Perspectives on Self-Directed Learning — the Importance of Attitudes and Skills

Abstract

The use of Self-Directed Learning (SDL) as a learning tool is increasing in today's educational environment, especially in medical schools. We wanted to examine whether all students are effective self directed learners and can make use of this learning tool to achieve learning objectives. Students (n = 125) of first-year medical training program were selected and for a period of 10 weeks they were exposed to two types of teaching programs i.e. SDL sessions and regular didactic lectures. Based on the total scores they obtained in the examination that followed they were divided into four groups. The results showed that the students of higher-scoring groups had scored significantly higher in SDL topics when compared with didactic lecture topics (75.28 ± 7.85 vs. 65.56 ± 3.93, and 67.29 ± 9.37 vs. 57.23 ± 4.51, respectively). In contrast the students in the lower-scoring groups did not score significantly higher in the SDL topics. This suggests that SDL may help "good" students to understand concepts and score well, but weak students may not benefit as they may be lacking the appropriate cognitive skills. SDL an be a very good method to make students to learn, but it should be adopted in a systemic manner keeping in mind heterogeneity of students with respect to skills.

KEMAMPUAN SELF DIRECTED LEARNING DAN PENCAPAIAN HASIL BELAJAR: Studi Cross Sectional

“…Penelitian terdahulu terkait efektivitas SDL telah pernah dilakukan SDL dianggap sebagai suatu metode pembelajar dewasa, tujuan dalam proses pembelajaran, berdampak positif terhadap pencapaian hasil belajar mahasiswa, dan menyarankan agar SDL menjadi salah satu metode alternatif dalam proses pembelajaran (Bhat, Rajashekar, & Kamath, 2007;Carvalho, Souza, Takiguti, & D, 1977;Graham, Seabrook, & Woodfield, 1999;Mahmoud, Andrus, Matolo, & Ward, 2006;Owen, Byrne, & Ker, 2008;Schneeweiss & Ratnapalan, 2007;Vidal et al, 2001). Beberapa peneliti yang lain menemukan bahwa mahasiswa kedokteran dan keperawatan yang telah terlibat dalam kurikulum terintegrasi dengan pendekatan PBL memiliki kemampuan SDL yang tinggi dibandingkan dengan kemampuan SDL mahasiswa umum (Guglielmino, L.M.…”

“…Hasil penelitian yang lain menunjukkan bahwa SDL memberikan kontribusi terhadap peningkatan moderat pada pencapaian hasil belajar mahasiswa baik dalam domain pengetahuan maupun domain keterampilan (Bhat, Rajashekar, & Kamath, 2007;Considine, Botti, & Thomas, 2005;Mahmoud, Andrus, Matolo, & Ward, 2006;Murad, Coto-Yglesias, Varkey, Prokop, & Murad, 2010;Owen, Byrne, & Ker, 2008;Schneeweiss & Ratnapalan, 2007). Asumsi yang dapat diberikan terkait dengan hasil penelitian ini yaitu, pertama, mahasiswa yang menjadi responden dalam penelitian ini memiliki kemampuan akademik yang cenderung sama.…”

Reconsider deschooling: Alternative towards more accessible and inclusive education

“…Whilst self-directed learning may have a number of advantages, its shortcomings cannot be overlooked. According to a recent study, self-directed learning is not an effective learning tool for all students (Bhat, Rajashekar, & Kamath 2007). This study demonstrates that self-directed learning could benefit some students to understand concepts but other students lacking the requisite cognitive skills might suffer.…”

Students’ perceptions towards self-directed learning in Ethiopian medical schools with new innovative curriculum: a mixed-method study

“…By hybrid curriculum is meant a curriculum that combines traditional teaching methods and PBL aiming to benefit from advantages of the innovative learning strategy [8,20]. Besides curriculum approach, there is no common consensus between the correlation of sociodemographic factors such as curriculum year, age, and academic achievement and students' SDL [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Leatemia et al [25] revealed higher level of SDL readiness in first-year students compared to second-year medical students of a hybrid PBL curriculum.…”