As workplace demands change, a need has developed for alternatives to traditional education. With advancements in electronic telecommunication technologies, distance education has become a viable alternative to traditional classrooms for working professionals. Efficiency and cost effectiveness are driving many programs to place oncampus students and distance students in the same courses at the same time. This phenomenon has resulted in the placement of students with vastly different backgrounds, levels of expertise, and levels of motivation in the same classrooms. Often a professor will teach to one learning style, leaving some students in the dust, never to get on track. Without face-to-face contact with an instructor, this can leave distance education students feeling isolated and alone. There is a continuing need for the development of alternative instruments to assess self-directed learning (Brockett & Himestra, 1991). We must develop a means of determining an individual??s readiness for self-directed learning, as well as a device for measuring the efficiency of programs designed to foster the attitudes and skills which are involved in increased self-directedness in learning (Guglielmino, 1977). Self-directed learning readiness is important to a learner??s success in distance education programs. Inorder for an educator to tailor instruction to the unique attributes of each student, there is a need for an instrument that will identify the learner??s stage of self-directedness or degree of dependency and for an instrument that will determine the educator??s default teaching style at the beginning of a course. Such an instrument will help instructors increase their learners?? level of self-direction and will improve the overall quality, student satisfaction, and student retention in distance learning courses. The purpose of this study is to develop and pilot test two instruments based upon the Staged Self Directed Learning Model (Grow, 1991) and the key assumptions of andragogy: one measuring the self-directed learning readiness of a student in the context of an individual course and the other measuring the teaching style of the instructor in the context of the same course. The data will be analyzed and given to the instructor to give him/her an idea of the self-directed learning readiness level of students enrolled in the course. A report will be generated to show matches and mismatches between the instructor??s teaching style and the self-directed learning readiness level of the students. A decision model will be developed to suggest teaching strategies that minimize mismatches and facilitate the growth of students from dependent to self-directed through the course.

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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of this study is to determine some of the effects of self-directed learning in elementary science on the growth of fifth grade pupils. It was attempted to measure pupil growth in four areas: A. Fact absorption B. General Science Knowledge C. Liking for science D. Learning to generalize Printed materials instructed pupils in the use of simple apparatus to collect data and solve elementary science problems. The approach was inductive and required making generalizations on observed phenomena. A need exists for facilitating the use of activity science in classes where the teacher is unfamiliar with the content and process of science. Teachers who are unfamiliar with science do not deal adequately with the tactics and strategy of science investigation. Materials directed to the student which lead him through the experience of actual investigation might help to overaome some of the reluctance to engage in science activities evidenced by teachers untrained in science. If it can be shown that students are able to learn as much factual material by self-instruction as through the average textbook oriented study, then schools might be able to carry on a science activity program using the processes of science investigation without extensive teacher retraining programs and without loss of subject matter learning. Four self-directed science studies were tried on 128 students of six classes selected at random from schools of a mixed factory-suburban town. One hundred thirty-two students in seven classes were used as a control group. The study was conducted over a period of six months. Experimental and control groups were equated as to I.Q. ratings and scores on a standardized reading test. Teachers were equated on the basis of a town wide supervisors' survey. It was decided to investigate the comparative performance of the experimental and control groups using four different measuring instruments. 1. Growth in specific subject matter knowledge as measured on a prepared fact test. 2. Growth in general science knowledge as measured on a standardized science test. 3. Changes in possible liking for science as measured on a standardized attitude survey. 4. Growth in ability to generalize as measured on an organizational ability test. The four different tests were administered before and after the study and the change in performance was compared across groups for statistical differences. experimental and control groups were also compared in upper and lower I.Q. halves and by sex. The results of the experiment were as follows: 1. Fact absorption There was no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in gain of factual knowledge, nor was there difference when groups were compared according to sex and I.Q. 2. General Science Knowledge The upper I.Q. pupils of the control group enlarged their general science knowledge significantly more than did the experimental group. Between the two main groups there was no significant difference in gain of general science knowledge. 3. Liking for Science. After self-study activities the upper I.Q. groups expressed a liking for science significantly greater than the corresponding control group. The girls of the experimental groups gained in choices for science more than did the girls of the control group. There was no significant difference in the scores of the total groups. 4. Learning to Generalize. There were no significant differences in gains in organizational abilities between the experimental and control groups and none between the sex groups and I.Q. groups. SUMMARY: Although the present study showed no advantage for self-study activity science over traditional science studies,there is indication that the students learn the factual content as well when learning by themselves as when taught by a teacher. If longer exposure to science self-study activities is needed to show results in behavior of the students, there is much to gain and little to lose by allowing the student to pursue his science studies on his own. / 2031-01-01

