Autonomous Learning as a Transformative Experience

Autonomous Learning As A Construct

Autonomous learning has been defined as “an agentive process in which the conative factors of desire, initiative, resourcefulness, and persistence are manifest” (Carr, 1999, p. 17; Ponton, 1999, p. 16), while Meyer (2001) defined autonomous learning as the outward behavioral expression of the psychological construct of learner autonomy. Learner autonomy is generally defined as a “behavioral syndrome that consists of four psychological constructs—desire to learn, learner resourcefulness, learner initiative, and learner persistence” (Confessore & Park, 2004, pp. 41-42). This means there is an underlying psychological reason behind the outward behavior of what is observed as andrological self-directed learning that is intentional and deliberate by the learner—hence, being agentic—and consists of the four constructs listed. These constructs when looked at separately and as a group are the keys to true transformational experiences.