Thesis advisor: Michael Russell / SDL is an important life-long learning skill. Current research on SDL has approached it both as a set of skills students develop and as an instructional method. The study presented here approached SDL as an instructional method and explored educators’ instructional use of SDL in relation with pedagogical beliefs, a relationship that has not been sufficiently explored in past research. This relationship was also placed in a Critical Race Theoretical Framework to explore whether the implementation of SDL differed by the racial composition of schools. A multi-method approach was taken which included surveying and interviewing middle school teachers in Massachusetts public schools. Descriptive analyses, factor analyses, correlation analyses, regression analyses, and t-tests were conducted in order to explore the relationship between teachers’ implementation of SDL and their extent of technology integration and pedagogical beliefs, as well as whether the implementation of SDL differs based on the racial composition of the schools in which teachers work. Interviews were employed to explore the results further. Teachers with more student-centered beliefs had higher levels of implementation of SDL than those with more teacher-centered beliefs, and pedagogical beliefs were also a stronger predictor of the level of implementation of SDL than were teachers’ amount of technology use or beliefs about student technology use. No significant relationship was observed between SDL and the racial composition of schools. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

The e-learning system is one of many educational methods that allow flexible learner-centered education. It is also an information system based on the Internet. Hence, the increasing use of the e-learning has provided an inter-disciplinary research opportunity to information systems and educational engineering fields. But the benefits of an e-learning are subjected to the organization¡¦s learning environments, readiness and the acceptance of self-directed users. In other words, self-directed learning (SDL) is a prerequisite to e-learning success. It is important to evaluate the readiness of self-directed users and their acceptance of e-learning system. This paper focuses on examining the applicability of both the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) in explaining adult self-directed users¡¦ acceptance of e-learning system in a blended learning context. The combination of user groups (adult learners), the technology (e-learning system), and the context (blended learning in a higher education institution) is new to IT acceptance researches. The purpose of this research is to shed light on more effective ways to motivate part-time adult learners to use e-learning system in a higher education institution. This study extends both the TAM and UTAUT models with self-directed learning (SDL) concepts. A questionnaire was developed based on previous works in the areas of technology acceptance and SDL. Based on responses from 433 adult blended learners, both SDL-based TAM and UTAUT models were evaluated in terms of overall fit, explanatory power, and their causal links. Overall, findings suggest that TAM may be more appropriate than UTAUT for examining high SDLRS score user group¡¦s e-learning acceptance behaviour; UTAUT may provide e-learning designers and management teams some crucial suggestions to enhance low SDLRS score users¡¦ system utilization. This study also asserts that the successful transition to an e-learning environment requires that the self-directed learners be actively encouraged and supported by their organizations. Results of this study provide reliable and valid SDL-based TAM and UTAUT instruments for organizations to determine whether their learners had the necessary skills for SDL-based blended learning before investing huge budget and time in a large-scale e-learning project. As more organizations experiment with e-learning systems, the SDL-based TAM and UTAUT models could be used to (a) assess the degree of users¡¦ self-directed readiness before e-learning implementation; and (b) evaluate the factors affecting users¡¦ acceptance of new e-learning system and provide useful remedies for improving system utilization rate after e-learning implementation.

Rapid scientific and technological advances in health care mean that nurses need to keep learning and engage in professional education so that they can continue to provide safe and quality care. Education programs which prepare nurses for practice as a registered nurse have a vital role to play in ensuring that graduates are self-directed in responding to the need for ongoing learning throughout their professional career. In many countries, improving students’ readiness for self-directed learning has thus gained increasing recognition as being an important goal of nursing education programs. This level of interest in developing self-directedness in learning is evident in many policy documents and research in Taiwan. The aim of this study was to investigate factors influencing self-directed learning readiness amongst Taiwanese nursing students. A conceptual framework adopted from Biggs’s ‘3P model of teaching and learning’ was constructed to guide this study’s investigation. This study employed a two-staged mixed-method design to obtain a better understanding of Taiwanese students’ experience of SDL in undergraduate nursing programs. Stage one of the present study was a qualitative approach using semi-structured interview to explore students’ experiences with learning activities which they perceived to be self-directed in their undergraduate programs. Eight students were interviewed. Findings from this stage reveal that participants perceived a shift in teaching and learning styles between their previous nursing programs and the university. The more frequent use of student-directed learning activities, in which students were encouraged to be active and to take responsibility for their learning tasks, was one of the changes in teaching and learning approaches perceived by participants. Participants further suggested a number of factors that influenced the outcomes of these learning activities, including teacher-student interaction, facilitation process and learning resources. Stage two of this study used a quantitative approach consisting of two phases: instrument pilot testing and a cross-sectional survey. In the first phase, the instruments were translated into Chinese through a rigorous translation process and tested with a convenience sample of nursing students in Taiwan. Results indicated the translated instruments were reliable and stable. The second phase, a cross-sectional survey, was conducted to examine the conceptual framework of this study. A total of 369 undergraduate nursing students completed the questionnaire. Results of data analysis provides support for the conceptual framework proposed for this study, suggesting that students’ achievement goals and their perceptions of the learning environment significantly influence their adoption of learning approaches and the development of SDL readiness. Based on the results, this study provides practical implications that nurse educators may adopt to enhance students’ SDL readiness. This study also provides theoretical implications and recommendations for future research. It is envisaged that these recommendations may help future researchers focus their research design and further understandings of how to help students develop their ability to become self-directed learners.