The Importance Of Self-Directed Learning

A self-directed learner constantly engages in four core activities: Planning, Organizing, Monitoring and evaluating his learning processes (Corno, 1989; Zimmerman and Paulsen, 1995.) Being self-motivated and directed entails using all skills that enable one to metacognitively, motivationally and behaviouraly participate in one’s own learning process (Zimmerman, 1986.) An active learner knows what to study, how to learn; they are confident in the effort they deploy towards learning. Some recognize the fact that effort and effective strategies are some of the key factors that determine who a self-directed learner is. Self directed learners tend to exhibit goal directedness, manage their academic time, meaningfully direct their practice, use

These are my guiding principles to a successful student life and eventual professional career; taking on a challenge as huge as embarking on a bachelor’s degree especially at my age requires an immense amount of mental preparation. I have consciously developed a positive attitude towards this learning process by embracing the above mentioned areas of strength.

Personal areas of weakness are: poor time management and demoralization on failure; combining university education with work and family life for me is a tall order in my life right now and being able to adequately manage my time to accommodate both has been an audition I am hoping to excel in. Secondly, accepting failure irrespective of the cogency in reason is a personal area of weakness. However, correcting the above anomalies is work in progress and hopefully, I will succeed in turning things around.

I have carefully selected 5 strategies for personal growth and same are listed as follows:

Understanding the content of my study materials, assignments and tasks

Engaging in extensive

On the flipside however, my personal research has revealed that sticking to personal strategies is the only way to remain self-directed and motivated as I run the race of academic pursuit. As much as I resist the temptation of sounding negative, it would be entirely my fault if I deviate from my set goals.

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References:

Corno, L. (1989). Self –regulated learning: A volitional analysis. In B.J Zimmerman & D.H Schunk (Eds), Self regulated learning and academic achievement: Theory, research and practice (pp. 111-114) New York: Springer-Verlag

Winnie, P.H., & Stockey, D.B. (1998), Computing technologies as sites for developing self regulated learning.

Zimmerman, B.J. (1986), Development of self regulated learning: Which are key subprocesses? Contemporary Education Psychology, 16, 307-313.

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