SELF DIRECTED LEARNING

The large number of young people in Europe who lack formal qualifications constitutes a considerable concern in terms of individual, social and economic consequences. The influx of young migrants into Europe is making this issue even more significant. To avoid social exclusion and youth unemployment, and to ensure economic progress, the European Union (EU) and national governments are providing a variety of educational opportunities for these young people. As traditional approaches have not proved particularly successful, an alternative approach has been developed that seems to overcome previous limitations. This approach is characterized by a focus on learners’ agency and identity, and offers young at-risk learners a different, more intrinsically motivating learning experience. The approach was implemented in 12 pilots in six different European countries, including several with migrant youth from different regions of the world. The main result presented here is a comprehensive desi...

As with the growing degree of office automation and diffuse use of electronic media, such as e-mails, written business communication is becoming a key element to promote synergies, relationships and disseminating information about products and services. Task recognition and the definition of strategies and suitable vocabularies are some of the activities that office workers deal with each time a communicative intent has to be effectively transferred and understood by a given addressee. This paper introduces a web-based intelligent training system based on the constructivism theory and self-directed learning paradigms for assisting company workers in the drafting business letters-writing task. A case-based engine suggests ad hoc rhetorical letters that users have the chance to adapt to their particular contexts and save them into user-defined case libraries.

The Personal Leadership Conundrum leadership development project is a semester-long, personal leadership inquiry that provides students with a self-directed learning opportunity. The guiding framework for this leadership inquiry is a personal leadership conundrum developed by ...

The development of a conceptual model that provides a theoretical framework for understanding the conative factors of desire, resourcefulness, initiative, and persistence in autonomous learning consi- dered the related variables of gender, education level, age, and marital status. The relevance of these demographic variables is based on prior research in the area of self-directed learning that suggested additional consideration in

The standard of education can be improved if educators actively assess themselves or have someone else evaluate their teaching skills. Reflection on multiple aspects of teaching can be used as a powerful tool for worldwide educationists. Teaching, particularly in nursing discipline, strives to move beyond the simple divulgence of facts and knowledge. It widens student's horizons, stimulates their intellects, and

This book on self-directed learning (SDL) is devoted to original academic scholarship within the field of education, and is the 6th volume in the North-West University (NWU) SDL book series. In this book the authors explore how self-directed learning can be considered an imperative for education in a complex modern society.
Although each chapter represents independent research in the field of self-directed learning, the chapters form a coherent contribution concerning the scholarship of self-directed learning, and specifically the effect of environmental and praxis contexts on the enhancement of self-directed learning in a complex society. The publication as a whole provides diverse perspectives on the importance of self-directed learning in varied contexts. Scholars working in a wide range of fields are drawn together in this scholarly work to present a comprehensive dialogue regarding self-directed learning and how this concept functions in a complex and dynamic higher education context.
This book presents a combination of theory and practice, which reflects selected conceptual dimensions of self-directed learning in society, as well as research-based findings pertaining to current topical issues relating to implementing self-directed learning in the modern world. The varied methodologies provide the reader with different and balanced perspectives, as well as varied and innovative ideas on how to conduct research in the field of self-directed learning.

"Life Long Learning and Web 2.0 Microlearning and Self Directed Learning Chryssa Sofianopoulou, Despina Kamilali Harokopio University csofian@hua.gr ; deskamilali@gmail.com Topic: Experiences in Education Lifelong Learning Introduction: Web 2.0 encourages teaching and learning processes, based on personalization, collaboration and having learners take responsibility for learning. Focusing on these aspects, this paper examines the possibility of combining the theories of Microlearning and Self Directed Learning (SDL), for a new educational approach. Microlearning: Microlearning is an emerging theory of learning that utilizes web content, with activities of short duration. It offers a new way of designing and organizing learning, like learning in small steps and small units of content, with structure and classification created by the learner. SDL: SDL is a process in which individuals take the initiative, with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human and material resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes. SDL can be implemented in an educational context by the application of Garrison’s model, which has three dimensions: self-management, self-monitoring and motivation. Microlearning and Self-management: Microlearning uses the endless educational resources of the Internet in enhancing self-management, which depends on available educational resources. Self-management, however, sets rules and standards of education (what and how it should be learned). Microlearning and Self-monitoring: In Microlearning, learners are producers and consumers of content, building their own mental structures through exploration and social interaction. Through these activities, the learner can be responsible for the creation of personal meaning, and accept the assessment of the quality of learning outcomes in an educational context, as provided by self-monitoring. Microlearning and Motivation: To be strongly motivated, learners need to understand how learning goals will satisfy their needs and will be achievable. Microlearning does not require learners to spend a great deal of their time, is flexible and can be integrated into the daily lives of working adults. Conclusion: Taking one by one the three dimensions of Garrison’s model, this paper examines if Microlearning theory and SDL, can complement each other. As it is shown, it seems that their combined application is possible. The benefits of this new educational approach might be the development of new methods to exploit the endless web resources, while promoting self-direction in learning, in an educational context. Keywords: Microlearning, Self Directed Learning, Garrison’s model, Web 2.0. "

