The Role of Personal Autonomy in the Development of Transformative Competencies in Students

Abstract

Transformative skills (such as critical thinking or adaptability) are relevant themes in contemporary education, and personal autonomy is often associated with them. Personal autonomy in students is a topic explored in psychology, pedagogy, and educational sciences, focusing primarily on their ability to make decisions, manage their own resources, and act independently in various contexts. Through this research, we aim to investigate the role of personal autonomy in the development of transformative skills in adolescents, reflecting on how freedom of choice, self-regulation and individual responsibility contribute to the development of critical thinking and adaptability to change in modern society. The scientific approach will use a mixed format (qualitative and quantitative) and a range of methods, such as: questionnaires for students (to measure autonomy, motivation, and developed competencies); case studies (interviews with teachers and students from schools with democratic practices); natural experiments (comparison of two classes of students from a high school in Chisinau with a contingent of 268 people - one using traditional methods, and the other with autonomous activities). The questionnaire was divided into three dimensions in order to monitor the cognitive, social and emotional, and methodological autonomy of students. It is important to note that the 268 students come from urban areas, from high school and from the humanities profile. The questionnaire was divided into three dimensions in order to monitor students' cognitive, social and emotional, and methodological autonomy. The data collected allowed us to identify significant differences between students with high versus low autonomy (those with higher autonomy developed more creativity or resilience).