I was very pleased that Kuma included a chapter on learner autonomy. I think it is imperative that educators realize it is not up to the student alone to develop their autonomy; teachers must be a facilitator and a supporter to their students’ learning goals. Of course, it is primarily the students choice to be autonomous, but if the do decide to be so, the teacher has a million resources to help that student, if s/he is willing to devote a little bit of time and energy. I never have thought about autonomy in a narrow and broad sense before, and I think Kuma made some interesting points about there is a difference between how one learns (narrow view) and how one can advance in their level of learning (broad view). I think this is important to understand and recognize as a future teacher because so often I think of these things as the same thing. Often I think of learning as being linear, when it is not. We do not just learn more and more, but we can learn higher too. (If that makes any sense!) I think it was good to read about learner autonomy from a perspective of some teacher responsibility because in most C&I courses it is explained simply from a “your students could be autonomous, but don’t get your hopes up” point of view.
I was thinking the same thing when I was reading the chapter. The C&I program has really adapted a more standardized approach to "Realizing the Democratic Ideal" in the sense of you must not disturb the universe. Learners are inherently autonomous, how else do we learn how to speak, but we have to be taught how to be academically autonomous in order to be able to take curriculum to the next level.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree. i think this lines up with the "expect the best from your students" mentality. If you only think they are capable of doing something one way or will never reach a certain level in something else, then they won't and you are doing them an injustice.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what your saying, everyone can be capable of doing something and can always reach a higher level, so we should promote autonomy instead of shutting them down because it is an injustice.
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