What do you think?

Nobody can learn unless there is somebody to teach. Do you agree with this point of view?
Have you learnt anything on your own without somebody asking that you to learn it?
Under what circumstances we can do without a teacher?

1. Introduction

Self-directed learning is "a process in which individuals take the initiative, with or without the help of others," to diagnose their learning needs, formulate learning goals, identify resources for learning, select and implement learning strategies, and evaluate learning outcomes (Knowles 1975).

Self-directed learning involves a significant change in the roles of the teachers and learners. The learners have to know what they need and identify the types of materials that suit them. Teachers need to know how to help learners learn on their own (with the help of self-learning materials) and evaluate their own progress through self-assessment. Finally the problems of self-directed learning need to be analyzed and appropriate solutions have to be worked out.

2. SDL and Teaching-Learning

A detailed discussion of what self direction involves, how it is different from self-instruction and what the problems are in introducing self directed learning in the teaching-learning programme are discussed in detail in the following sections and some suggestions are offered for the effective implementation of self directed learning.

H M Patel Institute of English Training & Research, Vallabh Vidyanagar - 388120, Gujarat, India

Phone : 091-2692-230193, 091-2692-230079