The role that individual learning proficiency, individual personality characteristics, and chance occurrences in the learner's environment play in self-directed professional development was examined through semistructured interviews with a purposeful sample of eight professional men and women of high achievement with no postsecondary schooling in…

The determinants of self-directed learning (SDL) among professionals of high attainment were examined through open-ended, semidirected interviews with a purposeful sample of eight professional men and women who have acquired identifiable, high-level professional knowledge/skills typically taught in postsecondary learning institutions without ever…