History: Learner independence

Source of version: 1 (current)

Within the Andragogy in Practice model (Knowles, Holton, and Swanson 2005), emphasis is placed on learner independence. There may well be a conflict between adult learners’ wish to be independent, and traditional teacher-centered models of instruction. Put succinctly, if adult learners are not given independence, enjoyment will be low and attrition will be high; as such, education for (older) adults needs to focus on ‘the learners’ self-concept’ (p. 65). However, this does not mean that fully self-directed learning is desirable, since certain linguistic structures, such as syntactic rules, can be particularly difficult to learn without (implicit) instructions (see Ramírez Gómez 2016) . !! Practical considerations This section provides some practical considerations pertaining to learner independence {FANCYLIST()} 1) __Self-access materials __. For self-directed teaching to be possible, learners need to be given the right tools to learn independently. One's readiness to learn a language may well be high, but if their knowledge of the software packages used in a course is low, this means that they will not be able to fully direct their own learning process. In practice, this means that it is advisable to specifically allocate time to train learners to use the materials (e.g., digital learning environment, video-conferencing software) in the initial stages of the course. Additionally, it is good practice to have a centralized email address or phone number people could contact with questions. 2)__ Paper copies__. Researchers may be quick to take for granted that working with several tabs or screens and different software packages requires significant digital literacy. For example, logging in to a digital learning environment may be a hurdle in itself for some groups of older adults. Asking them to switch to a different tab on their email to open a PDF (which may require additional software) that contains instructions on how to log in will only increase the threshold for self-directed learning. Therefore, it is good practice to also send participants a paper version containing these instructions, so they can peruse these at a later date if necessary. {FANCYLIST} !! References !! Further reading