Abstract
Fostering Learners’ Autonomy: The case of Moroccan University Students
Students absolutely need to be given opportunities to take in charge their own learning to have the ability to enhance their quality learning and to transfer their acquired knowledge to future situations. This article reports on a study conducted among students at the university Hassan II, Casablanca. It seeks to reflect on the main pre-requisites and practices needed to achieve a successful teaching/learning experience within Moroccan universities through fostering students’ autonomy. The current paper will try to answer the following questions: Are learners ready to accept responsibility? and are teachers ready to give responsibility? Both questionnaires and interviews were employed to collect, analyze and discuss data. Preliminary results have shown that the more actively engaged and involved students are in their learning, the more they participate fully in the learning opportunities that are presented to them. More than this, the more teachers are willing to change their traditional roles and the more learner centered the classroom environment is, the easier the transition from non-autonomous to autonomous learners becomes.
Keywords
learner autonomy responsibility motivation quality learning