A Study of Self-Directed Learning strategy of High School Students in the Tea Garden Region of Jalpaiguri District, West Bengal
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrijm.2025.v10.n6.048Keywords:
Self-directed learning, high school students, academic achievement, learning strategies, JalpaiguriAbstract
This study explores the self-directed learning (SDL) strategies of high school students in the tea garden region of Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal. Self-directed learning is a process in which learners take initiative in planning, managing, and evaluating their own learning activities, thereby enhancing academic performance and personal development. The research focuses on understanding the role of SDL in shaping students’ learning outcomes and its relationship with academic achievement. A quantitative research approach was adopted using a specially designed Self-Directed Learning Strategy Scale consisting of 40 items on a three-point Likert scale. The sample comprised 300 secondary school students from different backgrounds. Statistical analysis, including mean, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, and t-test, was conducted using SPSS. The findings reveal that the distribution of SDL scores is normal and that there is no significant difference in SDL strategies across gender, type of school, residential status, or rural-urban background. The study concludes that self-directed learning plays a vital role in fostering independent thinking, decision-making, and lifelong learning skills among students.
References
Agassiz, L., & Eliot, S. (1897). Society to encourage studies at home. Bambridge, MA: The Society to Encourage Studies at Home.
Allen, I., & Seaman, J. (2004). Entering the mainstream: The quality and extent of online education in the United States. Retrieved from
http://www.sloanconsortium.org/sites/default/files/entering_mainstream_1.pdf
Allen, S., Baker, C., & Bell, K. (2010, June). Come together: Online reality and action plans. Paper presented at the Envision 2010, Nashville, TN.
Ally, M. (2004). Foundations of educational theory for online learning. Theory and practice of online learning, 3-31.
Ames, C., & Archer, J. (1988). Achievement goals in the classroom: Students' learning strategies and motivation processes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(3), 260. doi: 10.1037//0022-0663.80.3.260
Appley, M. H. (1991). Motivation, equilibration, and stress. In R. A. Dienstbier (Ed.), Perspectives on motivation: Nebraska symposium on motivation (Vol. 38). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Arnett, J. J. (1999). Adolescent storm and stress, reconsidered. American Psychologist, 54(5), 317.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Bandura, A., & Schunk, D. H. (1981). Cultivating competence, self-efficacy, and intrinsic interest through proximal self-motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41(3), 586. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.41.3.586
Blomeyer, R. (2002). Online learning for K–12 students: What do we know now?
Retrieved from http://www.ncrel.org/tech/elaearn/synthesis.pdf
Boettcher, J., & Conrad, R. M. (1999). Faculty guide for moving teaching and learning to the web. [Monograph]. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov
Bolhuis, S. (2003). Towards process-oriented teaching for self-directed lifelong learning: A multidimensional perspective. Learning and Instruction, 13(3), 327-347. doi: 10.1016/S0959-4752(02)00008-7
Bong, M. (2004). Academic motivation in self-efficacy, task value, achievement goal orientations, and attributional beliefs. The Journal of Educational Research, 97(6), 287- 298. doi: 10.3200/JOER.97.6.287-298
Bower, B. L., & Hardy, K. P. (2004). From correspondence to cyberspace: Changes and challenges in distance education. New Directions for Community Colleges, 2004(128), 5- 12. doi: 10.1002/cc.169
Brockett, R. G., & Hiemstra, R. (1991). Self-direction in adult learning: Perspectives on theory, research and practice. New York, NY: Routledge.
Brookfield, S. (1984). The contribution of Eduard Lindeman to the development of theory and philosophy in adult education. Adult Education Quarterly, 34(4), 185. doi: 10.1177/0001848184034004001
Brown, M. B., & Forsythe, A. B. (1974). Robust tests for the equality of variances.
Journal of the American Statistical Association, 364-367.
Brown, T. A. (2006). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research (methodology in the social sciences). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Canipe, J. B. (2001). The relationship between self-directed learning and learning styles.
PhD, The University of Tennessee. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/252189169?accountid=14767
Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (1981). Attention and self-regulation: A control-theory approach to human behavior. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.
