One of the objectives of Ukraine's transition to a postindustrial, information society, the integration of national education in European and world educational space is the formation of personality, who is capable of self-development, self-education, self-improvement through self-understanding of the nature and his role in a dynamic world. The author of the article focuses on the fact that the determinant factor of self-improvement and self-realization is the ability to educate themselves. It is an optimal form of raising the professional, general educational and cultural level. A systematic analysis of the formation and the development of self-education, a holistic definition of self-activity, theoretical and methodological basis of its content are given in the article. Analysis of research on the problem in question, allowed to find out the different aspects of self-education. Especially important is to address the educational achievements of native and foreign scientist and to implement a comprehensive historical and pedagogical research for the purpose of self- creative use in modern conditions.