Developing Responsible and Autonomous Learners

Teachers can focus on creating responsible and autonomous learners through the use of appropriate student choices. Providing opportunities to choose topics of interest stimulates students’ natural curiosity and eagerness to learn. However, providing choices is most effective in contexts where students are individually supported by others in caring and challenging learning communities. In these cultures and climates for learning, students are more likely to develop diverse competencies needed to be successful lifelong learners. Stimulating curiosity is fostered when students are encouraged to work collaboratively with their teachers and peers in finding answers to their questions in inquiry-based learning environments.

An increasing number of teachers have observed that after second or third grade, many students begin to show signs of decreased motivation to learn. What happened to that natural eagerness to go to school or the curiosity to learn that is so apparent in preschool, first and second grade students? Many teachers fear that presenting more choices to students will lead to losing control over the classroom. However, research shows that in fact the opposite happens. When students understand their role as agent  over their own feeling, thinking and learning behaviors, they are more likely to take responsibility for their learning. To be autonomous learners, however, students need to have some actual choice and control.