Self-direction in Adult Learning

Perspectives on Theory, Research and Practice

Ralph G. Brockett, Roger Hiemstra

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780429854354
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Adult Education

Originally published in 1991, this book provides the reader with a comprehensive synthesis of developments, issues and practices related to a self-direction in learning. it presents strategies for facilitating self-directed learning as an instructional method and for enhancing learner self-direction as an aspect of adult personality. The idea of self-directed learning is not a new one but has received renewed attention in education circles and has particular significance for the adult education sector.

Part I

Introduction

Self-direction has been one of the most exciting topics to emerge relative to adult learning in the past two decades. As a way of introducing the topic, it is stressed that self-direction is not a fad; rather it is a way of life for most adults. In the opening chapter, three hypothetical cases are presented in order to illustrate this point. Also, the chapter includes a look at self-direction throughout history and a discussion of several common myths that have often brought confusion to what self-direction means.

Chapter 2 presents a conceptual framework for better understanding the concept of self-direction. There has been much confusion over what is meant by self-direction. In this chapter, the Personal Responsibility Orientation (PRO) model is presented as a tool for better understanding this distinction. The PRO model is premised on the idea that individuals taking personal responsibility for their learning is central to understanding self-direction. From this, it is possible to recognize that self-direction can be seen as both an instructional method (self-directed learning) and a personality characteristic (learner self-direction). Also, the PRO model stresses the importance of understanding the social context in which learning takes place. This model serves as a framework for the remainder of the book.

1 A way of life

Mary’s interest in genealogy grew slowly out of the enjoyment of hearing her grandparents talk about the “old country” and all the interesting characters on the family tree. However, high school, college, first job, more college, and marriage all took considerable energy. Then, soon after moving with her family for a college teaching position, she read about a course in genealogy offered through the local community college. Wanting some variety in her otherwise heavy schedule of juggling home and work responsibilities, Mary enrolled in the 8-week course.

Taking the course revealed to Mary a whole world of ideas, resources, and other people interested in tracing their family backgrounds. However, it was after the course ended that Mary’s real learning about genealogy began. She started reading everything she could get her hands on about how to gather genealogical information. Her university library had an excellent genealogy section with experienced librarians eager to show people how to use the resources. Mary also filled out many forms requesting archival information and sent them to the Genealogical Society in Salt Lake City for their computer searches.

As her family information began to accumulate, she had the bonus of communicating with relatives not only in the United States, but in other countries as well. In addition, Mary had an opportunity to visit with a second cousin who was gathering genealogical information on one portion of the family tree. She also began to communicate with people she did not know, but who happened to share her family name, about possible connections with other families. Each exchange of information led to more clues. She believed, too, that she helped her second cousin gain some new searching skills.

Over the past 15 years Mary has continued gathering information about the family and about how to do genealogical work. She wrote a 40-page summary for her relatives, visited two of the countries where ancestors had lived, and even taught a non-credit genealogy class twice. Her visit to one of the countries was especially educational, resulting in some new and valuable information. She also stimulated a third newly met cousin to begin genealogy work on the family name. In short, her independent genealogical research has become a way of life.

Neal’s approach to life and learning was quite different from Mary’s, and it has changed dramatically in the past 15 years. When he retired at age 62 from an engineering position, Neal didn’t really have a hobby, unless one counted the occasional golf game he played with colleagues. He had always worked very hard, and his wife’s sudden death two years before he retired had only intensified his need to stay very busy with work. However, his son John often voiced concern about Neal’s working too hard, and a growing disenchantment with his firm’s emphasis on weapons development prompted Neal to jump at an offer for early retirement.

For the first few weeks Neal enjoyed rising late, working in the garden, cleaning out the long-neglected attic, and visiting his grandchildren. He woke one morning, though, and realized that he wanted something a little more challenging out of life. He visited a senior citizen center twice, but tired of the card playing so popular with many of the men there. Then one morning he drove to the local library hoping to find an interesting book. By accident he stopped in the magazine room and picked up a recent issue of a science periodical. His life suddenly took a large turn in direction.

The magazine featured several articles on alternative power development in the United States and throughout the world. As he read about various experiments, his mind wandered to the ranch house that his son and family occupied. They had a ranch house on a small hill in the country. There were about 10 acres of mostly weeds, scrub trees, and large rocks surrounding the house; a small trout stream draining from the nearby hills wound through the property. Musing to himself that some of the experiments might work at that site, he called his son that afternoon to talk about starting an alternative power project. John agreed enthusiastically, as he had complained for years about the high price of electricity that seemed a part of living in the country.

Neal then began reading everything he could find on alternative power. With his engineering background, he soon discovered the need for more technical information than the popular press could provide. He attended two conferences devoted to alternative power, toured some experimental homes, and began to correspond by letter with people in other states and countries about what they were doing.

