Self - Directed Learning: A Perspective

“Experience is the best teacher”. Though the proverb proves its strength, it is miserable to note many of the educational institutions do not change accordingly to the changes that have been emanated in the Educational System. The administrators still pester the teachers and the students to follow the traditional way of teaching and rote methods. In the examinations, the questions test the retention power of the student but not the application of concepts to solve or answer the problem. The students have been habituated to select only few concepts with the help of the study guides and decided to pass the exams. The time has come to rethink and design the curriculum in such a way, so that the students can face the challenges in the work front. It is essential for the authorities to note that the learning attitudes of the students have been changing. The teaching methodology has been changed from the teacher –centred to learner-centred. The teachers' role is not restricted to teaching, instead he is expected to become a facilitator, mentor and motivator and designer of the learning situation and at times he has to become a co-learner. The students should be encouraged to learn by themselves by providing them with the problems. In the present paper, the author tries to discuss the problems of the Self-Directed Learning good for the professional students or not and tries to find out whether there is a correlation between self – directed learning and academic achievement.