Children often complain of being forced to do their assignments and study their lessons at home. If you are a parent of schoolchildren, you would have gone through hours of frustration and would need anger management sessions to contain yourself as you fail to make your children study their lessons on their own. They may not have acquired yet the value of self discipline and we can just hope they will soon do. We expect adults to do better and already know the value and benefits of self-paced studies.
As adults, we are supposed to know why we want to study and learn. We will have our own personal learning objectives that guide our learning activities in a given period or semester of studies. And as busy adults who work and study at the same time, we cannot take this responsibility lightly. We have to learn how to make self-paces studies efficient and productive, for it is there where our success rest. We must have the discipline, determination and strength to accomplish the learning objectives that we have set for ourselves.
Self-paced studies can be a real challenge to those who were brought up in the traditional or conventional educational system where every class is led by a teacher and each student is supposed to study the prescribed lesson for the day, do their assignments, and hand in their work at the designated time. Indeed, the challenge exists for both teachers and students. Students are constrained to follow all the dictates of the teacher, who herself is just following a predetermined lesson plan. There is little room for flexibility and creativity. Self-paced studies on the other hand is a total overhauling of the traditional system where a student can set his or her own pace independently of from any kind of prerequisites, except that the coursework has to be finished and submitted as agreed. This type of learning can be applied to almost all subject matters or courses. It can be adapted to different educational environment but it is most effective where creativity and freedom of expression is permitted and encouraged. It could be as simple as reading a book on your own time to acquire information about a subject matter, listening to an audio book or watching a video presentation, and completing the accompanying exercises. It could also involve computer-assisted learning where you use or interact with a computer application to learn about the topic.
Teachers in traditional classroom-based education often forget the individual student who fails to cope with the rest of the class. At the same time, students who are more intelligent may become frustrated and bored with the lessons prepared by the teacher. This may not be the ideal learning environment but this is what has been happening for a long time now. This is an inefficient, less productive way to learn. In self-paced studies, these limitations are avoided because students learn when they need to and when they are ready. There will be no students who will become bored or students who will be overwhelmed by concepts they fail to appreciate. They are not dependent on the teacher who has his or her own agenda for teaching. Many students are actually more motivated to learn when they know they are in control of their own knowledge acquisition process. Each student invests in his or her own future and is allowed to participate and go through the learning process; they are responsible for achieving their own learning objectives.
Teachers will still be there but they are there mostly to act as facilitators or guides only. However, in self-paced studies, teachers have the opportunity to focus on less capable students and provide them with more attention and assistance.
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