What Makes Self-Directed Learning Effective?

What Makes Self-Directed Learning Effective?

ScienceDaily (Oct. 4, 2012) — In recent years, educators have come to focus more and more on the importance of lab-based experimentation, hands-on participation, student-led inquiry, and the use of "manipulables" in the classroom. The underlying rationale seems to be that students are better able to learn when they can control the flow of their experience, or when their learning is "self-directed."

What makes self-directed learning effective?