Autonomous Learning: Students Perceptions

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Autonomous Learning Students Perceptions

• Dr David Gardner
• The English Centre
• The University of Hong Kong

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Purpose

• Examine students understanding of self-access
  learning and its connection with autonomous
  learning
• Understanding might give insights into
  influencing motivation
• Motivation for autonomous learning is important
  as resources are scarce

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Target

• To get a picture of
• Students working definitions of self-access
  language learning
• The importance students attach to self-access
  learning
• Students perceptions of integrating self-access
  into a language course

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Plan for This Presentation

• Part 1 Brief Background
• Part 2 The Data
• Part 3 The Findings
• Part 4 Conclusions

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Plan for This Presentation

• Part 1 Brief Background
• Part 2 The Data
• Part 3 The Findings
• Part 4 Conclusions

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The Context

• University students of science
• Year 2
• 10 years of English
• 2nd university English course
• Diverse language abilities
• Diverse future needs
• No prior knowledge of self-access

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The Course

• Three strands
• Writing
• Speaking
• Self-access
• Speaking is the main focus in class
• Students are given time out of class for SALL

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The Self-Access Component of the Course

• Pre-course orientation
• Reading activity
• In-class Orientation
• Teacher explanation
• On-going Support for Self-Access
• Discussions, monitoring
• Evidence of SALL Activity
• Submit a record

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Why Question Students Understanding of SALL?

• teachers and researchers -complex
• students views simplistic
• compulsory autonomy
• Traditional background

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Other Research about this Course

• 2004 -Gardner
• 2007 -Lai
• Little evidence about understanding of concepts

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Plan for This Presentation

• Part 1 Brief Background
• Part 2 The Data
• Part 3 The Findings
• Part 4 Conclusions

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Plan for This Presentation

• Part 1 Brief Background
• Part 2 The Data
• Part 3 The Findings
• Part 4 Conclusions

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Data for the Study Reported Here

• three open-ended questionnaires
• Insights also from
• focus groups
• End-of-course evaluative feedback
• SALL records

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Timing of Data Collection

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Data Source

• Two classes
• Eliminated incomplete records
• Compared for differences
• Grouped as one data set
• 30 students

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Plan for This Presentation

• Part 1 Brief Background
• Part 2 The Data
• Part 3 The Findings
• Part 4 Conclusions

17
Plan for This Presentation

• Part 1 Brief Background
• Part 2 The Data
• Part 3 The Findings
• Part 4 Conclusions

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THE FINDINGS 3 areas

• What SALL means to the students
• Understanding of concepts
• Perception of the importance of SALL
• Understanding the value of SALL
• Perceptions on integration of SALL
• Evidence that SALL is recognized as part of the
  course

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THE FINDINGS 3 areas

• What SALL means to the students
• Understanding of concepts
• Perception of the importance of SALL
• Understanding the value of SALL
• Perceptions on integration of SALL
• Evidence that SALL is recognized as part of the
  course

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Findings Area 1Understanding of SALL

• Definitions
• Q1 and Q2 compared
• Show effect of in-class orientation
• Q2 and Q3 compared
• Show effect of practical experience of SALL

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The Responses

• Open-ended
• Richer data
• Less prompting
• Data processing is more difficult
• Rating system to assess responses
• A checklist of defining items

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Defining Concepts

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Initial understanding of the concept of SALL

• Q1 pre-course
• Expected to be superficial

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Initial understanding of the concept of SALL

• Q1 pre-course
• Expected to be superficial
• Scored 0 - 6 out of 16

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Understanding After the In-class Orientation

• Q2 after in-class orientation
• Expected to be more developed

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Understanding After the In-class Orientation

• Q2 after in-class orientation
• Expected to be more developed
• Scored 1 - 6 out of 16

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Comparing Q1 and Q2 Responses

• Q1 and Q2 almost identical range
• Top and bottom scorers are the same students

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Why So Similar?

• Difficult to explain
• No increase in understanding?
• Defining SALL with a single concept?
• Questionnaire fatigue?

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Understanding by the End of the Course

• Q3
• Predicted deeper understanding
• Thus richer definitions
• More details

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Understanding by the End of the Course
Q3 responses
Slightly better

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Lack of Correlation

• Q1Q2 Q3
• No match
• Changes in scores appear random

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Lack of Correlation

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Why?

