In 1791, Condorcet set the self-directed learning at the heart of his education project. He wishes to give every citizen, and in particular to those who are not lucky enough to be born in wealthy families, the means to educate by oneself. For Condorcet, self-directed learning has a triple aim: compensatory, emancipatory and empowering. The school must teach to learn how to educate oneself throughout life. Self-directed learning requires a learning process and the schoolmaster has to be a guide to this process. Unfortunately, his project does not succeed.Some two centuries later, the self-directed learning is being brought up to date and cited as a need to constantly adapt to contemporary society in which knowledge has become an important socio-economic issue as well as a need to respond to the crisis of educational institutions.This thesis is the outcome of an educational experiment that has been conducted for six years in Evire middle school, Haute-Savoie. It will explore the effects of self-education to promote self-taught posture among pupils who are struggling and whose counselling is targeted to secondary school SEGPA classes. Self-directed learning is conceived as an educational device embodying the guidance of Condorcet. The study of self-directed learning in schools has helped to highlight the richness and limitations of such a pedagogy depending on established or establishing plans and ways of supporting them.
