Learner Autonomy between Students and Teachers at a Defence University: Perception vs. Expectation

Abstract

The success of nurturing learner autonomy lies in the collaboration between two parties—teachers and students. A mismatch of perception and expectation of the desirable level of learner autonomy that should be given in class may lead to failure in developing learner autonomy. Hence, this paper aims to investigate if there are differences between the teachers’ and students’ perceptions of learner autonomy that is currently being practiced in ESL classrooms at a defence university in Malaysia to understand the existing level of learner autonomy in this context, as well as investigate the level of learner autonomy they expect to have in the future. A quantitative research design with descriptive approach was employed using a questionnaire to collect data from 132 students and 10 English teachers. The instrument was based on the twelve categories about learner autonomy through classroom experience and data collected were analysed using SPSS. Results show that the teachers and students are involved collaboratively in carrying learner autonomy. However, all of the significant differences pointed out a higher degree of support for learner autonomy of the students and a lower degree of support for learner autonomy of the teachers. The success of promoting learner autonomy is influenced by the teachers’ beliefs, motivation and encouragement, and also students’ capacity to be autonomous, namely ability, willingness and opportunity.

Flipped Classroom Based on Blum’s Modeling and its Impact on Autonomous Learning Experienced by Mathematics Students from a University in Lima, Peru

“…Furthermore, Anthonysamy and Singh (2023) found that the interactive collaboration of learners and the learning environment have a significant impact on their own learning achievement. Similar to the present study, Rahman et al (2022) demonstrated that learner autonomy success is influenced by motivation, as well as ability, willingness, and opportunity ; both females and males agreed on the use of social resources for their autonomous learning, such as tutoring, group work, and collaboration with classmates, thus facilitating knowledge sharing and dissemination. Thereby coinciding with the study of Zainuddin and Perera (2017) who found that the use of the flipped classroom promoted interaction among classmates.…”

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“…Asimismo, teniendo en cuenta los resultados encontrados en esta indagación, se tienen que aprovechar las sinergias entre las prácticas de autoevaluación y el aprendizaje autónomo para apoyar el crecimiento académico y la instrucción de los alumnos (Chen y Bonner, 2020), lo cual conduce a un aumento de los niveles de autodirección y motivación de los alumnos. Además, mejora la precisión y la calidad en la autoevaluación en cada vez que se aplica (Rahman et al, 2022), sin olvidar que son instrumentos valiosos en la retroalimentación del alumnado y en su proceso de aprendizaje De acuerdo con lo anterior, los alumnos regulan su aprendizaje hasta cierto punto, pero a medida en que lo hacen, de forma consciente, construyen con éxito su aprendizaje. Por último, entre las limitaciones de esta investigación, se pueden mencionar el tamaño de la muestra, un periodo de intervención corto (seis meses), así como un grupo de control de dos programas de posgrado.…”

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“…Moreover, digital competence is one of the key competencies for lifelong learning (Alarcón et al, 2020). Since COVID-19 has altered the dynamics of teaching and learning, the promotion of learner autonomy is essential as it is also a key aspect in fostering lifelong learning for all (Rahman et al, 2022). As a result, writing interventions via digital platforms have increased their importance in education, such as mobile applications (Castillo-Martínez & Ramírez-Montoya, 2021;Limpo et al, 2020).…”