As the need for learner-centered education as a way to educational innovation surfaces, self-directed learning has become a concept easily found in the educational academia and field. However, the traditional education theory in which teachers are at center could accept self-directed learning only in a limited way. Henceforth, the concept has been used, insufficiently understood. Constructivism is presented to overcome self-contradictions occurring from learner-centered education applied to the traditional educational theory, but it also has its own limits that could lead to excessive relativism. Educational experience as an activity with which a learner journeys toward a higher level beyond his/her current one finds it a little hard to apply the perspective of excessive relativism to self-directed learning.
Self-directed learning should seek after horizontal and vertical relativism at the same time, and be an activity that enlarges a learner''s consciousness. Hence, this study attempted to present a self-directed learning model that uses collaborative learning participated in by both fellow learners and teachers.
To see how learners use collaborative learning in their self-directedness, I verified roles of fellow learners and teachers in the collaborative learning. It turned out that through the process of communicating with their fellows, learners reflectively evaluate their learning process and results, creating knowledge in a collaborative manner while teachers play the role of arousing their curiosity and guiding them so that learners can internalize higher rules. Using this collaborative relationship of education, learners understood their shared learning topic where they actually were, apprehended the potential level of the topic through collaborative discussion, internalized/enlarged knowledge through performance within the proximal development zone.
To understand where they are, learners go through the process of personal level performance, refining logic to persuade others, sharing mutually different viewpoints via discussion with other learners, logically persuading them, and getting to realize what they are ignorant of in the questions presented. To tackle questions, learners explore more advanced mental functions, and internalize higher rules with the help of prior developers. Repeating a series of these processes, learners keep internalizing more advanced mental functions, and perform a self-directed learning that enlarges consciousness.
This study finds its significance in that it verifies dynamic interactions between learners and teachers in self-directed learning, thus shedding new light on the aspect of teachers. Self-directed learning is not performed by an isolated individual but is a learning process through making relationships with others. Accordingly, it should be recognized as a learner-led process in his/her educational relationship with teachers as prior developers. Also the model this study presents has its significance in that it overcomes the assignment-centered collaboration learning by understanding the collaborative learning as what''s centered on educational experiences that lay emphasis on personal realization and learning.