Vor dem Hintergrund von Social Media und Mobile Learning haben sich die Herausforderungen bei der Gestaltung von physischen und virtuellen Lernräumen verstärkt. Die Entwicklungsdynamik sozialer, kultureller und technologischer Strukturen wirkt sich auf Methoden, Lernwege und -strategien der Lernenden aus und führt zugleich dazu, dass pädagogische Interventionen kontinuierlich angepasst werden müssen. Die Beiträge des Sammelbandes diskutieren das Thema „Lernräume“ aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven. Im Fokus stehen beispielsweise die Heterogenität der Lernenden und ihre persönlichen Lernumgebungen, die Gestaltung von Lernräumen durch Lehrpersonen, unkonventionelle Lernräume wie Konferenzen oder Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) und verschiedene Sichtweisen auf diverse Lernplattformen. Der Tagungsband bietet eine umfassende Zusammenschau und vielfältige Zugangsweisen zum aktuellen Diskurs über die Gestaltung und den Wandel von Lernräumen in der Bandbreite architektonischer Gestaltun...

Learning essentially relies on the style of technique used in a context. Today's learners mostly prefer to process on their own thanks to the development on the technology and rising trend of accessible sources all around the world and it paves the way for more effective self-education which can be more practical in the age we live in. It is primarily the aim of this paper to examine the dimensions of self-studying and how it can support students' modern needs and its effectiveness considered the pros it may consists, especially in higher education. Additionally, it also presents some suggestions about how we facilitate the self-study in learning

The changing educational context and dynamic needs around increasing online learning at all education levels highlight the importance of self-directed learning. In this regard, self-directed learning, which involves both a process and student characteristic, relates to the students taking charge of their learning in terms of setting aims, choosing material or human resources, choosing appropriate learning strategies and evaluating their learning. This chapter involves a systematic literature review that explores research on self-directed learning at school and higher education within the African context. This concept, despite the origins of the scholarship of self-directed learning being from the Global North and the West, is more expansive and, this chapter specifically aims to give an overview of the current discourses around self-directed learning in Africa. This chapter critically examined key literature regarding self-directed learning in this milieu and inductively identified general trends. Despite self-directed learning's focus on the individual, it seems to be a very appropriate learning process towards communal learning utilising cooperative learning strategies that support self-directed learning. Finally, the chapter provides a synthesis of the main trends around self-directed learning in Africa while identifying certain areas for future research.

Self-directed learning and other prevalent learning styles are important aspects of nursing education because they help nurse educators to predict differences in learners' needs, abilities, and interests. Moreover, nurse educators depend on these predictors when they choose the most suitable teaching strategies, which enable them to manage adult learners effectively. This study's objective is to explore the relationship between learning styles and the willingness to adopt self-directed learning among nursing students in King Saud University (KSU). Using a cross-sectional descriptive correlational design, the study was conducted with 230 undergraduate nursing students (female and male) from the third to eighth academic levels at the College of Nursing at KSU, Saudi Arabia. Kolb's learning styles inventory and the self-directed learning readiness scale were adopted to determine the effects of the self-directed learning approach. The study's findings suggested that the majority of nursing students had a " Diverging " style of learning. The " self-control " subscale was used to determine the willingness for self-directed learning. It recorded the highest mean score compared to the subscales of " self-management " and " desire for learning. " However, no statistically significant association was found between learning styles and self-directed learning readiness. Additionally, the findings showed that the majority of the students who participated in this study had little interest in the self-directed learning approach. Thus, this study recommends that the nursing faculty needs to assess students for their preferred learning style and readiness for self-directed learning before and throughout the students' enrollment in the college. Further, the nursing faculty should apply a variety of teaching methods to manage students' learning needs effectively.

