Reasons why self-directed learning is important in South African during the COVID-19 pandemic
Abstract
We live in unprecedented times and are bombarded with various changes to normality and everyday usual business. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the face of university education in South Africa and the world. The move towards remote teaching has denied medical students to do their practical work in hospitals, science students to access their laboratories where they conduct their experiments as part of their coursework and has denied students a chance to gain information in university libraries. This has had effects on both students’ and lecturers’ progress in the academic year and has called for an abrupt change in the way they view teaching and learning. The aim of this article is to highlight the significance of being a self-directed learner during the COVID-19 pandemic and to answer the following question: Why is self-directed learning important in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic? To answer this question, I discuss the challenges faced globally during the COVID-19 pandemic, and I focus on the challenges higher education institutions face with regard to remote teaching. Thereafter, I discuss self-directed learning and its importance in students and teachers with the aim of highlighting what self-directed learners can do when faced with the abrupt changes brought about by COVID-19. Lastly, recommendations are made to highlight that higher education institutions should prepare learners to be self-directed in their learning in order to prepare them for such abrupt changes in the future.References
Abdullah, J., W. N. Mohd-Isa and M. A. Samsudin. 2019. Virtual reality to improve group work skill and self-directed learning in problem-based learning narratives. Virtual Reality 23(4): 461‒471.
Alharbi, H. A. 2018. Readiness for self-directed learning: How bridging and traditional nursing students differs? Nurse Education Today 61: 231‒234.
Almaiah, M. A., A. Al-Khasawneh and A. Althunibat. 2020. Exploring the critical challenges and factors influencing the E-learning system usage during COVID-19 pandemic. Education and Information Technologies, 1‒20.
Armitage, R. and L. B. Nellums. 2020. Considering inequalities in the school closure response to COVID-19. The Lancet Global Health 8(5): e644.
Ball, D. L., M. H. Thames and G. Phelps. 2008. Content knowledge for teaching:What makes it special? Journal of Teacher Education 59(5): 389‒407.
Bayham, J. and E. P. Fenichel. 2020. Impact of school closures for COVID-19 on the US health-care workforce and net mortality: A modelling study. The Lancet Public Health 5(5): e271‒e278.
Best, P., R. Manktelow and B. Taylor. 2014. Online communication, social media and adolescent wellbeing: A systematic narrative review. Children and Youth Services Review 41: 27‒36.
Blumberg, P. 2000. Evaluating the evidence that problem-based learners are self-directd learners: A review of the literature. In Problem-based learning: A research perspective on learning interactions, ed. D. H. Evensen and C. E. Hmelo. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Breed, B. and R. Bailey. 2018. The influence of a metacognitive approach to cooperative pair problem-solving on self-direction in learning. TD : The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa 14(1): 1‒11.
Brookfield, S. 1985. Self-directed learning: A critical review of research. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 1985(25): 5‒16.
Brooks, S. K., R. K. Webster, L. E. Smith, L. Woodland, S. Wessely, N. Greenberg and G. J. Rubin. 2020. The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of the evidence. The Lancet 395(10227): 912‒920.
Burton, L. 1984. Mathematical thinking: The struggle for meaning. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 15(1): 35‒49.
Candy, P. C. 1991. Self-direction for lifelong learning, San Fransiscoe: Jossey-Bass.
Cazan, A.-M. and B.-A. Schiopca. 2014. Self-directed learning, personality traits and academic achievement. Procedia ‒ Social and Behavioral Sciences 127: 640‒644.
Cheng, S.-F., C.-L. Kuo, K.-C. Lin and J. Lee-Hsieh. 2010. Development and preliminary testing of a self-rating instrument to measure self-directed learning ability of nursing students. International Journal of Nursing Studies 47(9): 1152‒1158.
Chick, R. C., G. T. Clifton, K. M. Peace, B. W. Propper, D. F. Hale, A. A. Alseidi and T. J. Vreeland. 2020. Using technology to maintain the education of residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Surgical Education 77(4): 729‒732.
Dai, D. and X. Xia. 2020. Whether the school self-developed e-Learning platform is more conducive to learning during the COVID-19 pandemic? Best Edivence of Chinese Education 5(1): 569‒580.
De Beer, J. 2019. The importance of context for self-directed learning. In Self-directed learning for the 21st century: Implications for higher education, ed. E. Mentz, J. de Beer and R. Bailey. Durbanville, Capetown: AOSIS.
Dehnad, A., F. Afsharian, F. Hosseini, S. K. S. Arabshahi and S. Bigdeli. 2014. Pursuing a definition of self-directed learning in literature from 2000–2012. Procedia ‒ Social and Behavioral Sciences 116: 5184‒5187.
