This Scale is a free online self-assessment questionnaire to evaluate a student’s sense of educational autonomy -- intellectual independence and self-directedness. With more than 650 responses, grades 7-12, we developed statistical norms and percentiles, as well as three statistically correlated sub-categories. This workshop examines the paradigm of student autonomy, reviews the research and examines practices to encourage student autonomy. We all know the magic when our students become empowered, independent learners. Here is a tool with which to assess autonomy.
1. “Responsibility to yourself means
refusing to let others do your
thinking, talking, and naming for
you; it means learning to respect
and use your own brains and
instincts; hence, grappling with
hard work.”
2. Can you think of a time when you did not
have the authority to act in accordance with
your deeply held beliefs?
What does that feel like?
Share with the person next you.
Share with the group.
Autonomy Activator
3. Definition of Student Autonomy
Review of The Literature
Oak Meadow Scale of Student
Autonomy
How might we support student
autonomy?
4. Autonomy used in five different ways in the field.
Benson & Voller, (1997)
situations in which learners study entirely on their own
a set of skills which can be learned and applied in self-
directed learning
an inborn capacity which is suppressed by institutional
education
the exercise of learners' responsibility for their own learning
the right of learners to determine the direction of their own
learning
What is autonomy in education?
5. Autonomy is a capacity for detachment, critical reflection,
decision-making, and independent action” (Little, 1991, p. 4).
“Autonomy is recognition of the rights of learners within
educational systems” (Benson, 1997).
“Autonomy is the capacity to take control of one's own
learning” (Benson 2001).
Autonomy refers to self-governance or self-regulation and
differs from independence (Ryan & Deci, 2006).
6. addresses issues of extrinsic and intrinsic
motivation.
psychological need for a sense of both
autonomy and competence.
7. “Acting in accordance with one's values.”
Related to sense of well-being across
cultures.
Autonomous regulation is a universal
psychological human need.
9. Many demonstrable benefits to promoting learner autonomy.
greater psychological need satisfaction
greater classroom engagement
more positive emotionality
higher mastery motivation
greater intrinsic motivation
a preference for optimal challenge over easy success
higher creativity
enhanced psychological well-being
active and deeper information processing
greater conceptual understanding
higher academic achievement
greater persistence in school versus dropping
14. Support for student autonomy reduced the
intention to drop out of high school.
15. Encouraging autonomy in the first few weeks
increased engagement throughout the
course.
Decline in engagement was demonstrated by
students in other classrooms.
16. Compared autonomy and structured
expectations.
Equally predictive of success.
Students did best with a combination of both
structure and support for autonomy.
18. Just offering choice in high school Gym
improved levels of in-class physical activity.
19. On-line tool to evaluate one’s sense of
Autonomy.
Answer 18 questions – 3 sub-category
Receive a percentile for each sub category
Receive overall percentile
20. Three Sub-Categories – indicated by
statistical correlations
I. Self-Advocacy/Motivation
II. Independent Thought
III. Self Doubt
21.
22. Six Schools Participated
Compass School 38/42
The Grammar School 6/10
The Putney School 151/160
Hilltop Montessori School 25/25
MATCH Charter 37/45
Pioneer Valley High School
All students required:
7 81
8 110
9 78
10 72
11 82
23. Pioneer Valley Public High 100.394595 Baseline
Match Charter Public High 101.931034 +1.9%
The Compass School 104.157895 +4.1%
Hilltop Montessori 106.28 +6.2%
The Grammar School 107.571429 +7.5%
The Putney School 109.592105 +9.5%
Unschool 109.225806 +9.2%
Average “Total Points” by School
28. Give students choice of how to
manage learning environment
Choice of group members, seating
arrangements, rules of work
What do we do?
29. Give students choice of the form
their work will take
How to display, materials they will
use, flexible means of assessment
What do we do?
30. Give students ownership of the
content
Choice of subject, independent
problem solving, opportunity to voice
opinions
What do we do?
31. Encouraging Autonomy
By: Katherine Robertson, PhD in Effective Teaching Strategies
asking students to pick a topic from their textbook,
for which they are then responsible to teach to the
rest of the class
soliciting input on the syllabus by allowing the
class to select the topics for a few “students’
choice” lectures
assigning students to write a personal statement
about their experiences in the course in which they
identify their own weaknesses and request
exercises to help them overcome those weaknesses
32. Identify and nurture what students need and want
Have students’ internal states guide their behavior
Encourage active participation
Encourage students to accept more responsibility for their
learning
Provide structured guidance
Provide optimal challenges
Give positive and constructive feedback
Give emotional support
Acknowledge students’ expressions of negative effect
Give choices
Direct with ‘can, may, could’ instead of ‘must, need, should’
33. Old School
Teacher chooses
material
Teacher presents
material
Teacher assesses
acquisition
Teacher is omnipotent
Autonomy Support
Student defines the
material
Students establishes
plan
Student reflects on
results
Teacher creates
structural framework
34. The role of the learning advisor:
Raising awareness of the learning process
Guiding learners
Helping learners to identify goals
Suggesting suitable materials by offering choices (rather than prescribing
activities)
Suggesting suitable strategies by offering choices
Motivating, supporting and encouraging self-directed learners
Helping learners to self-evaluate and reflect
Assisting students in discovering how they best learn
Actively listening to learners
Helping learners to talk through their own problems
35.
36. 1. Divide into pairs
2. Pick one person to be teacher; the other,
the student.
3. Teacher asks student to come up with at
least three “projects” that need attention.
4. Teacher asks student to define the “next
action” to move each project forward.
37. Organizational Autonomy Support
Home schooling model
Student defines when to do what
Student organizes self and materials
Student has ownership of daily routine
38. “I would like to start off by saying that
homeschooling is not the easy way out of
school. It is required that I be self-
motivated and self-disciplined. I learn out
of books, have to problem solve, and keep
myself well organized. If I don’t keep track
of everything in this manner, I will fall
behind …. You are your own teacher, office
manager, and planner. It is challenging.”
39. Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself“
Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the
origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are
millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor
look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the specters
in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things
from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.