Learner Autonomy and Language Acquisition: Key Factors
Control as a Natural Attribute of Learning
To What Extent Are We Born Self-Directed Learners?
Thomson suggests that as young children, we take control over the learning of our first language (L1). However, as learning becomes more complex, we appear to give up much of our autonomy. When we learn foreign languages as teenagers or adults, we seem to find self-directed learning difficult and even show a preference for direction by teachers and learning materials.
Self-Instruction
Jones defines self-instruction
Read MoreEffective Group Techniques: Application and Best Practices
Group techniques are not based on pure theoretical models. They are considered best practices because their formulation and operation depend on the specific situation where the technique is applied. Borderline cases and hybrid techniques may be found in practice, as the technique requires adaptation to the objectives and circumstances of the work. No single technique is versatile enough for every situation or need. Adequacy requires taking certain precautions:
- The pre-established goals justify the
Mastering Critical Thinking: Skills and Virtues
Critical Thinking
What is Critical Thinking?
“The ability of individuals to take charge of their own thinking. This requires them to develop appropriate criteria and standards to analyze and evaluate their own thinking and routinely use those criteria and standards to improve its quality.”
Critical Thinking Skills
Analysis, inference, explanation, abstraction, metacognition.
A Critical Thinker
- Formulates vital problems and questions with clarity and precision.
- Collects and evaluates relevant information,
Understanding Affection, Emotions, and Feelings: A Comprehensive Analysis
Understanding Affection, Emotions, and Feelings
Item 9
1. What is Affection?
Affection is a general term encompassing a range of emotions, passions, and sentiments that individuals experience internally in response to events or thoughts throughout their lives.
2. Characteristics of Affection:
- Subjective in nature, experienced personally and uniquely.
- Generally oscillates between two opposite poles of effect.
- Its manifestation is reflected in the individual’s state of encouragement.
- Almost all events can
Paradigms in Educational Research: Positivist, Naturalist, and Critical
Paradigms in Educational Research
Positivist Era (19th Century) vs. Paradigmatic Era (20th Century)
The conception of educational research has evolved from a holistic approach (positivism) to a more pluralistic one (post-positivism). This shift involves multiple scientific languages and epistemological and methodological plurality.
Development of the Research Process
Structured research tests theories through verification and hypothesis testing. The researcher acts within a natural setting, external
Read MoreNature and Culture: Understanding Human Social Dynamics
Nature and culture are not contradictory but complementary:
- Nature is, in large part, our heritage and biological evolution.
- Culture is everything a human being has incorporated through their own human and social activity, the natural process of development of their lives, their biological culture. We produce nature creatively; we can overcome environmental constraints.
Culture is the set of all components of our human life that are transmitted, socially learned, and taught, whether they belong to
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