Any colour you like: Learner autonomy and choice

'You can have any colour you like, as long as it's black' - Henry Ford

Some of the best work American author Daniel Pink has done has been around intrinsic motivation. In his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Pink argues that the strongest urges to do anything significant come from within. The secret to motivational success lies in autonomy, and our desire to be self directed. The Venn diagram (below) illustrates what Pink believes to be the three prime motivators or drives that cause us to try out new things, attempt to surpass our previous achievements, and succeed in life. Autonomy figures strongly, as does our desire for mastery. However, at the top of the diagram is something we all need to be able to do anything successfully - a purpose. In course design this is often stated as an aim, or an objective, or even in some quarters, a goal. But this is not the full picture. Often, a stated objective might be better represented as a process. Purpose has no end. It is an ongoing proposition that learners aspire toward. This is why it is inextricably entwined with autonomy and mastery.

Autonomy, in the strictest sense of the word, can be defined as an individuals capability to make rational and uncoerced decisions. In the wider educational sense, autonomy has connotations of choice, including decisions about what one learns, where one learns it, and at what pace it is learnt. For too long, state funded educational systems have been removing this autonomy. Now that is all about to change. The advent of personal technologies (tablets, smart phones, games consoles, e-readers) and social media (social networks, discussion sites, media sharing platforms) coupled with emergent trends such as flipped classrooms and Massive Open Online Courses, are at the vanguard of a social movement that will provide anyone, anywhere, regardless of their condition, with access to quality learning experiences.

Autonomy is often misconstrued. I asked some of my students recently whether they were truly autonomous. I asked some whether they had chosen their own lunchtime meals. Of course, they responded. But that is autonomy only at one level. Their choices were almost certainly restricted to what was available in the refrigerator or cupboard, or what was left on sale in the local shop. The same applies to the clothing we wear, our technology, and just about everything else we possess. Our choices, even though we make them, are often constrained, unless we have the resources (purchasing power) to demand personally designed or created goods. Choosing courses at college or university has a semblance of autonomy, but traditionally, this has never really been the case. There is choice at a superficial level, but to use a culinary metaphor, choice is only from what is on the menu, and there are often only limited ingredients available. Now, with the new technology wave, all that is about to change. If the current trends continue, we can expect to see personalised learning finally realised, and any time, any place learning becoming a reality for millions.

Photo by Scribe
Graphic by Steve Wheeler, adapted from Pink (2009)


Any colour you like: Learner autonomy and choice by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.