A need exists to facilitate social as well as communal constructivism while fostering self-directed learning in language classrooms at university level. In this regard, videos can be used as a means to motivate students to critically interact with content and to engage collaboratively with new technologies. Furthermore, it is important to consider the duration of videos and as such, short instructional videos were employed for this study. This research reports on how student teachers perceived the creation and use of short instructional videos as multimodal open educational resources in an Afrikaans language classroom at university level. Short instructional videos (as a form of microlearning) boast many advantages that correspond with literature and the perceptions of students. In this article, a qualitative research approach was followed, which involved reflections by the participants submitted by means of a questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions. From this analysis, the following themes were identified: Challenges encountered by students, advantages of using short instructional videos, aspects enjoyed about creating the short instructional videos, and affordances of creating short instructional videos. From the analysis, it was clear that students are positive about the production and use of videos. It was also evident that variables, such as social interaction , knowledge of multimodalities, technical ability, device limitations and the topic of videos, all influence the nature of short videos in this context and that support in classes is necessary in this regard.

This chapter provides a framework – based on the theoretical background of self-directed multimodal demiurgic learning – that supports students to be able to act as content creators within higher education. This critical literature review shows how self-directed learning and multimodality provide affordances towards extending formal and epistemological access in order for students to take charge of their own learning and play a prominent role in generating new content. This chapter makes recommendations through a wider framework and description of a learning cycle towards enabling demiurgic access through self-directed multimodal learning within a South African university context.

Trends in research on teacher development in recent years have shown a shift away from merely studying what teachers learn to how they learn, how they improve their learning, and how they transform their skills and knowledge into practice so as to offer their own learners an improved educational experience. Although blended learning has been proposed as a means to enhance student learning and engagement, little research has been done on blended learning teacher development programmes, especially in the context of teachers of German Second Additional Language (SAL) in South Africa. This article aims to shift the focus from general setting in higher education institutions to teacher professional development programmes for teachers of German SAL by proposing blended learning as a mediator to foster selfdirected learning in teacher professional development programmes. After examining existing definitions and models on blended learning, a synthesis of models, which could be adjusted to the South African teaching context, is proposed. The new model offers certain opportunities to foster the characteristics of self-directed learners, which are highlighted in this article. Suggestions are made on how this model could be utilised in and adapted to the context of teacher professional development for teachers of German SAL in order to foster the characteristics of self-directed learning rather than merely imparting subject knowledge to teachers.

This conceptual article explores self-directed localized open educational practices for a decolonized South African higher education curriculum. From the historical context, language demography and especially due to student protests regarding the curriculum the need for a decolonized South African curriculum is evident. In this article, an overview is presented about the context-specific issues in relation to decolonization and language. It is proposed that in order to move towards a decolonized South African curriculum, there should be a self-directed learning approach to open educational practices which would involve carefully planned and supported localization efforts. This process also implies acknowledging both internal and external localization as done in a structured or even student-driven manner. Furthermore, localization means drawing on translations study theories pertaining to specifically dynamic equivalence. This approach would require increasingly accommodating languag...

Vor dem Hintergrund von Social Media und Mobile Learning haben sich die Herausforderungen bei der Gestaltung von physischen und virtuellen Lernraumen verstarkt. Die Entwicklungsdynamik sozialer, kultureller und technologischer Strukturen wirkt sich auf Methoden, Lernwege und -strategien der Lernenden aus und fuhrt zugleich dazu, dass padagogische Interventionen kontinuierlich angepasst werden mussen. Die Beitrage des Sammelbandes diskutieren das Thema „Lernraume“ aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven. Im Fokus stehen beispielsweise die Heterogenitat der Lernenden und ihre personlichen Lernumgebungen, die Gestaltung von Lernraumen durch Lehrpersonen, unkonventionelle Lernraume wie Konferenzen oder Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) und verschiedene Sichtweisen auf diverse Lernplattformen. Der Tagungsband bietet eine … Zusammenschau und vielfaltige Zugangsweisen zum aktuellen Diskurs uber die Gestaltung und den Wandel von Lernraumen in der Bandbreite architektonischer Gestaltung von ...