Depoux, A., S. Martin, E. Karafillakis, R. Preet, A. Wilder-Smith and H. Larson. 2020. The pandemic of social media panic travels faster than the COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of Travel Medicine 27(3).
Dietz, W. and C. Santos-Burgoa. 2020. Obesity and its implications for COVID-19 mortality. Obesity 28(6): 1005‒1005.
Douglas, M., S. V. Katikireddi, M. Taulbut, M. McKee and G. McCartney. 2020. Mitigating the wider health effects of covid-19 pandemic response. BMJ 369: m1557.
Du Toit-Brits, C. 2019. A focus on self-directed learning: The role that educators’ expectations play in the enhancement of students’ self-directedness. South African Journal of Education 39: 1‒11.
Fisher, M., J. King and G. Tague. 2001. Development of a self-directed learning readiness scale for nursing education. Nurse Education Today 21(7): 516‒525.
Flavell, J. H. 1979. Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive–developmental inquiry. American Psychologist 34(10): 906‒911.
Galea, S., R. M. Merchant and N. Lurie. 2020. The mental health consequences of COVID-19 and physical distancing: The need for prevention and early intervention. JAMA Internal Medicine 180(6): 817‒818.
Gandomkar, R. and J. Sandars. 2018. Clearing the confusion about self-directed learning and self-regulated learning. Medical Teacher 40(8): 862‒863.
Gao, J., P. Zheng, Y. Jia, H. Chen, Y. Mao, S. Chen, Y. Wang, H. Fiu and J. Dai. 2020. Mental health problems and social media exposure during COVID-19 outbreak. PLos One 15(4): 1‒10.
Geng, S., K. M. Y. Law and B. Niu. 2019. Investigating self-directed learning and technology readiness in blending learning environment. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education 16(1): 17.
Gibbons, M. 2002. The self-directed learning handbook: Challenging adolescent students to excel. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Gijbels, D., I. Raemdonck, D. Vervecken and J. Herck. 2012. Understanding work-related learning: The case of ICT workers. Journal of Workplace Learning 24: 416‒429.
Green, M. S. 2020. Did the hesitancy in declaring COVID-19 a pandemic reflect a need to redefine the term? The Lancet 395(10229): 1034‒1035.
Guglielmino, L. M. 1977. Development of the self-directed learning readiness scale. University of Georgia.
Guglielmino, L. M. 2013. The case for promoting self-directed learning in formal educational institutions. SA-eDUC Journal 10(2): 1‒18.
Guglielmino, P. J. and D. G. Roberts. 1992. A comparison of self-directed learning readiness in U.S. and Hong Kong samples and the implications for job performance. Human Resource Development Quarterly 3(3): 261‒271.
Gureckis, T. M. and D. B. Markant. 2012. Self-directed learning: A cognitive and computational perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science 7(5): 464‒481.
Hewitt-Taylor, J. 2001. Self-directed learning: Views of teachers and students. Journal of Advanced Nursing 36: 496‒504.
Jennifer, G. 2013. Assessment for learning: A wider (classroom-researched) perspective is important for formative assessment and self-directed learning in general practice. Education for Primary Care 24(2): 93‒96.
Johnson, D. W. and R. T. Johnson. 2019. The impact of cooperative learning on self-directed learning. In Self-directed learning for the 21st century: Implications for higher education, ed. E. Mentz, J. de Beer and R. Bailey. Durbanville, Cape Town: AOSIS.
Jossberger, H., S. Brand-Gruwel, M. W. L. van de Wiel and H. Boshuizen. 2018. Learning in workplace simulations in vocational education: A student perspective. Vocations and Learning 11(2): 179‒204.
Khiat, H. 2017. Academic performance and the practice of self-directed learning: The adult student perspective. Journal of Further and Higher Education 41(1): 44‒59.
Knowles, M. S. 1975. Self-directed learning: A guide for learners and teachers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Cambridge Adult Education.
Lee, J. 2020. Mental health effects of school closures during COVID-19. The Lancet. Child & Adolescent Health 4(6): 421‒421.
Lee, K., P.-S. Tsai, C. S. Chai and J. H. L. Koh. 2014. Students’ perceptions of self-directed learning and collaborative learning with and without technology. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 30(5): 425‒437.
Leikin, R. 2009. Exploring mathematical creativity using multiple solution tasks. In Creativity in mathematics and the education of gifted students, ed. R. Leikin, A. Berman and B. Koichu. Brill | Sense.
Leikin, R. and D. Pitta-Pantazi. 2013. Creativity and mathematics education: The state of the art. ZDM 45(2): 159‒166.
Lemmetty, S. and K. Collin. 2020. Self-directed learning as a practice of workplace learning: Interpretative repertoires of self-directed learning in ICT work. Vocations and Learning 13(1): 47‒70.
