Examining Self-Directed Learning in an Educational Technology Class for Preservice Teachers: A Qualitative Case Study.

The purpose of this case study was to explore a self-organized learning environment (SOLE) experience for adult learners to describe their response in relation to self-directed learning (SDL) and curiosity in a self-organized learning environment.The 37 participants in this study were students enrolled in two sections of an undergraduate educational technology course for pre-service teachers at a midwestern university.This study was a descriptive case study based off of Merriam's (1998) guide for a descriptive case study.The phenomenon studied was providing support for the role of curiosity in a SDL adult learning environment.The data collection was conducted during the first nine weeks of the course.Data sources included interviews, observations, focus groups, The Curiosity and Exploration Inventory II (Kashden et al., 2009) pre-and post-survey, and document analysis.Data analysis entailed open coding of transcripts from interviews and observations.The findings revealed the pre-service teachers experience through SOLE demonstrated many elements of SDL and curiosity, adult learning.Further, findings described that using adult learning principles as a guide, learning was enhanced by many of the participants in the study.