Why can't you teach yourself? The notion of being self taught is a confusing one. It's a phrase that we commonly use to describe skills acquired without a formal teaching process. Yet, it doesn't truly describe the process and can actually be quite detrimental to your learning process. In most instances, we are referring to having sought out information and knowledge that applies to a particular skill, activity or understanding that we are wanting to develop. We are also working on the basis of assumption, assumption that we have the correct knowledge and skills to interpret this new information in an appropriate and relevant way.
The first challenge with the idea of being self taught is that we put ourself into the wrong position in this equation. If there is a teacher, then there needs to be a learner external to themselves. To teach is to impart knowledge, experience or skill and this is contradictory to consider a position where we can do both simultaneously. It is transactional and in some instances it is relational. If we view ourselves as the teacher of ourselves, we are prone to be more reluctant to seek external guidance and overstate our progress and achievement in this area. We are also more likely to develop misconceptions or knowledge that isn't accurate to the field that we are hoping to gain more enlightenment in. Despite our best efforts, we lack the clarity to provide the feedback from an external point of view to ourselves. The further we interact with a particular topic, we are more likely to be susceptible to confirmation bias where we are unable to discern that the steps we are taking are not appropriate to our situation.
The second challenge is that with large amount of information readily available through books, online videos, podcasts and more that the format of these will change the way in which we interact with the knowledge and skills we are looking to acquire. If someone with more expertise is able to share the knowledge you require, the dynamic is that they are the teacher and you are the learner. In an online video or book, we can gain a lot from these experiences and they are more than useful in helping us to learn. The emphasis is on that word learn, we are the learner. Embracing this changes our position, and opens up a lot more strategies that are going to be useful for incorporating the knowledge and skills in a meaningful way.
So instead of being self teaching (resulting in self taught), consider you are engaging into the active process of self learning. And the change in position allows your curiosity to take over, for your investigations to conclude with questions, and for you to better recognise when you need to seek external guidance to inform the next steps in your learning process. This is the nature of autonomous learning. Not the idea that we do this all ourselves, but that we are in control of making steps that progress our learning to reach an achievement or outcome. Now when we watch the online educational video, or read that book about our new pursuit we view the knowledge in a new way. We place ourselves in the position of the student, no matter our age or the subject that is being shared.
This might look like:
Reading and application
Watching tutorial videos and trialing
Testing and evaluation
Seeking external guidance and applying
Conversation and reflection
There will be a time when you pass knowledge and experiences on to others. In this moment you are the teacher. When you are the recipient of the learning, you are the learner. Embrace this and employ the strategies that will help you get the most from this. A simple clarification of position will go a long way.
Michael.
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