A study on Chinese teachers' beliefs about learner autonomy in Hong Kong primary schools

Abstract

Learner autonomy has been asserted by many scholars as essential to learning, and that the teacher’s role in fostering autonomy is of great importance in the institutional context of learning. In the field of language education, previous studies have looked into teachers’ beliefs in promoting autonomy mainly in the university setting in different regions of the world, such as Omen, Turkey, some countries in Europe and Hong Kong. The teachers were from a range of nationalities and cultures. A certain group of teachers in the primary education field or in a homogeneous cultural context has not been touched on. This study attempts to fill these gaps and focuses on the context of Hong Kong primary schools, aiming to find out Chinese teachers' beliefs about learner autonomy and the possible factors that influence the form of their beliefs.