The Journal of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children

Self-directed learning themes
Knowledge of self-directed learning
The responses to the interview indicate that gifted students have detailed knowledge of selfdirected
learning. Gifted students described self-directed learning in terms of teaching yourself and
learning by yourself. I think it’s about where somebody if they want to learn something they will go on
their own path and do it instead of getting help or something. One child mentioned the benefit of
self-directed learning being related to a person’s future ability to learn by him/ herself. All gifted
students agreed that they were self-directed on some activities with most of the students mentioning
being good at being self-directed on projects. Um yeah. Projects. I’m better on other things.
Probably because its much more free-er because say you are working on the topic and you use the
internet or look in the book. You’ve got more choice. School related activities like language, spelling,
and mathematics were cited, and art was mentioned by one student as well. Two students referred
to effort as the reason why they were self-directed on some activities.
Most of the gifted students said that they did not know anyone who is really good at selfdirected
learning, but four of the students were able to describe the actions of a person they
believed was self-directed. Two students described others as being good at self-directed learning
because they completed their work, while one student described his friend as being very
independent. My friend is pretty good at self-directed learning. He’s independent, very independent,
he likes to find out stuff on his own, looking at his own reference books before going into the asking
someone else
Knowledge of the SDL process
Six of the ten gifted students said they would learn about something by carrying out inquiry.
They mentioned thinking and asking questions as well as using resources such as the computer,
encyclopedia, reading books, and looking for information on the internet. Three students described
strategies for being self-directed in learning that included actions such as teaching yourself a
strategy, trying to figure out an answer, and setting goals. You’d be talking about it, you’d be thinking
it through probably writing it down and once you’d finished thinking about it you put all your ideas
together and create what really is what you were learning.
The majority of the gifted students recognised that self-directed learners would check what
they are doing with the most frequent explanation being that they would proof read the work or ask
another person to proof read it. Maybe get a parent to proof read what they are doing or spell check
if you’re doing it on the computer and they do it themselves if they have a good sense of what they
are doing and how to correct it.
Nine of the ten gifted students said a self-directed learner would plan the use of time to find
out about a topic. Yeah, I think they would because you would have to like one day read some books
and find some information and like next day you go on the internet and yeah. One student explained
that a self-directed learner might not plan but use their time carefully. One student said that a selfdirected
learner would plan the use of time at school but not at home, and another indicated a
motivational orientation indicating that if a person is motivated to be a self-directed learner he/she
would want to plan in order to find out about other topics.
All of the gifted students were able to suggest ways they could get better at self-directed
learning, with most saying they could get better at self-directed learning by wanting to learn and
encouraging themselves. Encouraging yourself and saying to your mum if I ask you this just don’t tell
me what it is ‘cos I want to be self-directed and things like that. Eight of the ten gifted students said
that they would reflect on what they did in learning about a topic and the process of learning about
it. I usually think about what I could have done and what mistakes I made. Often I think well I could
have done this better. Other explanations included thinking about mistakes and thinking about what
was done and how that could be used on subsequent learning. Yeah and then you can use that
sequence that you worked well in to do something else properly.
Self-directed learning at school
The gifted students were able to describe a person becoming self-directed at school by
taking initiative and working out problems alone. First you try to work it out first but if you can’t work
it out then you get a friend to help. Four of the students answered that they would work out how to
do something at school by looking it up in a book. I’d read about things that I want to know about.
There was also mention of teaching yourself, finding your own way and finding your own resources.
Gifted and Talented International – 26(1), August, 2011; and 26(2), December, 2011. 115