by Nick Maxwell
featuring Catriona Johnson and Rachel Wall
This is the Higher Ed: Knowledge-Share Podcast.
In this episode we explore the concept of student autonomy, addressing questions such as:
How can we promote student autonomy through peer and teacher feedback?
How can we balance teacher support with student choice in the classroom?
We also explore other aspects of autonomy. Nick is the host; Catriona and Rachel are the insightful guests.
intro and outro music: “Street Party” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Great podcast! Loads of useful ideas – love the tomato table suggestion! Looking forward to listening to the next one 🙂
Really good discussion! I thought these points were particularly interesting:
1) Autonomy doesn’t really exist! It is a case of training in self awareness and being able to reflect.
2) Confidence – becoming autonomous requires self-esteem and confidence.
3) Mind Maps/different brains need different things in terms of learning autonomy/scaffolding – I think this is related to the discussion on reflection and how something like 50% of people apparently don’t have an internal ‘voice’, so how does reflection work for these different groups? (ok, I don’t have a citation right now for that statistic…)
Maybe after these ideas we need a new or clearer and more consistent collective definition of ‘autonomy’, especially if we are basing a curriculum and materials on creating that very concept?
Really enjoyed listening to this! I agree that autonomy is sometimes framed as INdependence when in reality it is INTERdependence that we should encourage (as Catriona here is drawing attention to the importance of group work etc).. looking forward to the next episode!
Hi Nick, Rachel and Catriona,
Thank you so much for this podcast! I found it really engaging, interesting and relatable. The following points were especially interesting:
1.)The image of the baby birds in the nest vs the baby birds learning to fly to explain autonomy. I would like to use this myself at the start of TB1.
Autonomy
2.) As tutors, we need to help students realise that autonomy doesn’t mean working completely alone in a vacuum, but also includes collaboration, reflection and peer review.
Peer review
3.) Eliciting the purpose of peer review does not automatically motivate students. (I can relate to this).
4.) The tomato tracking chart for MRR Peer review. Rachel, would you be willing to share this with teachers? I would like to try it next AY.
Feedback
5.) Giving students time in class to read tutor feedback and have them answer structured questions. I agree that there is a certain amount of scaffolding from the teacher here, but engaging with and responding to feedback is a key element of the IFP and if students can create positive habits, this will benefit them on their future UG and beyond.
6.) Giving audio feedback on the Pre-sessional due to lack of contact with the teacher. I have been learning all about giving A/V screencast feedback from the TEL CPD Sharepoint site and intend to try it out on PS7 online this summer.
Reflection
7.) Students are unsure how to reflect, so having them look back at their AW Process/Purpose essay enables them to see how much progress they have made. I will make sure I suggest this to AW students next year.
I look forward to more episodes and sharing knowledge and best practice with tutors in the future.
Really enjoyed this talk too!
Rachel’s comments on Holec’s often missed point about how 100% choice is required in order to have autonomy gave me some food for thought. I see useful links between that and my current exploration into how the Paradox of Choice (Schwartz) connects to self-directed learning. Finding the balance between effective scaffolding and student choice is difficult but interesting to navigate in my experience.