Self - Directed Learning – A Case Study

Dr. Radhika Kapur

Abstract
Self-directed learning has been an integral part of education, normally amongst the
adults, it is a concept in which learners are independent in their learning but they are permitted to
take help and assistance from their instructors, peers, colleagues and other fellow students. In
this case study manuscript, the researcher has taken into account all the relevant areas of self-
directed learning. What is self-directed learning, strengths and weaknesses of the learners,
perspectives on self-directed learning, skills for self-directed learning, self-directed learner’s
concept of self as learner and case study of self-directed learning are the areas that have been
underlined. Self-directed learning is a vital concept that is even brought into being in elementary
schools and secondary schools and this concept brings out the positive aspects amongst the
learners such as making them independent, conscientious, motivated and enthusiastic.

Keywords: Self-Directed Learning, Learners, Perspectives, Skills, Inventiveness,

Collaboration

Introduction

Self-directed learning (SDL) is the concept in which the students undertake the
responsibility of their own learning process; this also includes acquiring their own material and
monitoring their own progress. Self - directed learning came into existence through the education
of the adults and is into implementation in elementary and secondary schools. Self - directed
learning is a collaborative process between the teachers and the students. The teachers are
supposed to provide them the information and sources for learning and the students should never
develop this viewpoint that they are learning on their own, they must be interested and have the
inventiveness towards learning (Self - Directed Learning, 2009).

As it has been stated that self - directed learning involves that students should learn on
their own; it is the responsibility of the teachers to make the students aware of their function in
their own learning, encourage the students to show resourcefulness and creativeness in their
learning. Teachers have to develop an amiable and an approachable attitude towards the students,
provide them enough room for discussion and suggestions and students should not be made to
think that they are working independently and there is no support from the teachers.
Opportunities should always be available for amelioration and discussion in the learning process
(Self - Directed Learning, 2009).

What is Self-Directed Learning?

Self-directed learning has certain practices that signify its relevance: (VanBriesen, n.d.).

1. Individuals themselves develop the proposal, inventiveness and the conscientiousness for
learning.
2. Learning activities that are required to be implemented are chosen, managed, and
assessed by the individuals themselves. They themselves identify all the procedures and
processes.
3. In SDL, enthusiasm and preference are stated to be critical factors.
4. Individuals are independent in formulating their goals and objectives, and in determining
what is meaningful to learn.
5. In SDL, it is vital to take assistance from the instructors, peers or other personnel;
mentoring, guidance, counseling, recommendations and scaffolding are provided to the
learners by their instructors.
6. Collaboration and teamwork is provided to the individual learners by their peers.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Learners

Strengths of the Learners – Learners who are engaged into self-directed learning develop

certain positive traits amongst themselves such as self-confidence, self-discipline, they become
more focused, goal oriented, established, understanding, independent, motivated, persistent, and
interested towards their work (VanBriesen, n.d.).

Weaknesses of the Learners – The main weakness that is a part of self-directed learning

is that there is no exterior substantiation for the subject matter or appraisal since the individual is
in charge of and is responsible for all characteristics of learning from determining what should
be learned to the techniques and sources used to the assessment of the accomplishment of the
effort put in (VanBriesen, n.d.).

Perspectives on Self - Directed Learning

Different perspectives on self - directed learning have been presented by different

researchers. There have been some researchers who look upon SDL as a process of organizing
the instruction and the curriculum methods; others view it as a personal attribute, they are of the
viewpoint that the goal of education is to develop the ethical, emotional and intellectual self-
sufficiency of the individuals. Third perspective is the context, which is related to the
environment in which learning takes place (Song & Hill, 2007).

Personal Attributes – Personal attributes refers to learners motivation for and developing
the capability within themselves to take up responsibility of their own learning. Strategies that
are required for utilization of resources, cognitive strategies also come under personal attributes.
Intellectualism, understanding, motivation, dedication, enthusiasm are the personal attributes that
the learners bring to a specific learning context (Song & Hill, 2007).

