LEARNER AUTONOMY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE XXI CENTURY COMPETENCES’ DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of leaner autonomy in the context of the XXI century competences’ development. The article analyzes the origin, development and the essence of the notion “learner autonomy”. In this paper a comparative analysis of the main definitions of the notion “autonomy” is given. Numerous attempts of foreign and national scholars to give the definition of the term “autonomy” are discussed. The general meaning is denoted as a responsible role of a student himself during the learning process and the ability to make his or her own decisions about it. In this case, the possibility to make a choice is given to a student and thus amplifies the process of professional competences’ formation that explains the use of some range of strategies and approaches directed to the implementation in the process of learner autonomy formation. In the article, the change of teacher’s role in the learning process is underlined. In the context of the research made it becomes obvious that the transition from the model oriented to a teacher that has dominated over the past years toward the model oriented to students (“student-oriented approach”) and to the concept of “life-long learning” is needed. In contemporary conditions students must use not only different learning strategies but also choose the most effective forms according to the aim and individuals goals in learning. All of the tasks need to include those that are directed to the formation of strategic skills and abilities to self-esteem. The skills that will make people more strategically competent in anticipated socio-economic and technological contexts. Based on the analysis presented in this paper we can state that learner autonomy is one of the most successful factors in learning. So, the most important task for teachers is to form autonomous skills of students. The analysis of the literature connected with the issues of autonomy proved that there is no universal definition for this notion. Also, it was stated that the majority of national scientists share the idea of “autonomy” with their foreign colleagues.