Self-determination

The Bachelor of Leadership for Change is a facilitated learning experience. An integral part of the Bachelor of Leadership for Change programme is the identification of learning from experience and the sense-making of that learning as the learners develop a framework of practice.

Stephenson (1998) considered the implications of supporting student autonomy. He described situations where:

Students have direct responsibility for aspects of their education which are either not often directly addressed within an institutional setting (such as student motivation and personal development), or for aspects which are the traditional preserve of teachers and accrediting bodies (such as the direction, content, pace, location and assessment of the student's studies).

This “transfer of responsibilities” can well describe the case of the Bachelor of Leadership for Change. Stephenson described how students, “preferably in association with other students, and in applied contexts” take responsibility for the following, all of which apply to the Bachelor of Leadership for Change learner:

• Formulating the strategy of their overall learning based on an awareness of their own development needs (their strengths, weaknesses and aspirations);
• Devising a programme relevant to that strategy;
• Negotiating approvals for their proposed programmes and access to resources;
• Determining the pace, location and character of specific learning activities;
• Monitoring actual against planned progress and reviewing the continuing relevance of the programme they planned for themselves;
• Demonstrating their achievements, if necessary against external benchmarks;
• Critically reviewing the effectiveness of their overall learning experience and the relevance of their original formulation;
• Planning the next stage of their development.

Stephenson argued that this transfer of responsibility brings inherent risks, and that it is the responsibility of the teacher (facilitator in our case) and institution to support learners in assuming these “daunting responsibilities”

Taking responsibility for negotiating the overall strategy of their education forces students to ask fundamental questions about themselves and to share the answers (or lack of them) with others. They need to be clear and explicit about why they are in higher education, what is important in their lives, what their longer term future might be. They have to decide how best to use the next two to three years of their lives. They have to commit themselves to a personal direction, or if they are not ready to do so to be clear about any implications of their decision to keep their options open.

Risks to learner from assuming role of autonomous learners

• Autonomous learners feel at risk
• Will their ideas be relevant or considered good enough? Who are they to have a say about how they should be taught - it is 'going above their station' (NELP student). What happens if they are not taken seriously?
• Outside their experience and expectations
• pervasive feeling among students entering university for the first time that education is something 'which is done to you,’
• Locus of control
• Varying readiness of students to take more responsibility for their learning.

Fortunately, Stephenson described how strategies for developing independent learning capability can help learners overcome these anxieties and risks. These strategies are embedded in the approach, curriculum, delivery and support (both facilitators and learning support) of the Bachelor of Leadership for Change.