COLLEGE INSTRUCTORS have struggled with a lack of self-directed learning (SDL) development in their students for many decades. Self-direction is by no means a new topic in teaching and learning, but it is one of growing significance in engineering educational discourse. In 1969, Carl Rogers articulated the need for flexible, independent learners: Teaching and the imparting of knowledge make sense in an unchanging environment. This is why it has been an unquestioned function for centuries. But if there is one truth about modern man, it is that he lives in an environment which is continually changing . . .We are, in my view, faced with an entirely new situation in education where the goal of education, if we are to survive, is the facilitation of change and learning. The only man who is educated is the man who has learned how to learn; the man who has learned how to adapt and change; the man who has realized that no knowledge is secure, that only the process of seeking knowledge gives a basis for security [1].
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© 2010 Tempus Publications. This article was published in International Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 900-913 and may be found here.