Gender, educational level and students' preferences towards autonomy support by teachers

Abstract

Literature findings indicate that persons vary in their responses to autonomy supportive environments. The main problem of the research presented in the article was: are students` preferences towards learning autonomy support provided by teachers related to students` gender and educational level? The study aimed to learn about students` preferences concerning making independent learning choices, being provided with justification of marks obtained and rationale for suggested actions and to test the relationship between gender and educational level of students and their preferences towards learning autonomy support from teachers. In the research Learning Autonomy Support Preferences Questionnaire was used consisting of four pairs of sentences (KR20 = 0,546). Each pair requires indication of a preference of either high or low learning autonomy conditionsin a class. There were 450 participants in the study -150 middle school students (73 men and 77 women) and 302 secondary school students (131 men and 171 women).The data showed that students generally prefer learning autonomously during classes. However, they attach much importance to availability of teacher`s explanations. Teachers of middle schools should take advantage of their students` natural tendency tolearn autonomously.