The first project he tackled involved wind as an energy source. He had read about a new type of windmill design developed in The Netherlands that showed promise. There was a flat, open field behind the house, so Neal designed and installed a windmill there similar to The Netherlands’ prototype. After Neal conquered some design and regulation problems, the windmill began generating enough electricity at peak wind conditions to meet about 20 percent of John’s needs.

Neal then spent several months clearing brush around a portion of the stream where he installed a miniature water-driven turbine patterned after a Colorado experiment. The turbine generated enough electricity to pump water to the garden area, meeting another 10 percent of John’s power requirements. Neal’s next task was to install a solar panel on John’s roof that now meets most of the family’s hot water needs. Meanwhile, throughout these activities Neal has continued to read as much as he can about alternative power. He has actually become somewhat of an expert and a local celebrity. He has been interviewed on local television, taught a course on alternative energy sources, and is now writing a book about the topic.

Alice’s independence as a learner was slow to develop as compared with Neal. Alice had been a home economics field-worker for a family planning organization in her native country, Nigeria, for eight years. Her college education in home economics education had consisted of a four-year program with grades that placed her in the top one-third of the class. Alice had earned the respect of her teachers as a hardworking student who would make an excellent professional in the home economics field.

Alice was quite ambitious, however, and by the end of 10 years she wished to leave field work and serve in some administrative capacity with the national headquarters in Lagos. She applied for federal support and was granted a fellowship for advanced education. She then applied to several universities in the United States and was accepted into a masters degree program in adult education in one of them.

Upon arriving at the university she began to experience several frustrations. Finding an affordable place to live within walking distance of the campus was confusing and difficult. The International Student Office eventually helped her find a place, but those first three days were nerve-racking. Then she met with her graduate advisor and had a difficult time understanding the program’s philosophy: students were expected to take major responsibility in designing their graduate programs by choosing their own courses, final advisors, and even intensive examination questions. Although Alice understood the words of her advisor and the written materials, her past experience in a traditional academic program had not prepared her very well for what was being described.

Her biggest shock came when she met with the instructors for the three courses she was to take that semester. They also described a self-directed teaching and learning approach where she was expected to assess her own needs and complete a learning contract for each course. She had decided to come to the United States to study adult education because she believed that she would find the best professors there, and now they were asking her to select her own learning path. It simply did not make sense.

Alice was confused for the first two weeks of the semester, and after discussions with two of the instructors she met with her advisor who was also the instructor of the third course. Alice described how other students seemed comfortable with the teaching approach, and were even working together on learning activities; but she was concerned that she would not get from the courses what she had come to learn. After talking about the courses and the teaching approach, the advisor suggested that she go a little slower than she had originally planned in the first semester, and that the two of them should meet frequently during that time . Alice agreed to drop one of the courses, and her advisor agreed to work with her on needs assessment and to help her complete her learning contracts for the other courses.

The concept of learning contracts proved to be perhaps the most confusing aspect of the courses for Alice. However, discussion with her advisor and with the other course instructor helped her develop a plan for learning that followed quite closely some of the specific options described by the instructors in their course materials. By the time the courses were finished, and after Alice had heard other students describe their own initial frustrations with the teaching and learning process used by the faculty for the adult education program she had begun to understand how she could carry out learning activities by herself. She realized that she actually had learned a great deal in both courses and that those learnings had taken her well beyond her initial skill and knowledge levels.

During the two adult education courses that she took in the second semester, Alice felt much more comfortable filling out the learning contracts, although she still asked several questions of other students and her instructors. In fact, the third course she took that semester was not in adult education, and the teaching and learning philosophy was quite similar to what she had experienced in her previous formal education in Nigeria. To her surprise, she found herself feeling frustrated at having to fulfill many requirements with little relevance to what she would need professionally. This helped her to understand the value of a teaching approach that encourages learners to take more responsibility for decision-making.

During the last year of her degree program, she became quite comfortable with self-directed learning. She began to develop learning plans in adult education courses that deviated markedly from the more structured options suggested by the instructors. She also began to assert herself more in courses outside of the adult education program by talking with instructors about altering course requirements to better meet her professional needs. By the end of her graduate program Alice had become a successful self-directed learner. During her final intensive exams she described how she was going to take her new learning skills and apply them in her future job.

While the situations of Mary, Neal, and Alice are very different, they share some common threads. Each of them made a conscious choice to take responsibility for their own learning. For each of these individuals, self-direction in learning has become a way of life.

The field of adult education has long embraced such ideas as autonomy, independence, and personal development of adult learners. These ideas are implicit in such terms as lifelong learning, self-directed learning, self-planned learning, independent study, distance education, learning projects, andragogy, and self-directed learning readiness. All of these in some way stress the role of individual learners in the learning process.

