Professor David Little, a fellow emeritus of Trinity College Dublin, defines learner autonomy in relation to particular tasks, highlighting that learner autonomy consists of the ability to use particular knowledge and apply certain skills to new tasks, situated in contexts different from the learning context and under new conditions. When learners have become flexible and adaptive learners in this sense, they can be considered autonomous learners, namely when they are able to perform tasks (i) without assistance, (ii) beyond the immediate context in which they acquired the knowledge and skills, (iii) and flexibly, taking account of the special requirements of particular circumstances. Autonomous learners understand the purpose of their learning programme, explicitly accept responsibility for their own learning, share in the setting of learning goals, take initiatives in planning and executing learning activities, and regularly review their learning and evaluate its effectiveness, using their metacognitive abilities. They are able to develop an independent, proactive approach to their studies, thus learning depends on the activity and initiative of the learner, more than on any input transmitted to the learner by a teacher or a textbook. Since they are highly committed to their own learning, the problem of motivation is readily solved.
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