained.
• The teacher generates symvironment of principles, problems, and provocations that create directionality without dictating the path.
• Evaluation is meta-determination: the student defines and justifies their own criteria for success, rather than receiving them from outside.

The core point:
In conventional education the criteria are imposed. In SELF the student determines
what counts as learning and must defend that choice with evidence and logic.
That is the hardest and most important skill in the framework.

Components

1. Homework. The teacher sets goals, with varying detail. Nothing is required or submitted. Homework exists to trigger self-interest, not compliance. If a student ignores it, the symvironment failed to generate enough info-gravity, which is information for the teacher.
2. Questions. The class runs on challenge and response. The teacher attacks; the student defends and counter-attacks. Thinking, not answering, is the goal.
3. Presentations. Voluntary. Lecturing is forbidden. A presentation must be a case the student found, argued succinctly, and made the audience care about. (See the presentation rules.)
4. Quizzes and exams. Optional. Never used to grade or rank. An exam in SELF is just another form of question, a tool for engagement, not measurement.
5. Self-evaluation (Grading). The student assesses their own learning realistically, critically, and with evidence. Honest reasoning is mandatory. Self-flattery and self-deception both fail the standard.
6. Writing. Scientific writing is a discipline, not a talent. It must be cultivated deliberately. Clear writing is the externalized proof of clear thinking. [Use of AI programs for writing]
   1. Scientific paper submission: Write a proper scientific research paper during the semester (you submit and share publicly so that it can get feedback)
   2. Submit SELF scientific paper. SELF paper is also a scientific paper that is specifically on student's own learning during the semester. (Try not to put the paper title like "SELF evaluation". Put a proper scientific article title.

 

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Limits: Critical notes on SELF

1. The free-rider problem. SELF assumes every student's entelenomy is active.

It is not. A low-directionality student facing zero requirements disengages completely and self-evaluates dishonestly.
The framework's entire weight then falls on the teacher's ability to generate motivation environment.
If that fails, SELF collapses into "do nothing, claim an A." 
==> (SELF is a public, adversarial defense.)

1. Self-evaluation as self-delusion: It should be "Evidence-based self-assessment".

But humans are systematically bad at it (Dunning-Kruger is the obvious objection).
Without a calibration mechanism (peer challenge, public defense, teacher cross-examination),
self-evaluation becomes self-justification.
==> (The student's self-grade is not just accepted, it is attacked, and must survive.)

Students! Use your AI tool to evaluate your scientific paper assignment (such as writing a research paper on GeroSubstance) yourself.