Lieberman, D. A. and M. C. Linn. 1991. Learning to learn revisited. Journal of Research on Computing in Education 23(3): 373‒395.
Loyens, S. M. M., J. Magda and R. M. J. P. Rikers. 2008. Self-directed learning in problem-based learning and its relationships with self-regulated learning. Educational Psychology Review 20(4): 411‒427.
Lubbe, A. and E. Mentz. 2019. Participative assessment practices and its contribution to the development of sefl-directed learning skills. In Self-directed learning for the 21st century: Implications for higher education, ed. E. Mentz, J. de Beer and R. Bailey. Cape Town: AOSIS.
Mahabeer, P. and T. Pirtheepal. 2019. Assessment, plagiarism and its effect on academic integrity: Experiences of academics at a university in South Africa. South African Journal of Science 115: 1‒8.
Meissner, H. 2015. Creativity in mathematics education. In 12th International Congress on Mathematical Education, ed. S. J. Cho, 591‒592. Cham. Springer International Publishing.
Mentz, E. and S. van Zyl. 2016. Introducing cooperative learning: Students’ attictudes towards learning and the implications for self-directed learning. Journal of Education 64(1): 79‒109.
Mentz, E. and S. van Zyl, S. 2018. The impact of cooperative learning on self-directed learning abilities in the computer applications technology class. International Journal of Lifelong Education 37(4): 482‒494.
Mishra, P. and D. Henriksen. 2018. The architecture of creative learning environments. In Creativity, technology & education: Exploring their convergence, ed. P. Mishra and D. Henriksen. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Morris, T. H. 2020. Creativity through self-directed learning: Three distinct dimensions of teacher support. International Journal of Lifelong Education: 1‒11.
Nah, Y. 1999. Can a self-directed learner be independent, autonomous and interdependent?: Implications for practice. Adult Learning 11(1): 18‒25.
Oddi, L. F. 1987. Perspectives on self-directed learning. Adult Education Quarterly 38(1): 21‒31.
Pantazis, C. 2002. Maximizing e-learning to train the 21st century workforce. Public Personnel Management 31(1): 21‒26.
Pearce, D. 2019. A model for developing competent and self-directed tradespeople. International Journal of Training Research 17(1): 50-64.
Pedley, G. E. and A. Arber. 1997. Nursing students’ response to self-directed learning: An evaluation of a learning process applying Jarvis’ framework. Journal of Advanced Nursing 25(2): 405‒11.
Pennycook, G. and D. G. Rand. 2019. Lazy, not biased: Susceptibility to partisan fake news is better explained by lack of reasoning than by motivated reasoning. Cognition 188: 39‒50.
Perloff, R. M. 2014. Social media effects on young women’s body image concerns: Theoretical perspectives and an agenda for research. Sex Roles 71(11): 363‒377.
Pietrobelli, A., L. Pecoraro, A. Ferruzzi, M. Heo, M. Faith, T. Zoller, F. Antoniazzi, G. Piacentini, S. N. Fearnbach and S. B. Heymsfield. 2020. Effects of COVID-19 lockdown on lifestyle behaviors in children with obesity living in Verona, Italy: A longitudinal study. Obesity (Silver Spring) 28(8): 1382‒1385.
Polya, G. 1973. How to solve it: A new aspect of mathematical method. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Prem, K., Y. Liu, T. W. Russell, A. J. Kucharski, R. M. Eggo, N. Davies, S. Flasche, S. Clifford, C. A. B. Pearson, J. D. Munday, S. Abbott, H. Gibbs, A. Rosello, B. J. Quilty, T. Jombart, F. Sun, C. Diamond, A. Gimma, K. van Zandvoort, S. Funk, C. I. Jarvis, W. J. Edmunds, N. I. Bosse, J. Hellewell, M. Jit and P. Klepac. 2020. The effect of control strategies to reduce social mixing on outcomes of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, China: A modelling study. The Lancet Public Health 5(5): e261‒e270.
Raemdonck, I., D. Gijbels and W. van Groen. 2014. The influence of job characteristics and self-directed learning orientation on workplace learning. International Journal of Training and Development 18(3): 188‒203.
Reddy, V., M. Visser, L. Winnaar, F. Arends, A. Juan, C. Prinsloo and K. Sidale. 2015. TIMSS 2015: Highlights of mathematics and science achievement of grade 9 South African Learners, ed, V. Reddy, M. Visser, L. Winnaar, F. Arends, A. Juan, C. Prinsloo and K. Sidale. Pretoria.
Reich-Stiebert, N. and F. Eyssel. 2016. Robots in the classroom: What teachers think about teaching and learning with education robots. In 8th International Conference, 2016, ed. A. Agah, J.-J. Cabibihan, M. A. Salichs and H. He, 671‒680. Cham. Springer International Publishing.
