Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: It is becoming more and more prevalent to hear of educational institutions, particularly at tertiary level, stating learner autonomy as a main goal for students, as the gateway for lifelong learning and increased personal success beyond schooling.While the importance and benefits of developing learner autonomy are widely agreed on, the successful provision of such an education is not automatic, and requires an awareness of what roadblocks are in the way of such development.If autonomous ability is a 'new' learning outcome, then it follows that changes to institutions and teaching and learning will be required to achieve it.This paper follows an earlier project which illustrated low levels of autonomous learning capacity among 3rd and 4th year undergraduate students at Kanda University of International Studies, and attempted to address this by raising the metacognitive ability of the learners.The project did show that the students were capable of developing this capacity if properly supported.This article discusses three major issues coming out of this research, and relating to autonomous learner development in a Japanese university context -personal epistemologies, institutional teaching and learning norms, and cultural context.At a national level, Japanese educational policy increasingly requires its educators and schools to encourage autonomous learning and critical thinking.At an institutional level, Kanda University seeks to do the same and to provide avenues for learning towards these ends.This occurs in one of two ways -through the design and delivery of required or elective courses, or through the voluntary
Author: Luke Carson
Language: Japanese
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W580177346