Online Encyclopedia Search Tool

Your Online Encyclopedia

 

Online Encylopedia and Dictionary Research Site

Online Encyclopedia Free Search Online Encyclopedia Search    Online Encyclopedia Browse    welcome to our free dictionary for your research of every kind

Online Encyclopedia



Autodidacticism

Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) is self-education or self-directed learning. An autodidact is a mostly self-taught person (also known as an automath), or someone who has an enthusiasm for self-education, and usually has a high degree of self-motivation. Going back through history, occasional individuals have sought to excel in subjects from outside the mainstream of conventional education. Jean Paul Sartre's Nausea depicts an autodidact who is a self-deluding dilettante. However, other autodidacts have excelled at their disciplines and brought innovative perspectives.

A successful autodidact may become an autodidact at nearly any point in his or her life. In modern times, most people have learned to read, write, and perform basic math processes from one or more teachers, often in the public-school system. And it should be said, self-teaching and self-directed learning are not necessarily lonely processes. Some autodidacts have taken selective post-secondary training in college, university, trade school, correspondence institutions, or night school, though in many people's case this sort of training has been minimal or sporadic for them. Some spend a great deal of time in libraries and/or on educative Web sites. Many have experienced in-the-job training through their employment situations. Many (according to their plan for learning) avail themselves of instruction from family members, friends, or other associates.

Inquiry into autodidacticism has implications in learning theory and educational theory , educational research, educational philosophy and educational psychology.

1 Books
2 See also
3 External links

Contents

Famous autodidacts

Mythologist Joseph Campbell is one of the most famous autodidacts, and is seen by some as a poster-boy for the methodology. Following completing his masters degree, Campbell decided not to go forward with his plans to earn a doctorate, and he went into the woods in upstate New York, reading deeply for five years. According to Campbell, this is, in a sense, where his real education took place, and the time when he began to develop his unique view on the nature of life.

According to poet and author Robert Bly, a friend of Campbell, Campbell developed a systematic program of reading nine hours a day. It is speculated by some that Campbell felt the work he did during this time was far more rigorous than any doctoral program could have been, and more fruitful in developing his unique perspectives.

Last updated: 02-11-2005 17:47:38