The Self Directed Learning Handbook

The Self-Directed Learning Handbook offers teachers and principals an innovative program for customizing schooling to the learning needs of individual students-- and for motivating them to take increasing responsibility for deciding what and how they should learn. Whether the students are struggling or proficient, the program is designed to nurture their natural passion for learning and mastery, challenging them to go beyond the easy and familiar so they can truly excel. The program can be introduced in stages in any middle or high school classroom and enables students of diverse abilities to design and pursue independent course work, special projects, or even artistic presentations, community field work or apprenticeships. Using this approach, the students take on an increasingly autonomous, self-directed role as they progress. The heart of the program is the action contract (or learning agreement) whereby the student sets challenging yet attainable goals, commits to a path for achieving them, and evaluates the results. Special emphasis is placed on developing skills and competencies that can serve the student well in his or her academic and career endeavors.

This book is devoted to scholarship in the field of self-directed learning in the 21st century, with specific reference to higher education. The target audience of the book includes scholars in the field of self-directed learning and higher education. The book contributes to the discourse on the quality of education in the 21st century and adds to the body of scholarship in terms of self-directed learning, and specifically its role in higher education. Although all the chapters in the book directly address self-directed learning, the different foci and viewpoints raised make the book a rich knowledge bank of work on self-directed learning.

"This book fills the gap between theory-laden academic books designed to help academic faculty incorporate self-directed learning activities into their courses and the self-help books designed to help motivate individuals to learn new skills"--

The Art of Self-Directed Learning is a collection of 23 stories and insights that will help you become a more motivated and self-guided learner. Drawing on a decade of research, adventures, and interviews conducted by Blake Boles (author of College Without High School and Better Than College), this book will inspire you to craft your own unconventional education, no matter whether you're a young adult, recent graduate, parent, or simply someone who never wants to stop learning. Each chapter is brief, story-oriented, and accompanied by an original line drawing, making The Art of Self-Directed Learning a great choice for readers and "non-readers" alike.

Aimed at those educators who wish to make their practice more consistent with progressive educational principles, namely helping learners to take greater control over planning and managing their own learning. The book contains a balance of theory and practical suggestions.

Today’s global educational environment includes the emergence of adult learners participating in formal and informal educational encounters for the purposes of professional development or personal enrichment. These learners must possess the conceptual and attitudinal idea of self-directed learning in order to be skilled workers and fulfilled human beings. Self-Directed Learning Strategies in Adult Educational Contexts is a critical scholarly publication that examines the impacts of self-directed learning methods and strategies on adult learning in various formal and informal learning situations and educational encounters. Featuring topics such as andragogy, learning analytics, and educational technologies, this book is geared toward adult educators, administrators, principals, professors, human resource managers, educational professionals, and researchers working in the fields of andragogy, adult learning theory, professional development, instructional technology, and curriculum development.

This volume focuses on assessing students' abilities as self-directed learners. The authors use 'triangulation' to ensure that the assessment system is balanced and complete.