Castells, M. (2005). The network society: from knowledge to policy. In M. Castells & G. Cardoso (Eds.), The network society: From knowledge to policy (pp. 3-22).
Washington, DC: Johns Hopkins Center for Transatlantic Relations. Retrieved from http://www.umass.edu/digitalcenter/research/pdfs/JF_NetworkSociety.pdf.
Castro, F., Vellido, A., Nebot, À., & Mugica, F. (2007). Applying data mining techniques to e learning problems. Evolution of teaching and learning paradigms in intelligent environment, 183-221.
Cattell, R. B., Cattell, A. K., & Cattell, H. K. (1993). Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (5th ed.). Champaign, IL: Institute for Personality and Ability Test.
Cavanaugh, C. (2008). Real learning happens in virtual schools. Threshold, 1(1), 10-12. Retrieved from http://www.ciconline.org/thresholdfall08
Cavanaugh, C., Barbour, M., Brown, R., Diamond, D., Lowes, S., Powell, A., . . . Van der Molen, J. (2009). Research committee issues brief: Examining communication and interaction in online teaching. Vienna, VA: International Association for K-12 Online Learning. Retrieved from http://www. inacol.
org/research/docs/NACOL_QualityTeaching-lr. pdf.
Cavanaugh, C., Barbour, M. K., & Clark, T. (2009). Research and practice in K-12 online learning: A review of open access literature. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(1), 1-13.
Cavanaugh, C., & Blomeyer, R. L. (Eds.). (2007). What works in K-12 online learning.
Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.
Cereijo, M. V. P., Young, J., & Wilhelm, R. W. (2001). Factors facilitating student participation in asynchronous web-based courses. Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, 18(1), 32-39.
Chellatamilan, T., & Suresh, R. (2011). An e-Learning Recommendation System using Association Rule Mining Technique. European Journal of Scientific Research, 64(2), 330-339.
Clark, T. (2003). Virtual and distance education in American schools. In M. Moore &
W. Andersen (Eds.), Handbook of distance education (pp. 1-34). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Collins, M. (1991). Adult education as vocation: A critical role for the adult educator.
New York, NY: Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.
Costa, P., & McCrae, R. (1992). The NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and the NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Davis, N., & Niederhauser, D. S. (2007). Virtual schooling. Learning and Leading with Technology, 34(7), 10-15.
DiPietro, M. (2010). Virtual school pedagogy: The instructional practices of K-12 virtual school teachers. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 42(3), 327-354. doi: 10.2190/EC.42.3.e
DiPietro, M., Ferdig, R. E., Black, E. W., & Preston, M. (2008). Best practices in teaching K-12 online: Lessons learned from Michigan Virtual School teachers. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 7(1), 10-35.
Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95(2), 256-273. doi: 10.1037/0033- 295X.95.2.256
Egido, C. (1988, September). Video conferencing as a technology to support group work: A review of its failures. Paper presented at the ACM conference on Computer- supported Cooperative Work, Portland, OR.
Ellinger, A. D. (2004). The concept of self-directed learning and its implications for human resource development. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 6(2), 158-177. doi: 10.1177/1523422304263327
Flora, D. B., & Curran, P. J. (2004). An empirical evaluation of alternative methods of estimation for confirmatory factor analysis with ordinal data. Psychological methods, 9(4), 466.
Frid, S. (2001). Supporting primary students' on-line learning in a virtual enrichment program. Research in Education(66), 9-27.
Gagne, R. M. (1965). The conditions of learning. New York, NY: Holt Rinehart and Winston.
Garrison, D. R. (1997). Self-directed learning: Toward a comprehensive model. Adult Education Quarterly, 48(1), 18-33. doi: 10.1177/074171369704800103
Gaumnitz, W. H. (1952). C. Growth evidence: Historical highlights of correspondence education. NASSP Bulletin, 36(190), 38-46. doi: 10.1177/019263655203619005
Hagenaars, J. A., & Halman, L. C. (1989). Searching for ideal types: The potentialities of latent class analysis. European Sociological Review, 5(1), 81-96.
Hammond, M., & Collins, R. (1991). Self-directed learning: Critical practice. London: Kogan Page.