Processes – Process refers to learner’s autonomous learning process. Learner’s autonomy

is principally based upon planning, monitoring and evaluating ones learning. When an individual
learner is working on a project which has been assigned to him by his teacher, the teacher has
instructed how to go about the project, now it is the planning, monitoring and evaluation of the
learner himself how to appropriately implement his project (Song & Hill, 2007).

Context – Context refers to the environmental factors and how these factors impact the
level of self - direction provided to the learner. There have been various factors such as design
elements and support elements. Design elements include the resources, structure and nature of
the tasks in the learning context. Support elements include the help, assistance, collaboration,
communication and feedback from the instructor; all kinds of support and design techniques
constitute the context (Song & Hill, 2007).

Skills for Self - Directed Learning

The following are the skills for self-directed learning: (Long, n.d.).
 Goal Setting Skills – Individuals should develop themselves the skills in order to
effectively determine what is important for them, alternatives available and what kinds of
procedures have to be followed to implement the desired outcome. What are their goals in the
learning process; they should possess the capability to determine the respective goals and
objectives. Individuals should learn how to make a difference between what is more important
and what is less important.

Information Processing Skills – A self directed learner is able to process information by

utilizing one of the following skills, first is observing, which is the ability to see, do and
understand; second is seeing and translating, that is ability to translate visual information into
notes and records or relating visual information to the existing information schemes; third is
reading, which is the ability to read, comprehend and understand the reading material and fourth
is listening, which is the ability to receive and process information and relate it to the existing
information schemes.

Cognitive Skills – Cognitive skills that are correlated with the self-directed learning
process include sensory, which includes identifying and classifying the sensory information;
working memory is crucial for processing of information before it gets incorporated into existing
long term memory; elaboration includes the ability to take an item from the working memory
and process it by imaging, construing, discriminating, generalizing etc. and cognitive skills
include problem solving and logical reasoning.

Content Competence – It is desirable but not necessary to have some minimal level of
aptitude or competence. Personal observations indicate that people skilled in certain areas are
more focused towards those and tend to avoid areas in which they are less competent. For
example, an individual who is skilled at basic arithmetic tends to be self-directing in all the other
areas as well such as algebra, geometry, etc. Or someone may learn another language on the
basis of the knowledge and information that they posses for the first language.

Decision Making Skills – Under this skill category, the individuals are required to posses
the thinking abilities; some state it as logical thinking, others as analytical thinking and others
interpret it as critical thinking. Self-directed learners must develop the ability to recognize,
prioritize, select, evaluate, understand, and validate information obtained through the processing
skills. Every self - directed learner wants to perform well in his tasks, hence he develops this
ability to adequately determine and evaluate the information as well as the reliability, validity
and significance of information.

Self-Awareness – The successful self-directed learner should have the ability to be aware
of the self. Self-awareness makes an individual aware of different areas such as identification of
ones own strengths and weaknesses, awareness of the learning processes, abilities to develop
concentration, focus and attentiveness, to identify the barriers and impediments in their pathways
of achieving their goals, to be aware of making use of different approaches, to know the
significance of learning, to know what are the areas in which they require assistance and they
should have the reasonable perception of their ability to achieve their learning goal.

Self-Directed Learner’s Concept of Self as Learner

This concept takes into account that self-directed learners who are above 50 years of age
employ congruous autonomy to exercise control over self-directed learning undertakings.
Learners who are involved into pursuing self-selected endeavors follow inner cues, employ
positive lifetime examples and practice an impelling drag of distinctiveness with and assurance
to their research and individual development. Researchers have examined learner’s concept of
self as learner; this would include trying to establish both generalized and subject-explicit
illustrations of their learning proficiency, the basis of such notions in their past; how they change
or strengthen their self-concept as a learner during the course of a learning attempt; the particular
points in learning experiences, both autodidactic and instructional where they felt either
especially obstructed and debilitated, or else especially experienced and accomplished; and the
prompts implanted in the learning situation that they believe restrain or release their prospective
for enforcing control over the learning situation (Scott, 2006).

