145 Evaluation of Undergraduate Students on Self-Directed Learning Readiness Nabilla Afzan Abdul Aziz * , Ahmad Kamal Idris, Jazifah Jamil, Muhammad Luqman Hasan Petroleum Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak Abstract. The readiness level of the first year students in a private university is being studied to ensure the effectiveness of implementing teaching techniques to the students, before undergoing years of their undergraduate study with active learning pedagogy. This study aimed to address the correlation between the students’ demographic and their Self-Directed Learning Readiness (SDLR). A total number of 97 respondents of first year Malaysian students, age 19-22, have been asked to evaluate their readiness level of self-learning. The self-rating scale in the survey distributed is based on Likert Scale, that provides the intensity of their readiness level towards three main factors under Self-Directed Learning (SDL). These factors are Self-management, Desire for Learning and Self-control. The types of high schools attended by the students, their gender and ethnic group are being correlated with the SDL readiness rating. The data analysis is presented to show different demographic which reflects different readiness level. The mean response generally falls between Sometimes to Always for all three factors of SDL. In conclusion, educators utilizing teaching pedagogy of active learning are encouraged to obtain an overview of their students’ capability through SDL readiness, before designing their active learning approach. The pedagogies could be designed effectively from low stake to high stake activities based on the students’ readiness of different demographic. It is recommended to analyse the capability of Malaysian studen ts from the present generation on their capability for the Student-Centered Learning approach. Keywords: Self-Directed Learning, Malaysian Undergraduate, First Year, Demographic INTRODUCTION Self-directed Learning (SDL) is a learning technique for students that have reached mature level of learning and could take control during the teaching of the subject. Generally, adults are presumed to be matured in life compared to children. Adult students are expected to be ready as they enter the University upon completion of Pre-University education. Their experience in primary and high schools are reputed to be a journey for developing maturity in learning. Thus, their learning experience at a younger age are teacher-centered, to incorporate the body of knowledge and as they reached adulthood, they are expected to be compatible with the student-centered learning. Student-centered learning is where the students lead their interest in study and have goals to achieve in their interest area. Knowles (1975) have initiated the importance of understanding self-learning by providing three immediate reasons for Self-directed Learning implementation. The reasons are proactive learners learn efficiently, it is parallel with the natural psychological development and it complies with the developments in education. He reminded through his writing, students who enters self-directed programs without knowing the skills required are prone to anxiety, frustration and failure which will affect the motivation of their educators too. Gibbons (2002) mentioned in his book that most self-learning programs designed to permit self-direction, however, there is no teaching on means to do self- learning. He promoted clear concept of Self-directed Learning, methods to motivate the students through the activities and created framework on how to deliver SDL in class. He obtained collection of articles on motivation genre which linked with the elements in SDL. He cited through Sternberg (1997) book, highlighting on characteristics of successfully intelligent people, which must experience the process of achieving high productivity and motivated to act upon idea generated by themselves. This concluded that developing motivation with essential self-learning understanding to the students will enhance their self-directed learning experience. Brookfield (1984) highlighted the adult learners must realize that they are in control of their act of learning without the need of their educator’s approval. The act of learning is the learner exercised control to their skills, and knowledge to uphold their actions. The educators for adult learning may guide the adult students to success and not teaching the adult students in a common teacher-centered setting.