Developing Learner Autonomy via Choosing a Person’s Educational Pathway

The article examines the correlation between choosing a personal educational pathway and developing learner autonomy. The authors share the opinion that educational pathways and selfdirected studies have been getting vital in life-long learning. Thus, pedagogical universities should equip their students with skills of autonomous learners who are able to make well-informed choices about their own education and, in future, can facilitate a similar choice for their prospective schoolchildren. The study describes the authors' positive experience in increasing students' awareness of responsibility for choosing their personal educational pathways. The survey participants included 421 students who enrolled in the Bachelor's program and the Master's program at H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Ukraine, in 2018 and in 2019. The obtained data indirectly proved the fact that learner autonomy of the 1st Year students was not sufficiently developed and it impeded designing their personal educational pathways. The students of the master's program evinced more mature position in making choices and setting goals. The analysis of the students' motivation demonstrates a certain dynamics towards a more conscious choice of elective components in the academic program and gradual transition from external motivation to instrumental and intrinsic ones. The results of the research show that an appropriate balance between teachers' guidance and students' personal responsibility enhances the process of designing a personal educational pathway.