High globalization of economy has led companies into a business environment in which the changes are increasingly complex and faster. In order to survive even succeed over the long term, the modern enterprises must confront reality in real time and predict possibility. In the 1990s, the theory of dynamic capability arose for responding the rapid changes in market conditions. Many scholars¡¦ researches found that the learning of organization, management models and organizational ambidexterity are the factors to affect the dynamic capability of enterprise. And the organizational ambidexterity can enhance organizational strength of controlling new knowledge and informational diversity. The purpose of this research is to explore the relationships among self-directed learning, organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capability of enterprise. Research is conducted using survey data collection. Samples are from engineers, administrators, specialists, first-line and midlevel managers in enterprises. Via electronic and paper questionnaires, the numbers of distributed questionnaire is 557, effective questionnaire is 230, and the rate of effective questionnaire is 41.3%. The analysis results show that there are significantly parallel relationships among self-directed learning, organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capability of enterprise. For enterprise management, strengthening employees¡¦ self-directed learning and building up a high organizational ambidexterity are useful to enhance the dynamic capability of enterprise.

Information science and technology fast development not only impact industry external competition environment, but also has the significant influence to the enterprise interior management. Along with network technology maturity, more and more enterprises Internet technical application in enterprise, thus constructs the construction enterprise exclusively intranet system, to unimpeded internal information, and provides each kind of convenient service and the function, then reduces the cost, to strengthened enterprise physique, to ensure the competitive advantage. On this occasion of the information explodes, no matter the society or individual, the lifelong study is the inevitable tendency, but constructs the construction using the enterprise interior network e-Learning to provide the multiplex study pipeline, may cause the knowledge management and study obtains more convenient and effectiveness. Steps while the whole world to the information, the science and technology and the government advocated the lifelong study, the enterprise promote the industry to encourage education, personally to take advanced courses become common practice, it reveal e-Learning potential to become the epoch-making education learning. However, from the view point of business management, lead-in e-Learning system incurs great expense. This research use the¡uUnified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology / UTAUT¡vas a foundation, from the large-scale traditional industry as a viewpoint, revises its scales, and use the way of lamination random sampling to carry on the questionnaire survey to the case study company, and obtains 180 effectively questionnaires. The main conclusion includes: To the case study company's staffs [1] Influence e-Learning system to accept a factor to be allowed to induce is "Performance Expectancy ", ¡§Effort Expectancy ", " Social Influence ¡§and " Facilitating Conditions " four items, different staff have different factor value degree. [2] The influence system use wish factor only has ¡§Performance Expectancy ", and " Facilitating Conditions " and so on two items; At the same time directly the behavior has the influence " Performance Expectancy " to "Actual use": The other two factors influence (Effort Expectancy and Social Influence) certainly does not reveal. [3] " Performance Influence" for the wish of uses and the actual behavior influence far surpass other factors.

This study discussed the relationships among employee personality, self-directed learning, and work performance. Samples are from people who serve in businesses, answer questionnaires with four main aspects, including Internal-External Scale, Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale, Performance, and background data. The analysis results showed the following findings: 1. The differences of self-directed learning due to different personal background. a. Sex, age, education, department, level, work experience do not show significant differences on self-directed learning. b. The middle and high level manager are higher self-directed learning. c. People who had training in the past year are higher self-directed learning. d. People who had training or advanced study out of their own needs before are higher self-directed learning. 2. People with internal locus of control are higher self-directed learning. 3. People with internal locus of control have better performance. 4. People who are efficient and autonomous learner have better performance. 5. Employee¡¦s self-directed learning is influenced by locus of control, and it further influences performance. 6. Employee¡¦s self-directed learning is not influenced by his/her management level, and it won¡¦t influence performance further. 7. Employee¡¦s self-directed learning is influenced by his/her attending training in the last year, and it further influences performance. 8. Employee¡¦s self-directed learning is not influenced by his/her experience having training or advanced study out of his/her own needs before, and it won¡¦t influence performance further. According the findings, this research suggests: 1. Business can use personality measurements and Self-Directed Learning measurements as tools of selection. 2. Business should give employees more autonomy and resources assistance in the human development programs. 3. Business should give employees developmental opportunities in equality. 4. Employees should have the attitude being responsible to their own learning.

