Kate Atkinson

EMPOWERING LEARNERS

To Learn Autonomously by Kate Atkinson

Indian

Indian

Thai

Vietnamese

Iraqi

Cambodian

Iraqi

New Zealand

SamoanSamoan

Teacher-Aide

Tutor

Autonomous Learners

“ Autonomous Learners are

empowered to be / fulfilled and or effec tive c itizens

in a democratic.s oc ie ty ”

Palfreyman (2003:p3)

A ll S t u d e n t s S h o u ld B e G iv e n t h e T o o ls o f E m p o w e r m e n t

• “ Learners need to take charge of the ir learning in order to make the mos t of the

available res ources outs ide

the c las s room” Waite (1994)

•NB: clip board

• Fie ld Trip

Culture and Learning Autonomy

• Culture refers to the values and customary ways of behaving in different kinds of communities.

e.g The Culture of the Classroom

Culture and Learning Autonomy The Culture of Learning

The classroom culture• A community of s hared learninge.g. going to lessons – working in groups - practicing language

• Tools and products which play a part in the learning practicee.g. computers, text books, posters

• As s oc iated Rolese.g. learners, teachers, teacher-aides

• Learning Practicese.g. Group work, field trips, teacher instruction and … …

Individual Learning Plans

INDIVIDUAL LEARNING PLAN

• The Individual Learning Plan is an initiative to promote Learning Autonomy and was part of the classroom culture of the Adult Literacy Course I tutored from 2005-2009

Promoting Learner Autonomy

The Individual Learning Plan and Motivation:

ILP. Every afternoon the students worked autonomously focusing on their individual learning goals for the 10 week term.

(2007, 84) Harmer pg “Many adults are able to s us tain

a leve l o f motivation by holding on to a dis tant

…. goal

The ObjectiveTo provide the students

with a self directed, self developed (in collaboration with tutor) self monitoring programme developed to help the student meet their individual learning needs over the 10 week term period.

NZ

Samoa

Empowered to Learn

• “ A

t e c h n ic a lp e r s p e c t iv

e o n a u t o n o m y

e m p h a s is e s t h e

d e v e lo p m e n t o f

s t r a t e g ie s f o r

e f f e c t iv e: le a r n in g

t h is a p p r o a c h

is o f t e n r e f e r r e d t o

a s le a r n e r.t r a in in g ”

(Oxford 1990, Wendon 1991)

•Thailand NZ

– Empowered to Learn Learner Training Learning Strategies : Teachers s hould attend to common s trategies that

can promote s ucces s ful autonomous learning acros s many cultures and. contexts (2007)Harmer

LEARNING STRATEGIES : “are specific methods of approaching a problem or task, modes of operation for achieving a particular end, planned designs for controlling and manipulating certain information .” Oxford & Ehram (1998:8)

A Selection of Strategies• ( )Cooperation cognitive s trategiesMaking a general but comprehensive preview of the organizing concept or principle in an

anticipated learning activity. • ( )Note taking cognitive s trateg iesWriting down the main idea, important points, outline, or summary of information presented

orally or in writing..• ( )Self Monitoring metacognitive s trategiesDeciding in advance to attend to specific aspect of language input or situational details that will

cue the retentions of language input• ( )Imagery cognitive s trategiesRelating new information to visual concepts in memory via familiar, easily retrievable

visualisations, phrases or locations.• ( ) Cooperation s oc ioaffective s trateg iesWorking with one or more peers to model a language activity, obtain feedback or pool

information.Brown (2007)

Empowered for Learning Learning Styles : Are those general characteristics of intellectual functioning

(and personality type..) that pertain to an individual… Harmer (2007:119)

• Learning Styles There is als o a need to equip

s tudents with an unders tanding and

apprec iation of the ir . unique learning s tyle The

Curriculum Director of the PTE I worked for

introduced learning s tyles to give the s tudents an

empowering too l to , become autonomous

- . s e lf motivated learners , The focus was auditory

vis ual and kines thetic and the various combinations

. of thes e learning s tyles

•Tonga

•NZ

Autonomy and Interdependence

• Definition: - Interdependence The ability of learners to work together for mutual benefit to take shared responsibility for their learning

Boud (1981: Brookfield 1986)

Collec tivis m“ May be s een as conducive to

interdependent group bas ed vers ion of autonomy”

(1996)Littlewood

During ILP time students had the option of enlisting the help of fellow students for collaborative and/or co-operative learning to help them reach their learning goals.

•Iraq

•NZ

A u t o n o m y a n dIn t e r d e p e n d e n c e

An example Group Spelling• During ILP time the respective

groups would arrange a meeting time and together, using one spelling text book per group, discuss and implement strategies to assist each other to reach their term spelling objective.

“ Learning occurs through interaction between people

and with “mediating objects ” .s uch as learning materials ”

(2 0 0 3 : 4 )P a lf r e y m a n p

Spelling Groups

Autonomous Learners and the Tutor

Independence from a teacher is often taken as an obs ervable s ign of

……autonomy Although work with a tutor is s ometimes , s een as compris ing autonomy

collaboration has come to be s een in a more pos itive light as an important

component of learning autonomy (2003 4)Palfreyman p

As a example of collaboration with the tutor

but still learning autonomously, this class worked autonomously to prepare a “flip-chart” presentation about their culture. They were each given an instruction hand-out with the expected dead line and the issue they were to address on each page of the flip chart, for example “page 4:- “a place that is special to you/your culture.” The rest was up to them. During the process I was available for conferencing if assistance or feedback was required..

Here the students are delivering their projects to fellow students using a type of “speed dating” format. leaving the tutor free to take photos.

Successful Autonomous Learners

It has been my experience that regardless of the

natural culture when the expectation in the class-

room culture is that of autonomous learningthe students equipped with learning strategies,

an understanding of their learning style and the appropriate motivation become

Rwanda India Thailand New Zealand

References

• Palfreyman, D. (2003) Le arne r autonomy acros s culture s (pp. 1-16). Houdmills , Bas ing s toke . Hamps ., UK: Palg rav e Macmillian

• Waite (1994) in Palfreyman, D. (2003) Le arne r autonomy acros s culture s (pp.1). Houdmills , Bas ings toke . Hamps ., UK: Palg rav e Macmillian

• Oxford (1990) in Palfreyman, D. (2003) Le arne r autonomy across culture s (pp.3). Houdmills , Bas ings toke . Hamps ., UK: Palg rav e Macmillian

• We nde n, (1991) in Palfreyman, D. (2003) Le arne r autonomy acros s culture s (pp.3). Houdmills , Bas ings toke . Hamps ., UK: Palg rav e Macmillian

• Boud (1981) in Palfreyman, D. (2003) Le arne r autonomy acros s culture s (pp.3). Houdmills , Bas ings toke . Hamps ., UK: Palg rav e Macmillian

• Brookfie ld (1986) in Palfreyman, D. (2003) Le arne r autonomy across culture s (pp.3). Houdmills , Bas ings toke . Hamps ., UK: Palg rav e Macmillian

• Harme r, J (2007) The practice of Eng lish Language Te aching , Pe arson Education Ltd, Harlow. Esse x UK.• Brown, H.D. (2007) Principle s of Language Le arning and Te aching (pp134-135) 5 th

Edition, Pe arson Education , Inc . White Plains NY.