The Mechanisms And Intervention Of Learning Autonomy Among Pupils In Grades 3-6

Learning autonomy is both an important part of students' healthy development and a prerequisite for lifelong learning.To promote students' learning autonomy is not only the goal of national education,but also a significant direction of basic educational reforms.To explore the characteristics of learning autonomy,or to help the teachers to facilitate students' learning autonomy,is the urgent topic of current education.Although a pool of research has focused on the situation,influencing mechanisms and interventions of learning autonomy,aspects of this research present some limitations:Firstly,the developing trend of learning autonomy obtained by the previous research was inconsistent.Meanwhile,the prior researchers mainly paid attentions to learning autonomy of junior and senior high school students,few of them aimed at primary students,especially in Chinese educational context.Secondly,a great deal of previous research used the variable-centered methods,but few devoted attention to the person-oriented approach.Thirdly,as for autonomy,there were different meaning makings between the Western individualist cultures and the Eastern collectivist cultures.It was unclear whether or not the results of self-determination theory(SDT)could hold up within the Chinese collectivist culture.Forthly,the ecological intervention of learning autonomy has yet not to be further studied.Therefore,the present paper aimed at exploring learning autonomy among pupils in Grade 3-6 in China.In order to shed further lights on above topic,the current research consisted of four parts with nine studies:First part(including study 1,2 and 3)focused on the situation and developing trend of learning autonomy.Study 1 was to test the measuring instrument used in this research.The results showed that,the scale of pupils' learning autonomy had been well-documented in the validity and reliability among Chinese pupils in 3-6 grades.The goal of study 2 and 3 was to explore the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of learning autonomy by using both the variable-centered approach and person-oriented approach.The results of study 2 showed that the primary regulation of pupils' learning autonomy was identification regulation.Moreover,the developing trend presented an inverted U-shape,that is,the top was in Grade 4,two low levels were in Grade 3 and in Grade 6.At last,according to the external regulation,introjected regulation,identification regulation and internal motivation,the primary students could be classified by five profiles:the external regulation type,passive controlled type,high introjected regulation and autonomy type,high controlled and autonomy type,and high autonomy type.Second part(study 4)was meant to examine the relationships among learning autonomy,class engagement and performance.The results showed that above five profiles have significant differences from class engagement and performance.Learning autonomy could predict performance positively,and engagement mediated in such relationships.Part three(including study 5 and study 6)focused on the influencing mechanism of learning autonomy.Study 5 attempted to test the influencing mechanism of the supporting atmospheres from teachers,parents and peers in learning autonomy.The results showed that teachers played greatest influences in pupils' learning autonomy.And the satisfaction of basic needs mediated these relationships.Based on the results of study 5,study 6 aimed at testing the influencing mechanisms of teachers' need supportive teaching.The result showed that autonomy support directly predicted students' learning autonomy and engagement,interpersonal support indirectly impacted on students' learning autonomy by the mediated role of basic needs satisfaction.At the same time,structure support could not predict students' learning autonomy and engagement.The aim of part four including study 7,8 and 9 was to intervene students'learning autonomy.Study 7 focused on the prior investigation of the living situation of teachers and students in intervening school.The results indicated that the teachers in intervening school were in poor working conditions,such as emotional anxiety,dropping of working autonomy and competence.These results enlightened that the key of intervention was not the reform of classroom organization,but wether or not teachers could carry out need supportive teaching to meet their students' basic needs.Therefore,the present intervention focused on improving teachers' need supportive teaching through the theory study and the Structured Workshops with the discussions of different cases.The results showed that the intervention had significant roles in teachers' need supportive teaching,and students could percept the changing of teachers' support,the improvements of their learning autonomy and engagement were significant.Study 9 was to investigate the mechanisms of the present intervention.The results showed that the teachers' growth was due to the inner negotiations between transmitter I-position and support I-position.The path of "Teacher Growth-Perceived Teacher Support-New Relations between Teacher and Student-Learning Autonomy" was the influencing mechanism in the present intervention.