The effects of collaborative learning on the autonomy of university preparatory school students

This study aims to investigate the effects of collaborative learning on the autonomy of prep school students from the teachers' perspective. Mixed-method approach was applied for this study. The participants of this study consisted of 71 instructors who worked at the prep school of a foundation university. They participated in this study by completing the survey online and attending the interview sessions. For the quantitative data, the Likert scale questionnaire was taken by the survey of Borg and Al-Busaidi (2012). The questionnaire has 37 questions and the 5 options of 1=strongly agree, 2=agree, 3=neutral, 4=disagree and 5=strongly disagree. The Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) was used to analyze the data collected and generate participant scores. For the qualitative data, 10 volunteer instructors were interviewed to obtain more specific, deep and detailed knowledge and perspective about the effects of collaborative learning on the autonomy of prep-school students. For the interview, open-ended questions were asked to understand their consideration for the effects of learner autonomy on prep school students and the effects of collaborative learning on prep school students' autonomy. The results of this study showed that learner autonomy has positive effects for the prep school students and collaborative learning has a huge impact on promoting autonomy for the learners at prep school. The instructors stated that autonomous learners are more likely to be more successful through an English language learning journey. They also indicated that learner autonomy can be promoted and fostered better with collaborative activities such as pair-work, group work and shared tasks. Key Words: learner autonomy, collaborative learning, self-discipline, self-control, self- awareness