An assessment of the learner autonomy of students enrolled in academic and vocational programs at Thomas Nelson Community College (Virginia)

The purpose of the study was to determine how students at Thomas Nelson Community College (TNCC) are being shaped for the future by determining the extent to which there is a relationship between the community college environment and the development of autonomous learners.{09}More specifically, the purpose of the study was to determine if the development of learner autonomy of students enrolled in academic programs differs from the development of learner autonomy of students enrolled in vocational programs.; Using the Learner Autonomy Profile, the learner autonomy of the students in the academic and the vocational programs at the college was assessed at the beginning, the middle, and at the end of their programs. The learner autonomy of students in both academic and vocational programs was expected to increase over time and the learner autonomy of students in vocational programs was expected to increase more than the learner autonomy of students in academic programs over the same time period.; The results of the study, however, did not support these conjectures. Students in vocational programs exhibited greater desire to take charge of their learning as they got closer to finishing their program, but did not exhibit persistence, initiative, or resourcefulness. The academic students, however, did not exhibit any greater tendency to take charge of their own learning at any point in their program.; However, since intention is assumed to be the immediate antecedent to behavior and since desire to learn addresses the issues of the formation of intentions, the results may indicate that the vocational students at TNCC are in a position where they are about to move from dependency to autonomy.