| Summary: |
Independent learning is hardly a new concept. Its twentieth-century
roots lie in the work of educators such as Dewey (1916) and Tyler (1949),
both of whom emphasised the need for teachers and students to take
a greater role in and responsibility for the educational process. Freire
(1970) and Illich (1971) contributed liberational concepts of an informal
education which lies outside the institutional educational structure,
and Knowles (1975, 1980) provided a conceptualisation of andragogy
and the self-directed learner which was to underpin the mainstream
US post-secondary education system. In the UK tertiary educational
context, the work of the Nuffield Group for Research and Innovation
in Higher Education (1975), and then the enormous influence of the
Council of Europe as reflected in the work of Dickinson (1987), Holec
(1980, 1985) and Little (1991), further developed conceptualisations of
the autonomous and independent language learner.
It is also, however, a field that remains dynamic, with scholars
from across the world involved in broadening its scope and deepening
our understanding of the various notions it encompasses. Research
and areas of expertise embrace many aspects of the field, including the
development of learner and teacher autonomy, self-directed and selfaccess
learning, technology-mediated pedagogy, assessment in (and of)
independent learning and the management of independent learning.
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