More about learner autonomy...

As I just talked about learner autonomy, I found this interesting article at Nova Escola magazine and I decided to write something about it here. It is the cover article, and as I received the magazine at home, I realized it connected to the previous article.

It is about homework and how it can raise students’ autonomy. The name of the article is A hora de estudar sozinho e ver o que aprendeu, written by Elisângela Fernandes.

The author says that homework is a good way to raise students’ autonomy, because this is the moment that students, alone, will take their time for that, come up with questions, read, research, and, by doing so, become more independent.

The homework also brings benefits to the teacher, who will evaluate the learners’ progress.

Although it is a really good source to develop learner autonomy, nor the students or the teachers value it a lot. The author says that the homework doesn’t need only to be done, but to be well planned by the teacher while preparing the class.

It is really important to guide students and their parents about the homework, because it can be a problem. There are some parents who do the activities for their children, or those who correct everything, and there are also those who don’t care if their children do the homework or not. So, by guiding them, maybe it is possible for the teacher to have less problems like these.

Elisângela suggests that teachers assign homework with clear objectives about the content taught in class. If it is too challenging for the students, the teacher has to take some minutes of the class and explain it clearly.

It is vital that homework is corrected on the next class. If it is not, students might not feel motivated to do it again.

To conclude, homework is an important step in developing learner autonomy, as they have to read, try, search, use the dictionary or the internet in order to accomplish the task, and it is important that teachers are conscious and careful by choosing what to assign and how to do it.