Transcript A biographical approach to understanding learner

Autonomy and studentcentered learning
Phil Benson
Hong Kong Institute of Education
Autonomy and student-centered
learning
• What is autonomy - definitions and
‘versions’?
• Why autonomy, why now?
• What kind of autonomy do we want?
Sources for autonomy in language
teaching and learning
Autonomy in
language
learning
Focus on learner
Language learning
Sources for autonomy
• Political philosophy : Immanuel Kant, JeanJacques Rousseau, Jean-Paul Sartre, Robert
Young, Joseph Raz, Anthony Giddens
• Psychology : Lev Vygotsky, George Kelly, Bruno
Bettleheim
• Educational reform : John Dewey, William
Kilpatrick, Paolo Freire, Ivan Illich, Carl Rogers
• Adult education : Allen Tough, Malcolm Knowles,
Philip Candy, Stephen Brookfield, Jack Mezirow
• Language learning : Learner-centredness,
Communicative language teaching, Individual
differences, Learning strategies, Sociocultural
theory
What is autonomy?
Learning situations
Learning without a teacher or
on your own
Teaching situations
Autonomous classrooms,
learning schemes, etc
Methods of learning
Self-instruction, use of
learning strategies, etc.
Learners’ independent
actions
Autonomous ‘events’ and
‘episodes’
Learners’ responsibility
Self-directed learning,
planning, decision-making,etc.
The right to control one’s
own learning
Student power, learner
control, learner’s rights.
A capacity that learners
possess or acquire
Abilities, attitudes,
predispositions, etc.
Definitions that are not definitions
• 100+ competencies associated with autonomy
(Candy, 1991)
• Autonomy in learners can “take numerous different
forms, depending on their age, how far they have
progressed with their learning, what they perceive
their immediate learning needs to be, and so on”
(Little, 1991, p.4).
• Autonomy is “a multidimensional capacity that will
take different forms for different individuals, and even
for the same individual in different contexts or at
different times”
(Benson, 2001: p.47).
Control over learning
• Autonomy is “the capacity to take
control of one’s own learning” Benson
(2001)
– What is a ‘capacity’?
– What do we mean by ‘control of
learning’?
What is a ‘capacity’?
Ability
AUTONOMY
Desire
Freedom
What is a ‘capacity’?
… just as the ability to drive a motor vehicle
does not necessarily mean that whenever
one gets into a car one is obliged to take the
wheel, similarly the autonomous learner is
not automatically obliged to self-direct his
learning either totally or even partially. The
learner will make use of his ability to do this
only if he so wishes and if he is permitted to
do so by the material, social and
psychological constraints to which he is
subjected.
(Holec, 1988: p.8)
Controlling what?
Learning management
AUTONOMY
Cognitive processes
Learning content
Controlling what?
• Learning management
– (e.g. making a study plan)
• Cognitive processes
– (e.g. attention/noticing input)
• Learning content
– (e.g. choosing what you learn)
Versions of autonomy
(Benson, 1997)
• Technical
– Positivism + focus on learning
management
• Psychological
– Constructivism + focus on cognitive
processes
• Political
– Critical theory + focus on learning
content
Perspectives on autonomy
Oxford (2003)
• Objected to ‘privileging the political’
• Added Sociocultural I (Vygotskyan) &
Sociocultural II (SCT, ‘investment’,
situated learning, etc.)
• All perspectives are valid
Proactive and reactive autonomy
• Proactive autonomy
– “… regulates the direction of activity as well as the activity
itself….The key words are action words: learners are able to
take charge of their own learning, determine their
objectives, select methods and techniques and evaluate
what has been acquired…”
• Reactive autonomy
– “...regulates the activity once the direction has been
set…the kind of autonomy which does not create its own
directions but, once a direction has been initiated, enables
learners to organize their resources autonomously in order
to reach their goal.”
Littlewood (1999)
Versions of autonomy
• ‘Convergence’, ‘divergence–convergence’
and ‘convergence–divergence’ perspectives
– Ribé (2003)
• ‘Individual–cognitive’, ‘social–interactive’
and ‘exploratory–participatory’ perspectives
- O’Rourke & Schwienhorst’s (2003)
• ‘Native–speakerist’, ‘cultural–relativist’ and
‘social’ approaches – Holliday (2003)
Strong and weak pedagogies
• Weak pedagogies
– Assume that students lack autonomy
– “…autonomy is seen as a deferred goal and as
a product of instruction rather than as
something which students are currently ready to
exercise directly.”
• Strong pedagogies
– Assume that students are already autonomous
– Focus on “co-creating with students optimal
conditions for the exercise of their autonomy”
– (Smith, 2003, 130-132)
Arguments for autonomy
Economic
AUTONOMY
Psychological
Ideological
Arguments for autonomy
• Ideological
– “…the individual has the right to be free to exercise his or her
own choices, in learning as in other areas, and not become a
victim (even an unwitting one) of choices made by social
institutions”.
• Psychological
– “Learning is more meaningful, more permanent, more focussed
on the processes and schemata of the individual when the
individual is in charge.”
