Promoting Learner Autonomy in Competence-Based General Education Curriculum in Vietnam: High School Teachers’ Beliefs

Abstract

Learner autonomy has recently been adopted as a desirable educational goal in many countries and a dominant topic in teaching and learning English. Despite numerous studies on the initiatives to foster learner autonomy in various contexts, little research has explored how high school teachers interpret and foster their students’ autonomy, especially in relation to the new competence-based curriculum for general education in Vietnam. This paper aimed to address this gap by investing teachers’ beliefs related to learner autonomy using a mixed-methods approach. It drew on data derived from a Likert-scale questionnaire with 71 high school teachers and individual interviews with five teachers of various subjects in a province in the south of Vietnam. The data were analyzed using SPSS software and qualitative thematic analysis. The findings indicated that teachers were well aware of the importance of learner autonomy and its significance in Vietnamese education. They generally took positive beliefs toward learner autonomy, but also expressed some reservations about its feasibility in classroom practice. Despite these challenges, teachers generally believed that they provided various learning opportunities and practices of this competence. This study presented a preliminary investigation into high school teachers’ beliefs about promoting LA in the new competence-based curriculum, which can be a useful resource for researchers and educators in the field. However, the study was small in scope and lacked generality. Future research could thus recruit more participants from various backgrounds and geographical regions or delve deeper into how various factors interact to shape teachers’ practices.