Abstract
This chapter analyzes how teachers' conduct affects students' self-directed learning. Positive, supportive educator conduct is crucial for students' self-direction because it influences how students or children learn. Educators' assumptions about students may damage their self-concept and intrinsic drive to study, while educators' attitudes and instructional approaches may foster self-directed learning. Students' conduct relies not only on how they classify themselves in class but also on the educator's support, a feeling of belonging, and self-concept. All these characteristics are started and maintained by the educator's conduct throughout teaching and learning. Complementary educator conduct may uncover new dimensions of self-directed learning. However, it is disputed with several important routes to explore. If teachers could learn to improve their teaching and learning, the world's perception of learning might shift radically. This chapter aimed to provide a better understanding of how educators' conduct affects students' self-directed learning.
TopIntroduction
The term “behavior” can be used to refer to how people act or carry themselves, especially concerning other people. It is sometimes a response to a particular occurrence or set of circumstances. Teaching, learning, and overall health and well-being cannot be delivered in isolation from behavior management. When looking at the definition of educator conduct, one finds that it is characterized as the behavior of educators in learning that is concerned with giving supervision and control of the learning that students are doing in settings designed for learning (cf. Odike & Nnaekwe, 2018).
Learning environments are multifaceted and sensitive to various factors, all of which depend on the importance of education and constructive and motivating relationships (Du Toit-Brits & Van Zyl, 2017). In these types of educational settings, both students and educators need to cultivate learning and teaching habits in order to thrive in a community that is centered on education. The fact that these constructive and supportive actions may be learned is a good piece of news. It is often held that the actions of educators may either encourage or discourage students' motivation and desire to take responsibility for their learning and well-being (Kidane et al., 2020). In addition, an educator's behavior includes all spoken and unspoken actions demonstrated by the educator's effort to communicate instruction in a learning setting. This behavior can be either intentional or unintentional.
Consequently, this indicates that the teaching method employed by educators can have diverse consequences for students' acts. Thus, educators have a significant part to play in delivering and supporting an encouraging and inspiring learning environment for students to excel academically. Scholars accentuate that the central part of the responsibility for quality education lies in the behavior and attitude of an educator (cf. Agir, 2019; Ahmad et al., 2013; Odike & Nnaekwe, 2018). Consequently, this chapter proposes that educators are significant agents who need to direct and support students' self-directedness and willingness to direct their learning. Drawing on an extensive range of sources, the authors set out that in order to be willing to direct and control one's learning, educators' behavior ought to be encouraged inside a conducive learning environment where students need to be motivated to learn self-directedly and have a sense of belonging.
This chapter aims also to contribute to this growing area of research by exploring the importance of the link between students' willingness to learn and educators' behavior. Therefore, the chapter aims to present consciousness of the relationship or link between students' willingness to learn self-directedly and educators' behavior. The way that educator behavior motivates students to learn self-directedly can enhance their motivation, attitude, willingness, and confidence in their learning. Moreover, the way that educator behavior generates student motivation towards self-directed learning (SDL) during the teaching process forms the foundation for quality education. Therefore, for the purpose of this chapter, the authors believe that educator behavior can intentionally and unintentionally influence students' autonomy and ability to learn self-directedly in the learning environment. As a result of the close links between the SDL behavior of educators and students, educators should be conscious and take advantage of the numerous noticeable and imperceptible directions through which they can influence students' willingness to be self-directed. This chapter intends to improve the knowledge of this matter by recognizing educators' influence on students' self-directedness. Thus, the emphasis of this chapter is mainly on theoretical developments, without depending on facts (cf. Jaakkola, 2020). In conclusion, this chapter offers (a) a review of the literature on SDL and educator behavior, (b) a discussion of the way in which characteristics and character are connected to educator behavior, (c) a discussion of fostering a sense of belonging through educators' behavior, and (d) a discussion of students' motivation to learn self-directedly.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Learning: Change that happens in behavior or cognitive processing as a consequence of experience, which may result in improved results and lifelong learning.
Educator Behavior: How an educator acts, what an educator does, and how it promotes or hinder learning.
Students: Higher education students studying towards degrees at higher education institutions.
Motivation: Motivation is the inner drive that inspires an individual to take action and sustains it until the desired goal is attained. It is what encourages people to succeed in their work, among other things. It can be described as the driver behind the measures individuals take to achieve their goals.
Self-Directed Learning: Students engaging in self-directed learning accept the main responsibility for their education, including its preparation, execution, and assessment.
Educator: A person who is an academic in higher education who facilitates learning in classrooms where people (students) study towards degrees.