Thus, the three examples chosen to begin this book illustrate some of the possible ways in which an individual comes to use self-directed learning approaches. There are in reality many possible routes. In fact, we have observed that no two learners approach self-directed learning in the same way. Perhaps this is why the concept of self-directed learning has become so popular in recent years among adult education scholars. This also is why the concept has existed in some form for hundreds of years. The purpose of this chapter will be to describe the phenomenon of self-direction in learning, which has become a way of life for a great many people.

A HISTORICAL LOOK

In North America, many adult education scholars trace the current interest in such topics as learning projects, andragogy, and self-directed learning to Houle’s (1961) typology of goal, activity, and learning orientations among adult learners, or to Johnstone and Rivera’s (1965) seminal work on adult education participation. However, the idea of self-direction, under the guise of numerous names, has existed from classical antiquity to the present. In fact, Kulich (1970) noted that, prior to the widespread development of schools, self-education was the primary way for individuals to deal with happenings going on about them.

Self-education, according to Kulich, played an important part in the lives of the Greek philosophers. Socrates described himself as a self-learner who capitalized on opportunities to learn from those around him. Plato believed that the ultimate goal of education for the young should be the development of an ability to function as a self-learner in adulthood. Aristotle emphasized the importance of self-realization, a potential wisdom that can be developed either with or without the guidance of a teacher.

Kulich (1970) illustrates numerous other examples of self-education throughout history. Alexander the Great was said to have carried the works of Homer with him when he travelled. Caesar set time aside daily for writing and study. Erasmus of Rotterdam’s Study of Christian Philosophy, published in 1516, offered guidelines for self-education. In the seventeenth century, René Descartes, in his Discourse on Mind, described how he abandoned formal study at an early age and gained his education by experiencing and observing the world around him and by reflecting on these experiences. Newsom (1977) examined the role of “self-directed lifelong learning” in London between the years 1558–1640. He concluded that there were many opportunities for self-directed learning during this period through private tutors, lectures, books, libraries, and schools – for those persons who had the time and money to take advantage of these opportunities.

Self-direction is also clearly reflected throughout the history of the United States. Long (1976) addressed the history of adult education prior to the American Revolution. According to Long, the social conditions that existed in Colonial America, combined with a lack of formal educational institutions, led many persons to learn on their own during this period.

Self-directed learners in Colonial America had a wide range of learning resources from which to choose. They relied heavily on the “oral tradition”, which was supplemented by the use of letters, diaries, and written records of the times that could be passed on orally to others. Societies and associations also provided a wide range of opportunities to self-directed adult learners. However, Long puts the main emphasis on available printed materials. Personal libraries were common among persons wealthy enough to afford a collection of books. Subscription libraries, whereby patrons paid a specified amount for the use of services, made libraries accessible to a greater number of people. Almanacs offered the self-directed learner in Colonial America a plethora of information, much as they do today. Newspapers helped mobilize political activities leading to the Revolution. Magazines also proved to be a valuable resource for the self-directed learner in Colonial America.

Benjamin Franklin was an important example of a self-directed learner, and some consider him to be the “patron saint” of adult education in the United States. He was involved in discussion clubs, library activities, and helping others with learning efforts. The Junto, a discussion club organized in Philadelphia in 1727 (Grattan, 1955), utilized reading and discussion as a means for intellectual development. Franklin’s numerous contributions are, to a great extent, a result of various self-education efforts.

Serious thinking about self-directed learning took place some 150 years ago. For example, Craik’s Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties (1840) describes the self-directed learning behaviors of many people. As Six (1989a) notes, through a variety of examples Craik demonstrates:

(a) the practicability of self-directed learning, (b) the most effective methods for self-instruction, and (c) the potency of a determined self-directed learner in overcoming barriers to learning. Moreover, he [Craik] asserts that success or failure in an act of learning depends more upon the learner than upon any set of circumstances in which the learner may be placed.

(Six, 1987: 26)

Another early author was Hosmer, whose 1847 work entitled Self-Education makes a distinction between what he referred to as self-initiated learning acts and other educational forms. His defini...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Figures and tables
• Series editor’s note
• Preface
• Part I Introduction
• 1 A way of life
• 2 A conceptual framework for understanding self-direction in adult learning
• Part II The underlying knowledge base
• 3 Adult learning as an iceberg: establishing the knowledge base on self-direction
• 4 Measuring the iceberg: quantitative approaches to studying self-direction
• 5 Beyond the iceberg: expanding the knowledge base through qualitative approaches
• Part III Process and personal orientation
• 6 Facilitating self-directed learning
• 7 Enhancing learner self-direction
• Part IV Fostering opportunities for self-direction in adult learning
• 8 Institutional perspectives on self-direction in learning
• 9 Policy issues
• 10 The global context
• 11 Ethical dilemmas in self-direction
• Part V A glance at the future
• 12 A way of life revisited
• 13 Conclusions and recommendations
• Appendix A Annotated bibliography of sources related to andragogy
• Appendix B Self-directed learning seminar participants
• References
• Index