The relationship between culture of learning and Turkish university preparatory students' readiness for learner autonomy

Abstract

The applicability of learner autonomy in different cultural contexts has been widely researched in the literature in recent years. However, the studies investigating the connection between culture and learner autonomy in Asian cultures have been inconclusive as they revealed contradictory findings about Asian students‟ reactions to autonomous learning. Taking this inconclusiveness as an impetus, this study aimed to investigate Turkish university learners‟ readiness for learner autonomy and its relationship with learners‟ culture of learning to explore whether learners‟ approaches to learner autonomy were based on their culturally predetermined learning behaviors or could be explained on the basis of differences in their educational backgrounds and experiences. This study gathered data from 408 students from the preparatory schools of seven universities in Turkey. The data were collected through questionnaires, and analyzed quantitatively by using descriptive statistics, a one-way ANOVA, cross tabulations and a Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. Analysis of the quantitative data revealed that there was a statistically significant relationship between the participants‟ culture of learning and their readiness for learner autonomy, which suggested that the extent of exposure to autonomous activities in the high schools in which the participants studied had an effect on their subsequent perceptions and behaviors related to learner autonomy. This study implied that national and ethnic definitions of culture, which describe all learners in homogeneous terms as if they were alike, may not sufficiently explain the differences in learners‟ autonomous behaviors. Therefore, learners‟ previous learning experiences -culture of learning- along with other individual factors should be taken into account in any attempts to promote learner autonomy.