Learning Approach in Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: Hayy’s Self-Directed Learning

Abstract

In the context of 21st-century education, the overemphasis on outcome-based achievement, technical skills, and graduate employability has raised concerns regarding the neglect of holistic human development. In response, this study explores the work Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, which provides an early depiction of self-directed learning that evolves naturally through experience, reflection, and the exercise of reason. Nevertheless, this work remains under-scrutinized within specific educational discourse. This study employs a library research approach through content analysis, utilizing Hayy Ibn Yaqzan as the primary text, supported by secondary sources such as journal articles and academic books pertaining to self-directed learning. The data were analyzed thematically to identify the developmental phases of the protagonist Hayy’s self-directed learning. The findings demonstrate that Hayy’s self-directed learning progresses incrementally, beginning with sensory learning, followed by experimentation and early reasoning, profound reflection and the quest for meaning, and finally, validation within a social context through interactions with Absal and society. This study argues that self-directed learning in Hayy Ibn Yaqzan is not merely a learning strategy, but a holistic educational process that integrates experience, reflection, ethics, and the search for meaning. This model offers an alternative understanding of self-directed learning that is more balanced and grounded in the innate human disposition (fitrah) within the framework of modern education.