The Study of the Relationship among Organizational Climate Awareness, Self-directed Learning, and Job Involvement ¡V Taking One International Express Corporation as Example Abstract Organizational climate has an influence on the awareness of organization personnel, and its not only affect their mind, but also behavior. In the changing world, the competition between people has been expanded from one country to the whole world. Learning is necessary for people to keep their competition advantage, and the result of learning will affect the corporation operations, and also bring up the adult learning atmosphere. However, the study is focus on how does the corporation use this learning atmosphere to reinforce employees¡¦ job involvement, and use the organizational climate awareness affect employees¡¦ job involvement. The four types of organizational climate are leadership, organization structure, people relationship and responsibility which is this study trying to discuss the influence on self-directed learning and job involvement, also understand the self-directed learning mediating effect the relationship between organizational climate awareness and job involvement. After statistic analyzing, the results are summarize as following: 1. The different individual variables to organizational climate awareness, self-directed learning and job involvement come out a partly remarkable discrepancy. 2. Organizational climate awareness was positively significant to job involvement. 3. Self-directed learning was affected job involvement partly. 4. Organizational climate awareness was affected employee self-directed learning partly. 5. Self-directed learning was found to have a significant mediating effect between organizational climate and job involvement.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Foundations and Adult Education / Sarah Jane Fishback / There have been two classic models of the way self-directed learners organize their learning experiences – a planning model, discussed by researchers such as Tough (1971) and Knowles (1975), which considers self-directed learners to be actively and deliberately planning their learning projects, and an environmental model, proposed by Spear and Mocker (1984), which considers these learners to be strongly influenced by what they called the organizing circumstance. Later researchers have found support for both models. Both models posit that learning resources play an important role for self-directed learners, but there hasn’t been much research specifically looking at how learners make resource decisions. For this project, the researcher recruited 13 women from online sewing communities who had reported obtaining a particular hard-to-find sewing resource and interviewed them about their resource decisions and resource libraries. The project asked the questions of how self-directed learners are planning, the criteria they use to choose learning resources, how an environment of plentiful resources and the internet affect these choices, and how learners evaluate their resources. The researcher found that this particular group of learners are conscious only of doing short-term, project-by-project, planning, but reveal another, unconscious level of building mental maps of their entire field of interest, including judgments of their personal interests and evaluations of their personal skill sets. These learners enjoy this learning, and consider their resources to be treats as well as references; they seek relevant content, novelty, and intellectual challenge. They are strongly influenced by their communities, both local and online, but maintain independence in their learning choices.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of this study was to determine whether a match between a participant's learning style and type of online instruction improved learner performance on tests measuring comprehension and retention. Learning style was measured by the Self-Directed Leamer Readiness Scale (SDLRS) and the Grasha-Riechmann Student Learning Style Scale (GRSLSS) and online instruction varied among online courses, recorded online courses, and computer-based tutorials. The setting for the study was a high tech machine vision company in Massachusetts and online users of its products were the participants. Three groups of learners participated in the study: employees, high school students, and customers. All three groups were comprised of engineers or engineering students. All 106 participants completed a survey that measured their preference for self-directed and collaborative learning style with the standard instruments SDLRS and GRSLSS. Participants completed 323 pre- and post-tests for 46 live online courses, recorded online courses, and computer-based tutorials during the data collection phase of the study. Those participants learning in their preferred learning style had the highest mean improvement from pre- to post-tests. Those participants with average or below average scores for self-directed and collaborative learning style showed the least improvement. The results of this study supported the hypothesis that matching the type of activity, collaborative or self-directed, to the learner's preferred learning style improved performance. The study included ten research questions. / 2031-01-01

China's open-door policy to the West has created a great demand for Chinese speakers of English. But the existing formal language institutions are far from enough to meet such a great need. Consequently, large numbers of people will have to learn English by themselves, self-directed to different extents, depending on the facilities available to them. There are also large numbers of potential selfdirected learners who do not yet know where to start and how to tackle the task. Self-directed learning, either of English or of other subjects, has always played an important role in China as an alternative form of education. There have been many successful self-directed learners who have made remarkable contributions to the country in different fields. However, self-directed learning of English on a large scale is still a relatively new phenomenon. Some proper guidance and the learners' awareness of the likely difficult areas will make the learning both more effective and more efficient. This study will attempt to examine the gradual change from teacher-centred teaching and learning to learner-centred teaching and learning and the development of self-directed learning. Then the study will try to provide information on some of the self-directed learning programmes of interest to Chinese learners. Afterwards, the study will examine the basic needs and characteristics of Chinese self-directed learners. The greater part of this study will be devoted to the likely areas of difficulty of self-directed learners in China and some possible ways to solve them. The last part will deal with study skills in self-directed learning and use of resources available.