Auto-didact

Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning and self-teaching) is education without the guidance of masters (such as teachers and professors) or institutions (such as schools). Generally, an autodidact is an individual who chooses the subject he or she will study, his or her studying material, and the studying rhythm and time. An autodidact may or may not have formal education, and his or her study may be either a complement or an alternative to it. Many notable contributions have been made by autodidacts. Influential autodidacts include Leonardo da Vinci, Goethe, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Steven Spielberg and Srinivasa Ramanujan (List of autodidacts).

The term has its roots in the Ancient Greek words αὐτός (autós, or "self") and διδακτικός (didaktikos, meaning "teaching"). The related term didacticism defines an artistic philosophy of education.

Various terms are used to describe self-education. One such is heutagogy, coined in 2000 by Stewart Hase and Chris Kenyon of Southern Cross University in Australia; others are self-directed learning and self-determined learning. In the heutagogy paradigm, a learner should be at the centre of his or her own learning.

Autodidacticism is sometimes a complement of modern education. As a complement to education, students would be encouraged to do more independent work. The Industrial Revolution created a new situation for self-directed learners.

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