Case Study: Self-Directed Learning

In order to bring out clarity of self-directed learning into the mindsets of the readers, the
researcher has highlighted the example of a Delhi University department of Adult Education and
Continuing Extension; the reason that the researcher is giving this example is that she herself is a
doctoral candidate in this department. This department has a Ph. D program, which is an
interdisciplinary program. In this program a supervisor is assigned to all the doctoral candidates,
the supervisor has a very limited role to play in the research dissertation, he at the initial stage
guides the candidates how to organize the chapter plans of the research dissertation and verbally
communicates to them about all the content and material that has to be part of the chapters.

The researcher has independently worked on her research dissertation “Pedagogy and
Organizational Culture in Nursery Schools in Delhi” which comprised of five chapters. Chapter
one is the introduction, chapter two is the literature review, chapter three is the methodology,
chapter four is data collection and analysis and chapter five is findings, recommendations and
conclusion. The researcher worked on her dissertation independently in most cases and consulted
the supervisor only when there was an essential requirement. Quantitative method of data
collection was adopted in the study which involved surveying of teachers from nursery schools
all over the Delhi region; hence in this case the researcher herself formulated the survey
questionnaire and got it approved by the supervisor, as it has been stated that in SDL, approval,
advise, guidance from the instructors as well as collaboration from the peers is recommended.

In the case of the doctoral research dissertation, 100% of the learning was self - directed
learning including taking assistance and advise from the supervisor, though honestly speaking,
the researcher did not get to communicate too much with other candidates as there were no
classes and no coursework organized for the doctoral program, the candidates visit the
department on different days and had various visiting timings and everybody had a different area
and procedure for conducting research. The researcher independently worked hard, read a lot of
other dissertations, surveyed educators from different schools, read a lot of other material related
to the topic, surfed the internet and all round research led to the successful completion of the
research dissertation. Finally, it can be stated that not only for the researcher but for all the
doctoral candidates working on a dissertation is entirely a self-directed learning. They consult
their supervisors, peers only when they get involved into some kind of difficulty or when they
feel that there is a requirement to get some approval. The candidates have to imbibe within
themselves the traits of positivism, enthusiasm, dedication, conscientiousness and motivation.

Discussion
 Self-directed learning is a concept in which the students take responsibility of their own
learning, they organize their materials, substances, matter and objects on their own, they are
involved into implementation of the project work by themselves and they even monitor their
progress on their own. In this learning process, the learners are required to lead, guide, in other
words show themselves the right direction. In the execution of projects or assignments, it is a
possibility that learners do encounter problems and difficulties, therefore, their instructors and
peers are available to provide them assistance and guidance in case of any kind of difficulty.
There have been certain skills for self-directed learning such as goal setting skills, information
processing skills, cognitive skills, content competence, decision making skills and self
awareness. There have been three main perspectives on self-directed learning such as personal
attributes, processes and context.

In the context of self-directed learning, there have been identification of certain strengths
and weaknesses of the learners; the strengths are that the learners become diligent, motivated,
develop self-confidence, self-discipline, focused, wholehearted and passionate. On the other
hand, the weaknesses are that individual is solely responsible for the entire effort that he is
rendering towards fulfilling of the task; there is no performance appraisal and no authentication
of the subject matter. The individual is self-directed but he is unable to determine whether he is
proceeding in the right direction or he is developing imperfections and inconsistencies in his
performance. The concept of self-directed learning has been made more lucid by stating the
example of a case study of the department of adult education and continuing extension,
University of Delhi; in this department, the doctoral program is a self-directed program in which
the candidates are required to work on their dissertation on an independent basis and seek
minimal support from the instructor as well as minimal collaboration with the peers. Finally, it
can be stated that in most cases self-directed learning proves to be a constructive aspect and
initiates all the positive features amongst the learner, but it has certain flaws as well but in all
educational institutions, worldwide this kind of learning is highly recommended.
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Song, L., & Hill, J.R. (2007). A Conceptual Model for Understanding Self- Directed

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VanBriessen, J.M. (n.d.). Self- Directed Learning. Retrieved April 28, 2015 from

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