Adult women's constructions of self-direction in learning in the context of their undergraduate experiences

This study explores adult learners' meaning schemes and related actions as they engage in self-direction in learning in the college classroom. A qualitative design and a theoretical viewpoint grounded in constructivism and Philip Candy's (1991) analysis of self-direction structure the investigation. The perspectives presented by nine women who are part-time undergraduate students at a southeastern community college or public university are used in this study. The methodology involves a re-analysis of audiotaped and transcribed semi-structured interviews originally created during a study funded by the United States Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement (Kasworm & Blowers, 1994). A model of self-direction in classroom learning is developed from the findings. This model has three phases: becoming involved, managing, and evaluating. The model indicates that adult classroom learners possess the skills and actions commonly associated with self-directed learning. These students' abilities to express self-direction is dominated, however, by the socially constructed beliefs about the roles of teachers and learners and the actions expected for classroom learning. Within this study, participants could not articulate new ways of organizing classrooms or alternate behaviors for teachers and learners that went beyond the traditional roles and behaviors. In addition, they believed that their learning peers had little influence on their learning. Within this study, self-directing classroom learners primarily strive to construct subject-matter knowledge that allows them to achieve high grades because they have numerous academically-anchored goals. They view teachers as important contributors to the creation of academic subject-matter knowledge and as the primary directors of its evaluation. Adult classroom learners may also construct unique subject-matter knowledge to meet personal goals and purposes. Teachers have no role in defining the goals of unique subject-matter knowledge, nor do they direct its construction or participate in its evaluation.