The article is a brief analysis of independent study issues which evolved from a rural perspective of law enforcement officers in adult off-campus learning programs. (Author/BP)

"Autonomy" is an ambiguous term that can denote either the right of adults to manage their own affairs or their actual or potential ability to do so. These various senses of the word are regularly, and often indiscriminately, employed by adult educators. Personal autonomy is probably developed most effectively in a traditional kind of…

Through a nationally-administered questionnaire and a literature review, this report explores developments in the psychology of self-planned learning. The introduction presents a review of the current literature, hypotheses concerning the motivation and methods of adult learning, and assumptions made for this survey. The questionnaire was…

This document presents the results of a study designed to: (1) obtain information that will be useful to colleges and universities as they develop new policies and implement practices in the area of Non-Traditional Educational Experiences (N-TEE); and (2) define current policy and practice and to obtain a sense of direction for additional…

This study investigated whether using learning contracts in higher education enhances adults' readiness and competencies for self-directed learning. Findings suggest that the use of learning contracts has little impact on developing readiness for self-directedness, but does have some impact on developing competencies for self-directed learning.…

Comparison of nineteenth- and twentieth-century promotion of self-help learning shows that the aim and outcome can be socialization and order rather than social advancement and autonomy. Successful self-help schemes are rarely based on self-help alone, which calls into question the morality and financial wisdom of promoting a concept without…

Interviews with adults experienced in foreign language self-instruction generated profiles of language experience at learner and self-instructed language-token levels. Results showed separations between languages with and without self-instruction. The most effective learning route was starting with classwork. Ab initio self-instruction produced…

Shares experiences of a human resource development (HRD) book group. Offers practical startup tips, descriptions of different types of book groups, and lessons learned about such groups. Suggests that membership on an HRD book group is an opportunity for self-directed learning in a social context, and it fosters a mindset for lifelong learning.…

The internal motivation to learn sets adult learners apart from children. Self-directed learning is associated with adult learners with the maturity to realize what they need to know and the internal motivation to learn it. This article provides sites to learn more about adult learning and resources to help support one's own informal,…

As our understanding of learning focuses on the whole person rather than individual aspects of learning, so the process of learning is beginning to be studied from a wide variety of perspectives and disciplines. This handbook presents a comprehensive overview of the contemporary research into learning: it brings together a diverse range of…

Gibbons et al. (1980) reported 14 principles in "teaching for self-education." Four of these principles illustrate some of the challenges involved in applying the principles to classroom learning: (1) in self-education, the locus of control is in the self-educator, whereas, in formal education, the locus of control is in institutions, their…

Only eight recent studies clearly fit the parameters of qualitative research on self-directed learning. Four of the studies appear to fit the more traditional notion of what the qualitative paradigm is all about, in that they are exploratory in nature. The remaining four studies focus more on the expansion of earlier ideas that had been generated…

This paper analyzes teaching and training in terms of certain basic functions and the typical contingencies that affect those functions in practice. Section 1 shows the interrelationships of teaching, training, and learning. Section 2 explores the kinds of learning problems that the independent learner faces and how a planned course can help to…

The development and extension of open learning systems in British institutions of further and higher education has given rise to a need for changes in the methods of recording student progress. Open learning systems' provision of a wide flexibility of pace so that students can extend or compress their periods of study as compared with traditional…