Remuzzi, A. and G. Remuzzi. 2020. COVID-19 and Italy: What next? The Lancet 395(10231): 1225‒1228.
Rundle, A. G., Y. Park, J. B. Herbstman, E. W. Kinsey and Y. C. Wang. 2020. COVID-19 related school closings and risk of weight gain among children. Obesity 28(6): 1008‒1009.
Saks, K. and Ä. Leijen. 2014. Distinguishing self-directed and self-regulated learning and measuring them in the e-learning context. Procedia ‒ Social and Behavioral Sciences 112: 190‒198.
Schoenfeld, A. H. 1987. What’s all the fuss about metacognition. In Cognitive science and mathematics education, ed. A. H. Schoenfeld. Hillsdale, New Jersy: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Schoenfeld, A. H. 1992. Learning to think mathematically: Problem solving, metacognition, and sense making in mathematics. In Handbook for research on mathematics teaching and learning, ed. D. Grouws. New York: Macmillan.
Servant-Miklos, V. and L. Noordegraaf-Eelens. 2019. Toward social-transformative education: An ontological critique of self-directed learning. Critical Studies in Education: 1‒17.
Sharkey, A. J. C. 2016. Should we welcome robot teachers? Ethics and Information Technology 18(4): 283‒297.
Siu Cheung, K., C. Tak-Wai, G. Patrick, H. Ulrich, H. Ronghuai, Chee Kit L. Kinshuk, M. Marcelo, N. Cathleen, N. Miguel, S. Mike, S. Wing Mui Winnie, S. Elliot and Y. Shengquan. 2014. E-learning in school education in the coming 10 years for developing 21st century skills: Critical research issues and policy implications. Journal of Educational Technology & Society 17(1): 70‒78.
Slavin, R. E. 1991. Educational psychology: Theory into practice. Englewood CLiffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Slevin, O. D. A. and M. C. Lavery. 1991. Self-directed learning and student supervision. Nurse Education Today 11(5): 368‒377.
Smith, K. 2017. Teachers as self-directed learners: Active positioning through professional learning,. Singapore: Springer.
Sriraman, B., N. Yaftian and K. H. Lee. 2011. Mathematical creativity and mathematics education: A derivative of existing research. In The elements of creativity and giftedness in mathematics, ed. B. Sriraman and K. Lee. Brill | Sense.
Tandoc, E. C., Z. W. Lim and R. Ling. 2018. Defining “fake news”. Digital Journalism 6(2): 137‒153.
Tekkol, İ. A. and M. Demirel. 2018. An investigation of self-directed learning skills of undergraduate students. Frontiers in Psychology 9(2324): 1‒14.
Torrance, E. P. and S. Mourad. 1978. Some creativity and style of learning and thinking correlates of Guglielmino’s self-directed learning readiness scale. Psychological Reports 43(3_suppl): 1167‒1171.
Uscher-Pines, L., H. L. Schwartz, F. Ahmed, Y. Zheteyeva, E. Meza, G. Baker and A. Uzicanin. 2018. School practices to promote social distancing in K-12 schools: Review of influenza pandemic policies and practices. BMC Public Health 18(1): 406.
Van der Westhuizen, C. and A. Golightly. 2019. Developing self-directed learning skills of Geography student teachers through online problem-based learning designs. In Self-directed learning for the 21st century: Implications for higher education, ed. E. Mentz, J. de Beer and R. Bailey. Cape Town: AOSIS.
Van Lancker, W. and Z. Parolin. 2020. COVID-19, school closures, and child poverty: A social crisis in the making. The Lancet Public Health 5(5): e243‒e244.
Venkatesh, A. and S. Edirappuli. 2020. Social distancing in covid-19: What are the mental health implications? BMJ 369: m1379.
Viner, R. M., S. J. Russell, H. Croker, J. Packer, J. Ward, C. Stansfield, O. Mytton, C. Bonell and R. Booy. 2020. School closure and management practices during coronavirus outbreaks including COVID-19: A rapid systematic review. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health 4(5): 397‒404.
Wang, G., Y. Zhang, J. Zhao, J. Zhang and F. Jiang. 2020. Mitigate the effects of home confinement on children during the COVID-19 outbreak. The Lancet 395(10228): 945‒947.
Williamson, S. N. 2007. Development of a self-rating scale of self-directed learning. Nurse Researcher 14(2): 66‒83.
Zimmerman, B. J. 1989. Models of self-regulated learning and academic achievement. In Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: Theory, research, and practice, ed. B. J. Zimmerman and D. H. Schunk. New York, NY: Springer New York.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors, copyright holders, may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors' publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: This is an electronic version of an article published in SAJHE, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX “XXX", DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAJHE) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
