Students’ and Facilitators’ Perception of a Learning Contract Experience in two Italian Higher Education Courses.

Learning Contract is an instrument to facilitate self-directed learning. It founds its theoretical foundations in the theory and practice of independent study. Since 1920 this theory was developed through different researches on self-directed learning. In 1960 Andragogy developed a learning model that involves the concepts of independent study, self-directed learning and the learning contract practice. Starting from the study and work of M. S. Knowles, leading figure of Andragogy, on self-directed learning and the learning contracts (M.S.Knowles 1975, 1986), researchers/facilitators analyzed the reactions and the perceptions of two different groups of learners in the Italian university setting.