2. Encouraging students to be independent learners

  

          Independent learning requires more than token gestures to ‘working by oneself’. It requires planning, structure and guidance. There are certain techniques we teachers need to take into account when helping students learn independently. “Teaching ‘independence’ appears to be a paradox. If a teacher provides a structure for learning, by definition they are removing an element of independent study yet if a teacher leaves a student to survive autonomously, the teacher is negating their responsibility to enable the student to learn. Independent learning is open to interpretation depending on the level of independence a teacher wishes to instil in his/her students.” 

        We, teachers need to look for the most interesting approaches and strategies to make our students take responsibility for their own learning. Also, teachers must make their students understand they need to learn for life. Most of the time students get use to the teacher ‘spoon-feeding’, but this is something we need to avoid when teaching. The intentions of the teacher can be good when spoon-feeding contents, but he loses sight of the creativity, and the students become passive and teacher-dependent learners. Students’ dependency on the teacher restricts their ability to act and think independently about their subject and their learning. We need to make our students to do some research about certain topics so that they can learn by themselves. Moreover, we need to help our students develop their skills to the fullest. Knowing how to get students to this end point becomes a crucial part of short, medium and long-term planning and most importantly planning for progression. It requires a teacher to look beyond their immediate course of study, and to have a clear idea on where the he or she wants the students to be in the future.

        Scaffolding is used in the context of a technique designed to support a student’s transition in becoming independent learners. We have to help them till they are ready to do things by themselves. This will impact on a student`s ability to become an independent learner. A student`s capacity to be able to learn on their own can be maximized through effective co-planning of this time by both teacher and student.