• No explanation
• No overall increase
• Why changes are random

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THE FINDINGS 3 areas

• What SALL means to the students
• Understanding of concepts
• Perception of the Importance of SALL
• Understanding the value of SALL
• Perceptions on integration of SALL
• Evidence that SALL is recognized as part of the
  course

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Findings Area 2The Importance of SALL

• To see whether students assign value to SALL
• To see whether their perceptions of value change
  during the course

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Sources of Data

• Questions about the importance of SALL
• Questions about the integration of SALL
• Most students did not distinguish
• Key terms from both areas were used to assess
  importance

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Managing the Data

• Open-ended responses
• Assigned to categories
• Categories were derived from students own terms
• 7 positive categories, 4 negative categories
• Uncertainty was rare (expressed a total of 5
  times)

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Positive Categories

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Negative Categories

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Consistency of Perceptions

• Perceptions of importance remained largely
  consistent throughout
• The majority of students remained positive (also
  true of 2004 study)
• 1 student was persistently negative
• 7 others varied

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Consistency of Perceptions

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Evidence about Whether SALL is Valued by Students

• Looked at two major areas
• Changes from Q1 to Q2
• to show effect of in-class orientation
• Changes from Q2 to Q3
• to show effect of practical experience

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Effect of In-Class Orientation Positive
Perceptions
Language improvement increased
biggest increase in perceptions of autonomy
34 increase in use of categories

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Effect of In-Class Orientation Negative
Perceptions
Few No change

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Possible Explanations for Small Effect of
In-Class Orientation

• Most students started with a positive perception
• Their perception was reinforced by the teachers
  explanation
• The orientation added little to their
  understanding of the importance of SALL
• They had already completed the pre-course
  orientation

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Effect of Practical Experience Positive
Perceptions
Balanced change?
42 drop
Significant increase?
Reduced use of categories

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Effect of Practical Experience Negative
Perceptions
Still no change

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Effect of Practical Experience on Polarity of
Perceptions

• 25 students retained their positive view
• Most provided
• more detail
• Some changed their reasons
• 1 student moved to a more positive view
• 2 students remained negative
• 2 students became negative

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Possible Explanations for Effect of Practical
Experience

• Focus on own needs
• Polarization of perceptions no uncertainty
• No increased complexity in perceptions
• Decline in importance of SALL for language
  improvement
• Perceptions remained largely positive

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Overview of Perceptions of Importance of SALL

• Perceptions of importance remained largely
  positive throughout
• Ability to express reasons for the importance
  developed after the in-class orientation
• By the end of the course perceptions had
  polarised

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THE FINDINGS 3 areas

• What SALL means to the students
• Understanding of concepts
• Perception of the importance of SALL
• Understanding the value of SALL
• Perceptions on integration of SALL
• Evidence that SALL is recognized as part of the
  course

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Findings area 3 Integration of SALL

• Independence versus Guidance
• Key points for integration
• Teachers influence students attitudes
• Integrate learner development with language
  learning
• To offer greater choice to learners
• Individualisation
• To promote learner responsibility
• To promote learner training
• To promote learner autonomy
• To cope with learner diversity

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An Issue for Students?

• Students did not distinguish
• Repetitive data
• Why?

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Why Was it Not an Issue for Students?

• Dont know but maybe
• Already integrated
• Teacher knows best
• No other experience
• Not important to them
• NOT because they saw no difference to normal
  teaching

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Plan for This Presentation

• Part 1 Brief Background
• Part 2 The Data
• Part 3 The Findings
• Part 4 Conclusions

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Plan for This Presentation

• Part 1 Brief Background
• Part 2 The Data
• Part 3 The Findings
• Part 4 Conclusions

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Conclusion Target

• Snapshots of perceptions of SALL at three points
• Beginning of course
• After the in-class orientation
• Post-course
• Did perceptions change?

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Conclusion

• Did definitions become richer?
• Did perceptions of the importance of SALL
  develop?
• Did students favour integration?

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Further research

• Why were students so positive from the beginning?
• No prior experience
• Lacked very clear understanding (definitions)
• Some had probably not completed the pre-course
  orientation (anecdotal)
• Were from teacher-dependent backgrounds

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Further research

• Why didnt definitions become richer?
• Perception of important grew (Q2)
• Definitions did not
• Understanding of task of defining?
• e.g. SALL is like when I want to improve my
  speaking and I do that
• Are these findings representative of whole
  cohort?

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Plan for This Presentation

• Part 1 Brief Background
• Part 2 The Data
• Part 3 The Findings
• Part 4 Conclusions