Running head: AUTONOMOUS LEARNING 1

Autonomous Learning

Juan M. Rodríguez

Institución Universitaria Colombo Americana

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ABSTRACT

Autonomous learning is habit of mind that defines learners as independent

individuals who can learn by themselves trough practice, Autonomous learning –

independent thinking – is the highest virtue of the mind or acquired disposition. So

it is voluntary not involuntary.

Definition

The Role of Autonomous Learning in Higher Education

Autonomous Learning and the Transformation of Higher Education:

Two views of autonomous learning

Keywords: independent, practice, virtue, disposition, and voluntary.

Higher education, capacity, university, and method.

Higher education, the Dearing Report, economy, skills, abilities, competition,

autonomy of learning, Self management, and knowledge.

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Autonomous learning is habit of mind that defines learners as independent

individuals who can learn by themselves trough practice, Autonomous learning –

independent thinking – is the highest virtue of the mind or acquired disposition. So

it is voluntary not involuntary.

Characteristics an autonomous learner must have or develop:

The ability to motivate oneself.

The ability to work autonomously.

The general management of one’s own work to time limits.

A flexible and adaptable mind to face new situations.

The ability to think creatively.

According to Keith Crome, Ruth Farrar and Patrick O’Connor (Created on:

December 18th 2009 Updated on: August 19th 2010). The Role of Autonomous

Learning in Higher Education: Autonomous learners have 'the capacity to think,

learn and behave autonomously. It is often claimed as an outcome for students in

higher education'. However, we suppose that there is good reason to put this

claim in stronger terms. The capacity to think, learn and behave autonomously is

not simply one outcome among others. It is central to all forms of university

education.1

(1) CROME KEITH, FARRAR RUTH AND O’CONNOR PATRICK What is

Autonomous Learning? 2009 Page 111

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Besides autonomous is an excellent learning style for people who study to

distance because these kind of students do not need to be with others for

studying or being forced to do it.

Autonomous Learning and the Transformation of Higher Education: The Report of

the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (the Dearing Report) of

1997 has been central in shaping policy and thinking about the aims and

objectives of HE. According to the report, one of the principal aims of university

education is to promote autonomy among learners. Among the imperatives it lists,

it states that HE must 'sustain a culture which demands disciplined thinking,

encourages curiosity, challenges existing ideas and generates new ones.' These

are skills and attributes that both suppose and contribute to the process of

independent or autonomous learning.

As has been noted, part of the motivation for Dearing's emphasis on autonomy is

instrumental and economic.

One of the purposes of what Dearing calls 'a learning society' is to inspire

individuals to develop their capabilities so that they are 'well-equipped for work'.

Here, being well-equipped for work means developing essentially transferable

skills and abilities, since the pace of change in the work-place will require people

to reequip themselves, as new knowledge and new skills are needed for

economies to compete, survive and prosper. A lifelong career in one organization

will become increasingly the exception.

It is no surprise, then, that autonomous learning should figure so highly among

the aims of HE in the Dearing Report. For what I am calling 'autonomy of

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learning'—the ability to think and act critically and independently, to self-manage

study and learning, and realistically to appraise one's strengths and weaknesses

as a learner—is not simply one transferable skill among others; rather, it is a

disposition towards learning that is integral to the acquisition of all other skills and

knowledge.

In this essay I will try to summarize some of the information I were given about

autonomous learning.

First at all, I think it convenient to give the concept of Autonomy and some other

terms related to it. Self- instruction defines a situation where the students work

without the direct control of a teacher. Self-direction ‘describes a particular attitude

to the learning task, where the learner accepts responsibility for all the decisions

concerned with his learning but does not necessarily undertake the

implementation of those decisions’ While, we could say that, Autonomy involves

both decisions and actions; when the learner takes the responsibility of his own

learning by taking decisions concerned to it and implementing these.

It is affirmed that Autonomy is not an ‘all-or-nothing’ concept; that is not a matter

of saying that someone is autonomous or that he is not at all. Autonomy as well as

other concepts has degrees that describe the level of it in a person. Curiously, the

highest level of autonomy, that is do to speak a fully autonomous learner, would

be only an ideal; for this implies the total independence on another person

(including teachers or advisers). However, being an ideal does not mean it is

something useless or unworthy, but something that enhance improvement. For

this reason, institutions that promote Autonomy encourage learners to be as

autonomous as it is possible for them.

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Two views of autonomous learning

First, the definition of autonomous learning: it is the exercise or the capacity to

think for oneself so it i s the ability to understand, argument, read and explain

relevant, primary and secondary material In oral and written form to others and

demonstrate what has been learned.

Another view: however, and one that we believe significantly contradict the first. It

says that autonomous learning involves showing the students how to do

something in such a way that they are capable to analyse. From this perspective,

autonomous learning becomes the habitual exercise of skills, developed and

perfected trough continues practice which comes to be the second nature.

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Conclusion

In these articles we have sought to advance a definite conception of what

autonomous learning is: a habit of mind, expressed through a range of activities

and skills, acquired and developed through practice. We believe this definition to

be the most significant outcome of the project we undertood for the Subject, for it

provides a basis for understanding and responding to the challenge of instilling

independence of learning in students in the current context of HE. In my opinion

what is most important about seeing autonomous learning as a habit of mind is

that it overcomes the view that promote autonomous learning entails motivating

students to work by themselves.

Bibliography

Swain, H., 'Intellectuals Fight "Dumbing Down"', Times Higher Education

Supplement, 12th March 1999,

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Fazey, D and Fazey, J., 'The Potential for Autonomy in Learning: Perception of

Competence, Motivation and Locus of Control in 1st Year Undergraduate

NETZE KARINA, What is implied in the road of becoming an autonomous learner.

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