A PowerPoint
presentation on Learner Autonomy uploaded to our Padlet wall by Virginia, a Webskills colleague-participant, provided real food for thought. Thank you Virginia for this
great resource!
There is one thing in this presentation that really caught my eye. The author states that autonomy is considered to be a characteristic of adults. I have to say I strongly disagree. Even more if we talk about autonomy in learning!
Children, especially very young children, exhibit an extremely high level of learner autonomy. It is obvious in every segment of their lives, from learning how to feed, sit, walk to learning how to speak. These early years of childhood are full of striking examples of learner autonomy. Children listen, watch, imitate, try, experiment, guess and are never afraid of making mistakes (or should I say errors?).
Unfortunately, later in their lives they are taught (by parents, teachers and the rest of the society) to be dependent on others, such as teachers, for learning. So it seems that being autonomous is a characteristic of adults because children have to de-learn this dependency and become independent and autonomous once again as they were when they were very young.
If we could all keep the autonomy we have as young children, and if the society help develop that autonomy and transfer it to other segments of life such as education, than learner autonomy would be much more easily achieved.
Not until I got my own children had I realized this. And now, looking at them and other children of their age, I am impressed by how inquisitive and autonomous in learning they are. I just hope we parents are able to be their life facilitators and to foster this obvious learner autonomy.
There is one thing in this presentation that really caught my eye. The author states that autonomy is considered to be a characteristic of adults. I have to say I strongly disagree. Even more if we talk about autonomy in learning!
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| Photo Courtesy: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIsJSsErgT9IZIuBOF_6i88b9vUW60tTjCUOAhq-5rg8eGyGt_VWJ2xOJjbGvH2XHBFfgEkrn8wwVc7K3_U2hJAoVORK0t9eaFXIoIYv1u5u8AShkFW0leoZrQc2KOALA5yf6Xp7-4Fg8/s1600/2508695768_9ffa5c1af1.jpg |
Children, especially very young children, exhibit an extremely high level of learner autonomy. It is obvious in every segment of their lives, from learning how to feed, sit, walk to learning how to speak. These early years of childhood are full of striking examples of learner autonomy. Children listen, watch, imitate, try, experiment, guess and are never afraid of making mistakes (or should I say errors?).
Unfortunately, later in their lives they are taught (by parents, teachers and the rest of the society) to be dependent on others, such as teachers, for learning. So it seems that being autonomous is a characteristic of adults because children have to de-learn this dependency and become independent and autonomous once again as they were when they were very young.
If we could all keep the autonomy we have as young children, and if the society help develop that autonomy and transfer it to other segments of life such as education, than learner autonomy would be much more easily achieved.
Not until I got my own children had I realized this. And now, looking at them and other children of their age, I am impressed by how inquisitive and autonomous in learning they are. I just hope we parents are able to be their life facilitators and to foster this obvious learner autonomy.
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| Photo Courtesy: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNuIm12WW0EI8CGLF9EkC8qJ-sx7xJ37xMxYQO7jSJQvZzXO63hyphenhypheniXa9B8x-vrLLGl-RzSiVsR8UDubM4dM5NfpCjfrz72XAyu6xmhcKxcw0IsjmrsGQyynHxocWpZ_78HVs19_z22mv4/s1600/autuonomous+learner.jpg |
Hi Gordana,
ReplyDeleteI reallly liked the way you illustrated what "Autonomy" is: through examples from children's behavior. I've never thought about your opinion before but reading your post made me realize it's true. I totally agree with you: "Children, especially very young children, exhibit an extremely high level of learner autonomy. It is obvious in every segment of their lives, from learning how to feed, sit, walk to learning how to speak. These early years of childhood are full of striking examples of learner autonomy. Children listen, watch, imitate, try, experiment, guess and are never afraid of making mistakes". I can say every person possesses this innate autonomy from the beginning of their lives but with the influence of the society and the education system, people may lose it while they grow up. So the role of education and the society should be to try to maintain and help it grow in people from their childhood.
I hope you'll be able to do that with your cute children.
Hugs,
Ravaka from Madagasacar
Hi, Ravaka!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad my point of view has made you look at autonomy a bit differently.
Yes, I agree with what you said: "every person possesses this innate autonomy from the beginning of their lives but with the influence of the society and the education system, people may lose it while they grow up."
Thanks for the great wishes when it comes to my parenthood :)
Best,
Gordana