5. Ideas for further research and Epilogue

5.1 Ideas for further research

The questionnaire items provided in Chapter 4.5 might be used in further research into learner autonomy. However, one needs to bear in mind that with respect to the complexity of the concept (as shown in Chapters 2 and 3), our research was severely limited. We were forced to neglect factors such as personal growth, teaching materials, orientation in aims and activities, flexibility, creativity, risk-taking and making guesses, empathy, cultural understanding or self-appropriation of learning. Although some of these factors did emerge in our study, they were not thoroughly treated.

If, then, one ventures to devise a tool for measuring autonomy based on our research, one needs to understand that it covers the concept only partly. Consequently, another similar research into a number of other factors would need to be undertaken before we could produce a fairly reliable instrument to gauge learners' readiness for independent learning.

5.2 Epilogue

David Little mentions Ivan Illich's idea that a school "institutionalizes values" (1991: 9). Carl Rogers, operating on a necessarily identical mindset, believes that we could easily "do away with teaching. People would get together if they wished to learn" (1969: 154). No doubt these were radical notions, even in the 1960s.

It seems that schools may create a barrier between learning and living, between experience and reality – by taking learning and reflection away from the realm of the students' free choice. However, Rogers's idea is not only a frontal attack at all imaginable educational institutions; in more general terms, it could be conceived of as an attack against all institutions. Schools are gigantic enterprises that tell millions of people what to learn (even at universities, eponyms of free human thought, knowledge is more often transferred than negotiated); consequently, other state (or private) institutions work along very similar lines.

It is our sincere wish that centuries from now, people – going along the line with Illich and Rogers – will knock down all existing institutions that exceed the boundaries of a tiny city state, thus proclaiming themselves free.

6. References:

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COTTERALL, Sara (1995) 'Readiness For Autonomy: Investigating Learner Beliefs' System 23(2): 195-205.

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