One of the main roles of educators is to provide students with opportunities to get to know themselves better as learners; that is, to become autonomous learners. Learners’ autonomy can be defined as the ability to take control of and assess their own learning process.

So, how to promote learners’ autonomy in the classroom?

Try to identify an inventory of learning strategies that you consider helpful for students to succeed in your course.

• Give students this list of learning strategies and encourage them to reflect periodically on which ones they use and would like to develop further.
• Ask them to list other strategies that have worked for them.

From the beginning of the semester, take advantage of every opportunity to assess how students perceive their own learning process. For some or all assignments, provide a space for learners to reflect on how they understand the task in the context of the course:

• How did this task help you advance your own learning objectives and the course objectives?
• What can you do to improve your performance on the task?
• How can this task help you improve your understanding of the material in an effective manner?

Allocate some time during the class to discuss as a group your students’ responses in order to promote awareness of different learning needs in the classroom community.

Good luck and enjoy the experience!

To follow up on any of these ideas, please contact me at fglazer@nyit.edu. This Weekly Teaching Note was adapted from a contribution to the Teaching and Learning Writing Consortium hosted at Western Kentucky University.

Contributors:
Esther Castro Cuenca
Senior Lecturer in Spanish and Spanish Language Program Director

and

Dimaris Barrios-Beltrán
Visiting Language Instructor in Spanish
Teaching & Learning Initiative Faculty Fellows, 2018-19
Mount Holyoke College