Independent Learners and Current Education System
The rapid changes and increased complexity of today’s world present new challenges and put new demands on our education system. There has been generally a growing awareness of the necessity to change and improve the preparation of students for productive and independent functioning in the continually changing and highly demanding environment. One of the basic skills that should be considered and integrated into our current educational system are those reinforcing learning autonomy.
Autonomy has been characterized in different ways by researchers, but Littlewood[1] (1999, p.71) summarizes two main features of learner autonomy included in the definition proposed by previous researchers:
· Students should take responsibility for their own learning. This is both because all learning can in any case only be carried out by the students themselves and also because they need to develop the ability to continue learning after the end of their formal education.
· Taking responsibility’ involves learners taking ownership (partial or total) of many processes which have traditionally belonged to the teacher, such as deciding on learning objectives, selecting learning methods, and evaluating process
Other researchers point out at least five different ways to which learner autonomy could be referred:
1. situations in which learners study entirely on their own
2. a set of skills which can be learned and applied in self-directed learning
3. an inborn capacity which is suppressed by institutional education
4. the exercise of learners’ responsibility for their own learning[2]
Many researchers have promoted its development (Benson, 2011; Dam, 2011; Dickinson, 1995; Little, 2007; Miliander & Trebbi, 2008; Trebbi, 2011[3]) but few have researched its practice. It has been suggested that gamified resources, based on game principles but adapted to the educational setting, could be ways of fostering more autonomy in a language class by giving students more choice and agency (Sykes & Reinhardt, 2012)[4].
Students’ learning autonomy is based on his/her metacognitive skills. Students with high metacognitive skills would reflect on the strategies of their learning and direct their own learning experience.
The importance of metacognition in the process of learning is an old idea that can be traced from Socrates’ questioning methods to Dewey’s twentieth-century stance that we learn more from reflecting on our experiences than from the actual experiences themselves[5] . What is more recent is the coining of the term “metacognition” and the emergence of a metacognition research field in the last four decades[6].
Metacognition includes self-regulation — the ability to orchestrate one’s learning: to plan, monitor success, and correct errors when appropriate — all necessary for effective intentional learning… Metacognition also refers to the ability to reflect on one’s own performance. (National Research Council, 2000)[7].
Importantly, there is research evidence that metacognition is a teachable skill that is central to other skills sets such as problem solving, decision making, and critical thinking. Reflective thinking, as a component of metacognition, is the ability to reflect critically on learning experiences and processes in order to inform future progress.
Training students on Metacognitive skills to gain learning autonomy is directing them to reflect on their own learning through answering three main questions: 1) how did I understand the concept? , 2) What were the challenges I faced to understand the concept? , And 3) how did I retain the knowledge of this concept? Through answering these questions after every learning practice, either in school or at home, the students will understand their intrapersonal skills. This understanding will help them develop a strategy to learn any concept they need in an easy way.
I recommend all teachers and tutors to train their students on this reflective thinking questions through integrating them into their lesson plans. Developing independent autonomous learners is what we are in need for our future.
[1] Littlewood, W. (1999). Defining and developing learner autonomy in East Asian contexts. Applied Linguistics, 20(1), 71–94
[2] Parkinson, L. & O’Sullivan, K. (1990. Negotiating the learner-centred curriculum. In G. Brindley (Ed.) The Second Language Curriculum in Action. Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research
[3] Benson, P. (2011). Teaching and researching autonomy in language learning (second ed.). Oxon: Routledge.
Dam, L. (2011). “Developing learner autonomy with school kids: Principles, practices, results.” In Gardner, D. (dir.). Fostering autonomy in language learning. Gaziantep: Zirve University. pp. 40–51.
Dickinson, L. (1995). “Autonomy and motivation a literature review.” System, vol. 23, n° 2, pp. 165–174.
DOI : 10.1016/0346–251X(95)00005–5
Little, D. (2007). “Language Learner Autonomy: Some Fundamental Considerations Revisited.” Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, vol. 1, n° 1, pp. 14–29.
Miliander, J. & Trebbi, T. (2008). Educational policies and language learner autonomy in schools: a new direction in language education? Dublin: Authentik.
Trebbi, T. (2011). “Reinforcing the what, the why and the how: challenges and change for language learner autonomy.” Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, vol. 5, n° 2. pp. 101–110.
DOI : 10.1080/17501229.2011.577527
[4] Sykes, J. E. & Reinhardt, J. (2012). Language at play: Digital games in second and foreign language teaching and learning. New York: Pearson Higher Ed.
[5] Dewey J. How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process. Boston: Heath; 1933.
[6] Flavell JH. Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: a new area of psychological inquiry. Am Psychol. 1979;34:906–911.
[7] NRC. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2000
