The Learning Independence of Young Schoolchildren

Abstract

When we speak of someone who knows how to teach himself, we think of a scholar obsessed with a cognitive passion. Having stumbled upon some gap in his education, he begins to experience a spiritual yearning, a thirst for knowledge. And to quench that thirst, he goes to the library, compiles a detailed bibliography on the issue of interest to him, digs into specialist literature, and studies it until he feels sufficiently well informed. But learning to learn should not be understood so narrowly. It reveals itself not only in the cognitive domain and does not coincide with the ability to use reference literature and extract the necessary information from books. Some people grow wiser by drawing life experience from communication with other people, from reflections, music, novels, contemplation of nature. People who know how to teach themselves are basically able to do the following: They know their own abilities very accurately and specifically, and, consequently, their limitations: a lack of knowledge, inability to cope with a particular situation (or task), lack of skill, incompetence. And, faced with a task for which they lack certain knowledge, skills, and abilities to solve (note that they determine for themselves what exactly they lack, and know what to look for), they do not avoid it, declaring the new task stupid or uninteresting, but look for ways to expand their capabilities, studying someone else’s experience (including from books), and, if all else fails,