There is much debate about whether self-taught drummers play better than the ones attending drum classes. The mechanism involved in both types of learning is basically the same. You listen, watch, and play. So, we could say that all drummers teach themselves how to play.
Even a so-called self-taught drummer watches tutorials or other people playing, listens and then plays himself. The only difference between drummers who take classes and those who don’t is that the first have more information but that doesn’t necessarily translate into a better performance. Some say that it is tougher to grow as a drummer when you have little knowledge of music, though.