• Economic
– “… society does not have the resources to provide the level of
personal instruction needed by all its members in every area of
learning…individuals must be able to provide for their own
learning needs, either individually or cooperatively, if they are to
acquire the knowledge and skill they want.
– Crabbe, D. (1993, p.443)
Why autonomy? Why now?
• Globalization and…
– The expansion of second language
education
– The self as a reflexive project
– The self as technology
The expansion of second
language education
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More teachers and more learners
Biographical diversity
Diversity of purposes
Migration of learners
Migration of teachers
Diversity within classrooms
Diversity of situations and practices
Autonomy as:
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Sensitivity to diversity
A practical solution to the problems posed by
the complexity of mass education
The self as reflexive project
Giddens (1991)
• Traditional vs. late modern cultures
• The need to form one’s own identity in late
modern society
• The self as a ‘reflexive project’ – ‘narrative
identity’
• The role of second language learning in the
formation of ‘new’ identities
• Identities are fragmented, contradictory and
dynamic – but ‘falling to pieces’ is
pathological…
• What holds our identities together??
The self as technology
• Self-improvement culture
“…a range of practices and text-types focusing on the
individual and her or his relationships with others, and
particularly on the problems of modern personal life.
Among the most accessible expressions of this culture
are self-help and popular psychology books, and
broadcast talk shows of the ‘confessional’ type where
people talk about their experiences, problems and feeling,
sometimes receiving advice from an expert (a therapist,
counsellor or psychologist).” (Cameron, 2002, p.75)
• Emphasis on ‘self-training’ workforce and the
importance of ‘communication skills’ in the ‘new
economy’.
Autonomy and agency
We believe that learners have to be seen as more
than processing devices that convert linguistic
input into well-formed (or not so well-formed)
outputs. They need to be understood as people,
which in turn means we need to appreciate their
human agency. As agents, learners actively
engage in constructing the terms and conditions of
their learning.
(Lantolf & Pavlenko, 2001: p. 145)
Conclusion
• What is autonomy? Or what kind of
autonomy do we want?
– Autonomy as the production of
‘responsible’, ‘active’, ‘flexible’ and
‘adaptable’ worker-learners?
– Autonomy as ‘agency’ – learners as
critically aware individuals capable of
authoring the world in which they live?
References
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Benson, P. (1997) The philosophy and politics of learner autonomy. In P. Benson & P.
Voller (eds.) Autonomy and Independence in Language Learning. London: Longman,
pp. 18-34.
Benson, P. (2001) Teaching and Researching Autonomy in Language Learning. London:
Longman.
Benson, P. (2007) Autonomy in language teaching and learning. State of the Art article.
Language Teaching, 42:1.
Cameron, D. (2002) ‘Globalization and the teaching of communication skills’. In D. Block
& D. Cameron (eds.) Globalizaton and Language Teaching. London: Routledge, pp.6782.
Candy, P.C. (1991) Self-direction for Lifelong Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Crabbe, D. (1993) 'Fostering autonomy from within the classroom: the teacher's
responsibility'. System, 21:4, 443-452.
Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age.
Cambridge: Polity.
Holec, H. (1988) 'General presentation, Prospects / Présentation Génerale.
Perspectives'. In H. Holec (ed.) Autonomy and Self-directed Learning: Present Fields of
Application. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, pp. 5-18.
Holliday, A. (2003) Social autonomy: addressing the dangers of culturism in TESOL. In
D. Palfreyman & R.C. Smith (eds.) Learner Autonomy across Cultures: Language
Education Perspectives, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 110-126.
References
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Lantolf , J. P and Pavlenko, A. (2001) (S)econd (L)anguage (A)ctivity theory:
understanding second language learners as people. In Breen, M. (ed.), Learner
contributions to language learning: New directions in research. London: Pearson
Education (pp. 141-158).
Little, D. (1991) Learner Autonomy. 1: Definitions, Issues and Problems. Dublin:
Authentik.
Littlewood, W. (1999) 'Defining and developing autonomy in East Asian contexts'.
Applied Linguistics, 20:1, 71-94.
Oxford, R.L. (2003) Toward a more systematic model of L2 learner autonomy. In D.
Palfreyman & R.C. Smith (eds.) Learner Autonomy across Cultures: Language
Education Perspectives, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 75-91.
O’Rourke, B. & K. Schwienhorst (2003). Talking text: Reflections on reflection in
computer–mediated communication. In Little, Ridley & Ushioda (eds.), Learner
autonomy in foreign language classrooms: Teacher, learner, curriculum and
assessment. Dublin: Authentik, pp. 47–62.
Ribé, R. (2003). Tramas in the foreign language classroom: Autopoietic networks for
learner growth. In D. Little, J. Ridley & E. Ushioda (eds.), Learner autonomy in foreign
language classrooms: Teacher, learner, curriculum and assessment. Dublin: Authentik,
pp. 11–28.
Smith, R. C. (2003). Pedagogy for autonomy as (becoming–)appropriate methodology.
In D. Palfreyman & R.C. Smith (eds.) Learner Autonomy across Cultures: Language
Education Perspectives, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 129–146.