Autodidacticism

Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) is self-education or self-directed learning.
An autodidact is a mostly self-taught person, as opposed to learning in a school setting or from a full-time tutor or mentor.

The word "Autodidacticism" finds its origin in "Didacticism", an artistic philosophy of education.

A person may become an autodidact at nearly any point in his or her life. While some may have been educated in a conventional manner in a particular field, they may choose to educate themselves in other, often unrelated areas.

Self-teaching and self-directed learning are not necessarily lonely processes. Some autodidacts spend a great deal of time in libraries or on educational websites. Many, according to their plan for learning, avail themselves of instruction from family members, friends, or other associates, although strictly speaking this might not be considered autodidactic, unless the emphasis is placed on collecting specific information as opposed to being guided in a general course of study by a teacher figure.

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



Autodidacts: Scientists, historians, and educators

Michael Faraday, the chemist and physicist. Although Faraday received little formal education and knew little of higher mathematics, such as calculus, he was one of the most influential scientists in history. Some historians[14] of science refer to him as the best experimentalist in the history of science.

The cognitive scientist Walter Pitts of MIT was an autodidact. He taught himself mathematical logic, psychology, and neuroscience. He was one of the scientists who laid the foundations of cognitive sciences, artificial intelligence, and cybernetics.

Mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan and Newton's contemporary Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz were largely self-taught in mathematics, as was Oliver Heaviside. Ramanujan is notable as an autodidact for having developed thousands of new mathematical theorems despite having no formal education in mathematics, contributing substantially to the analytical theory of numbers, elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series.[15]

Nathaniel Bowditch was a colonial period American mathematician who wrote the American Practical Navigator.

Physicist and Judo expert Moshe Feldenkrais developed an autodidactic method of self-improvement based on his own experience with self-directed learning in physiology and neurology. He was motivated by his own crippling knee injury.

The natural historians Alfred Russel Wallace (co-discoverer of natural selection) and Henry Walter Bates both 19th-century British scientists.

"Darwin's Bulldog" Thomas Henry Huxley, a 19th-century British scientist.
The social philosopher Herbert Spencer, a 19th century British scientist.[citation needed]

Gerda Alexander, Heinrich Jacoby, and a number of other 20th-century European innovators worked out methods of self-development that stressed intelligent sensitivity and awareness.

Joseph Campbell exemplified the autodidactic method. Following completion of 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 poet and author Robert Bly, a friend of Campbell's, Campbell developed a systematic program of reading nine hours a day.

Vincent J. Schaefer, who discovered the principle of cloud seeding, was schooled to 10th grade when asked by parents to help with family income. He continued his informal education by reading, participation in free lectures by scientists and exploring nature through year-round outdoor activity.

Buckminster Fuller, a self-proclaimed comprehensive anticipatory design scientist, was twice expelled from Harvard and, after a life-altering experience while on the edge of suicide, dedicated his life to working in the service of humanity and thinking for himself. In the process he created many new terms such as "ephemeralization", "dymaxion", and "Spaceship Earth".

Jane Jacobs wrote books about city planning, economics, and sociology with only a high school degree and training in journalism and sternography, plus courses at Columbia University's extension school.

While Karl Popper did receive a college education, he never took courses in philosophy, and he did his initial work in the philosophy of science during the late 1920s and early 1930s while he was teaching science and math in high school. He then turned to the social sciences and attempted to transform them as well, again without any formal training or official mentoring. The best source for this story is Malachi Hacohen's book "Karl Popper: The Formative Years, 1902-1945".

Benjamin Franklin
Socrates
Descartes
Avicenna
Thomas Alva Edison
Eric Hoffer
William Kamkwamba, inventor
George Green, mathematician and physicist
Robert Franklin Stroud, ornithologist while imprisoned

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodidacticism