Autonomy is a great word in itself. It implies independence,
self-determination, strength, choice, respect, voice (in deciding). It is an
independent ride on a bike on the road of learning. There are always signs alongside
of the road to help us ride properly and avoid accidents and there will always
be teachers to guide students on the challenging path of knowledge.
Reading the articles on autonomy I have realized how
dependent on the teacher are the students in Moldova and that it is mostly due
to the teacher’s attitude of authority and dominance in a classroom. Do we ever
give credit to the student in choosing what to do?
I have found myself being overly
directive in some situations overcome by the frustration of not meeting the
Curriculum requirements and fulfilling the programme of study. But in these
moments it didn’t occur to me that by giving the students a free ticket to ride,
all of them will take the ride and possibly enjoy it especially if given a
comprehensive directions map. In this case they will never get lost in the
controversial maze of learning and will consequently be able to create their
own maps as they go.
As powerful and important as it sounds it is not as easy to
put in practice. How to develop this very precious attitude towards learning?
This was the vector of my query in searching and skimming the articles on
Learner Autonomy. I was looking for the
exact methods to use in the classroom to encourage if not to build Learner
Autonomy. I have found in this concern
very useful the wallwisher created by
Robert Elliot our class teacher where I have found Rajinder’s link on www.voxopop.com and some other useful links where I learned about specific techniques and
tools on how to get to that Learner Autonomy.
Among these are: e-learning, assignments like e-portfolios,
pen pal writing, e-mail exchange, forums, designing independently activities/tools
for learning (Eg: crosswords), translation (from English into Native language
and back and confronting with the original), the Web 2:0 tools that stimulate
the student to participate. And there
are so many more that are yet to be discovered by me.
The one thing though that I should never forget when
teaching is that the student knows better what he does not know, what he needs to
know and how he can learn it more effectively. A good teacher has to consider
that and use it in promoting independent, autonomous learning. Otherwise we get
to bitter statement: “You can’t force people to follow directions they deem
arbitrary”.
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