What is Autonomy Orientation

An “authentic” learner is one who is true to their core identity through their expressions and actions in the world. What informs this authenticity includes various sources, from both nature (biology) and nurture (socio-cultural factors, social experiences, and personality), and others. An important part of learner effort in a learning context comes from an individual's own (1) internal drives and (2) intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, as expressed in a particular context. Ideally, people express their authentic (learning) selves fully (within reasonable constraints). This work summarizes some of the research literature on human drives and motivations and analyzes how these may be understood per learner and what these may mean for the design of teaching and learning.