Using evidence from the literature; critically discuss why self-directed learning is important for undergraduate students Self-directed learning (SDL) is defined as any form of studying whereby individuals take the primary responsibility and initiative to plan, implement and evaluate their own work. However, SDL does not necessarily mean that all learning takes place in isolation from others; it can consist of participation in study groups, internships, and self-guided reading. This essay will give an overview of why self-directed learning is important, in particular for the success of undergraduate students by helping them become more independent learners. SDL has existed from classical antiquity (400 BC) and has therefore been an important aspect of the lives of Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. However, it was not until around 150 years ago that scholarly efforts took place in order to understand SDL. One of the first documented efforts concerning SDL was by Craik (1840) who celebrated self-education efforts of several people. In addition, the book Self-Help was published by Smiles (1859) applauding the value of personal development. Nevertheless, it did not become a major research area until the last three decades. Observations by Houle (1961) (University of Chicago, Illinois) introduced the concept of SDL; whereby he interviewed 22 adult learners and categorised them into three groups based upon the reasoning for participation in learning
The film Higher Learning is a call to action. It is a film that shows people as products of their environment. The film is set on a college campus, a place where most people learn about what they will do in their adult life to try to better the world or simply educate themselves in order to live a better life. However, life on the Columbus campus is not good; it is a battlefield between the races and sexes. I feel it is a bit exaggerated, but it allows people to see some of the issues that go on, on a college campus. The film focuses on three freshman (Malik, Kristen, & Remy) entering college. They enter a less than ideal new world that is filled with tension, anxiety and fear. Although the writer uses stereotypical characters, it
I recently read in the book ‘Skills for Success’ by Stella Cottrell, that you need to take responsibility for your own learning and recognise your own learning preferences. This is a valuable thing to pick up on as being able to recognise how you learn best can help you complete a task to your best ability, and taking responsibility for you own learning rather than replying on others shows what a resourceful worker you can be. After reading this I realised the best
M1: Assess the impact of key influences on the personal learning process on own learning -
From an early age I found learning hard and in my early educational years I
Because teaching is one of the best ways to learn, Honors College takes learning to the next level. Self-directed learning is essentially being able to teach yourself. Teaching yourself means being willing to go above and beyond to learn thoroughly, sometimes by using outside sources. The book The Art of Racing in the Rain, authored by Garth Stein, altered my view on the humanities.
Huntington, N.Y.: R. E. Krieger Pub. Knowles, M. (1975). Self-directed learning: A guide for learners and teachers. Chicago, IL: Follett Publishing
As educators, we are instructing our students not only in matters of scholarship, but in matters of self. Expression through confidence of autonomy, self-efficacy, and intrinsic motivation are integral to the development of any individual.
I think self-reflection, or a careful cogitation of one’s personal work, is very important. It will help me think about my strengths and weaknesses in my writing skills and learning process, so that I can improve my weaknesses in the future and become a better writer. I believe, I have many strengths and many weaknesses that can be seen transparently through my drafts, revisions, and final essays, or writings, this semester. My overall strength includes the ability to pick out good examples from articles and the ability to construct good development of my body paragraphs after my revisions. On the other hand, my overall weakness includes having some unclear explanation of thoughts, unclear topic sentences, confusing thesis statements, having undefined terms, difficulties transitioning from one idea to another. I have learned that to have a good essay, I must revise my papers more than once because there are always flaws that can be fixed or improved. My writing process has evolved from having difficulties writing down or explaining my thought process to being able to explain and clarify examples to help support my thesis statement.
In this vector, students must learn how to function independently and take full responsibility for themselves. Students must grow their instrumental independent for example, self-direction, problem-solving ability, and mobility. In the final step of this vector, students start to recognize and accept the importance of interdependence and the awareness of being accepted by others.
Students waste plenty amount of time attempting to learn a topic if they are not provided with guidance about what is truly important about the topic. Students come into the self-study with misconceptions; they will play the new information to fit into their current mental model, causing negative training. They will also sometimes misinterpret new concepts as meaning something other than the right meaning. Moreover, the students may not understand the topic well enough to decide what is necessary and what is good to know. Self-study has many issues because without guidance; maybe students could not make the best way to learn. The instructor part in education is very important which cannot be ignored. The instructor will introduce the topic, setting a good foundation for which information that might be confusing, and clearly establishing what is important and what is not. For example, when I was in high school I had a question while I was studying for my exam. The school canceled when the weather changed and became dusty. Therefore, I had to try to figure out the answer by myself, but I missed it up. This was because the question that I did not understand was very tricky and
The self-directed learning theory is when adults make their own decisions about learning. They have full control over their learning and how it will define their future. Self-directed learning lets adults have their independence in the learning process. For example, students are to do a project on any subject as long as it deals with business. This lets the adults decide what topic they want to do, how they want to put the project together, and allows
As we discussed in class, motivation plays an intrinsic role in creating successful self-directed learning. Those who practice this form of learning, in various ways, are driven by personal or external incentives, such as the desire to learn something, or simply for curiosity 's sake, self-esteem and self-efficiency. Because of this self-directed learners are known to take initiative, view issues as challenges to overcome, become confident, have a desire to evolve, and appreciate and seek out learning opportunities (Taylor, 1995).
Education has long been the center of reform with new ideas about learning and teaching. Educators are regularly introduced to new teaching strategies, curricula and rigorous standards in an effort to provide effective instruction to students. However, the pursuit of proficiency in mathematics and reading through the use of research-based methods requires an understanding of the learning models and theories that both drive instruction and learning in the classroom. In this paper I will address the evolution of ideas about learning and teaching in education as well as address the shifts in learning in the 21st century.
We are able to begin to develop abilities in self-directed-studying during our first-year in the college, to be an effective student. We will be spending a considerable time getting information and learning the continuous creation of new information, new skills due to the fast pace of change in culture and technology, and an access to info. Much with this learning will happen at our own initiative. We as a person will have the main responsibility for implementing, planning, and even appraising our learning effort. This what we should understand as self-directed learning.
The development of self starts at a very young age. When a preschooler is asked how are they different from other children, they usually look at their self concept. Self concept is their identity, of their set of beliefs about what they are like as individuals. Most preschoolers give inaccurate statements about their self concept. They usually overestimate their skills and knowledge. Preschool-age children also begin to develop a view of self that reflects their particular culture considers the self. An example of this would be to look at the different views as self between the Western culture and the Asian culture. Western cultures believe that an individual should seek attention of others by standing out