Hillman, D. C. A., Willis, D. J., & Gunawardena, C. N. (1994). Learner interface interaction in distance education: An extension of contemporary models and strategies for practitioners. American Journal of Distance Education, 8(2), 30-42.
Hogan, J., & Holland, B. (2003). Using theory to evaluate personality and job- performance relations: A socioanalytic perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(1), 100-112. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.88.1.100
Hogan, J., & Roberts, B. W. (1996). Issues and non issues in the fidelity–bandwidth trade off. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 17(6), 627-637. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1099- 1379(199611)17:6<627::AID-JOB2828>3.3.CO;2-6
Houle, C. O. (1988). The inquiring mind: A study of the adult who continues to learn.
Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Hsu, Y., & Shiue, Y. (2005). The effect of self-directed learning readiness on achievement comparing face-to-face and two-way distance learning instruction. International Journal of Instructional Media, 32(2), 143.
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1-55.
Jarvis, P. (1992). Paradoxes of learning: On becoming an individual in society. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Inc., Publishers.
Jones, C. A., Kandel, W., & Parker, T. (2007). Population Dynamics Are Changing the Profile of Rural Areas-Amber Waves April 2007. Retrieved from
http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/April07/Features/Population.htm
Joreskog, K., & Sorbom, D. (2006). LISREL 8.8 and PRELIS 2.8 [Computer Software]: Scientific Software International, Inc.: Lincolnwood, IL.
Judge, T. A., Erez, A., Bono, J. E., & Thoresen, C. J. (2002). Are measures of self-esteem, neuroticism, locus of control, and generalized self-efficacy indicators of a common core construct? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(3), 693-710. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.83.3.693
Judge, T. A., Locke, E. A., Durham, C. C., & Kluger, A. N. (1998). Dispositional effects on job and life satisfaction: The role of core evaluations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(1), 17-34. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.83.1.17
Kitchenham, A. (2008). The evolution of John Mezirow's transformative learning theory. Journal of Transformative Education, 6(2), 104-123. doi: 10.1177/1541344608322678
Kitsantas, A., & Zimmerman, B. J. (2006). Enhancing self-regulation of practice: The influence of graphing and self-evaluative standards. Metacognition and Learning, 1(3), 201-212.
Knowles, M. S. (1970). The modern practice of adult education: From pedagogy to andragogy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Cambridge Adult Education.
Knowles, M. S. (1975). Self-directed learning: A guide for learners and teachers. New York, NY: Association Press.
Knox, A. B. (1973). Life long self directed education. ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult Education. Retrieved from www.eric.ed.gov
Kulich, J. (1970). An historical overview of the adult self-learner. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov
Lasic-Lazic , J., Stancic , H., & Banek, M. (2001). Audio-video conferences in the business and educational environment. Paper presented at the 3rd CARNet Users Conference, Zagreb, Croatia.
Leiner, B., Cerf, V., Clark, D., Kahn, R., Kleinrock, L., Lynch, D., & Wolf, K. (2009). A brief history of the Internet. ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, 39(5), 22-31. doi: 10.1145/1629607.1629613
Long, H. B. (1990). Psychological control in self directed learning. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 9(4), 331-338.
Lounsbury, J. W., & Gibson, L. W. (2006). Personal Style Inventory: A personality measurement system for work and school settings. Knoxville, TN: Resource Associates, Inc.
Lounsbury, J. W., Saudargas, R. A., & Gibson, L. W. (2004). An investigation of personality traits in relation to intention to withdraw from college. Journal of College Student Development, 45(5), 517-534. doi: 10.1353/csd.2004.0059
Lounsbury, J. W., Tatum, H., Gibson, L., Park, S., Sundstrom, E., Hamrick, F., & Wilburn, D. (2003). The development of a Big Five adolescent personality scale.
Psychoeducational Assessment, 21, 111-133. doi: 10.1177/073428290302100201
Lounsbury, J. W., Welsh, D. P., Gibson, L. W., & Sundstrom, E. (2005). Broad and narrow personality traits in relation to cognitive ability in adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 38(5), 1009-1019. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2004.06.022
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).