Maintaining autonomy and building initiative are advantageous goals for teachers. To achieve these objectives, administrators must provide opportunities for incorporating them into the education process. Professional autonomy gives teachers the freedom to increase the learning potential of their students and cultivate initiative within an educational environment. Constructivist theory lends itself to the idea that one should not only encourage autonomy and initiative but work to develop them as well.

Contructivist teachers encourage and accept student autonomy and initiative. Teachers who support these concepts are motivating their students to become more engaged in the learning process. In a constructivist classroom, the students become participants in an educational environment where knowledge is activated and appreciated.

Central to constructivism is its conception of learning (Murphy 1997). Von Glasersfeld (1995) argues that, "From the constructivist perspective, learning is not a stimulus-response phenomenon. It requires self-regulation and the building of conceptual structures through reflection and abstraction" (p.14). Fosnot (1996) adds that "Rather than behaviors or skills as the goal of instruction, concept development, and deep understanding are the foci”(p.10). The challenge for educators is to be able to build a “hypothetical model of the conceptual worlds” of students since these worlds can be vary from what the educator intended (von Glasersfeld, 1996). Part of this development process includes promoting autonomy and building initiative in teachers as well as in students.

Teacher autonomy has become an interesting topic in educational organizations. Teachers who have a high sense of autonomy are typically more receptive to change. This concept includes allowing teachers to initiate ideas, create activities, and feel the freedom to change instructional procedures based on the situation.

Developing and maintaining autonomy must be an ongoing process. In order to proceed with the development process, one must understand the different degrees of work autonomy. Friedman (1999) describes the degrees on a 1 to 5 scale as follows:

Since there is a relationship between teacher and learner autonomy, opportunities need to be offered or created where teachers can experience independent processes of learning (Little 2007). With this experience, teachers will be more prepared to foster a sense of autonomy in their students. One way to ensure that such opportunities are made available is to provide productive staff development that can be used to promote autonomy while at the same time inspiring initiative. The following sections provides ways that administrators and teachers can use constructivism to develop autonomous environments of learning where initiative is appreciated and supported. This information can be applied at any grade level and demographic.

Jonassen (1991) states that numerous educators and cognitive psychologists have employed constructivism to develop environments of learning. From these practices, he has identified a number of design principles:

Honebein (1996) describes seven goals for the design of constructivist learning environments:

Jonassen (1994) outlines what he refers to as "the implications of constructivism for instructional design". The following principles demonstrate how knowledge construction can be promoted:

An important concept for social constructivists is scaffolding which is a process of guiding the learner from what is presently known to what is to be known (Murphy 1997). According to Vygotsky (1978), students' problem solving skills fit into three categories:

Scaffolding gives students the opportunity to complete tasks for which under normal conditions might be slightly above their ability level without assistance and guidance from the teacher. Individual development of a student can be advanced with the appropriate teacher support. Therefore, scaffolding is an extremely important characteristic of constructivist learning and teaching.

Multiple perspectives, authentic activities, real-world environments are themes that are often affiliated with constructivist learning and teaching. This section presents a summary compiled by Murphy (1997) of the characteristics of constructivist learning and teaching:

The following website prodvides extensive information on constructivism and how to incorporate the theory into the classroom. This website also gives educators the opportunity to get credit for a free online staff development workshop. There are four parts to the workshop: Explanation, Demonstration, Exploration, and Implementation.

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index.html

Constructivist theory promotes the idea that the teacher is a guide that introduces concepts and supports the students' sense of initiative. With this approach to learning, teachers are given the freedom to decide the type of instruction that works for their own classroom. Administrators that foster a sense of autonomy in their teachers are advocating a conducive learning environment. Teachers can relate more effectively to students and allow them to become more active participants in their own education. This type of interaction can produce an extremely beneficial learning experience.

Friedman, I. (1999). Teacher perceived work autonomy: The concept and its measurement. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 59 (1), 58-76.

Fosnot, C. (1996). Constructivism: A Psychological theory of learning. In C. Fosnot (Ed.) Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and practice, (pp.8-33). New York: Teachers College Press.

Honebein, P. (1996). Seven goals for the design of Constructivist learning environments. In B. Wilson, Constructivist learning environments, (pp. 17-24). New Jersey: Educational Technology Publications.

Jonassen, D. (1991, September). Evaluating Constructivist Learning. Educational Technology, 36(9), 28-33.

Jonassen, D. (1994, April). Thinking technology. Educational Technology, 34(4), 34-37.

Little, David (2007). Introduction: Reconstructing learner and teacher autonomy in language education. In: Andrew Barfield, Stephen H. Brown. Eds. Reconstructing autonomy in language education: inquiry and innovation. Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Murphy, E. (1997). Constructivism: From philosophy to practice. Retrieved from http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emurphy/stemnet/cle.html

von Glasersfeld, E. (1995). A constructivist approach to teaching.Constructivism in education, (pp.3-16). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

von Glasersfeld, E. (1996). Introduction: Aspects of constructivism. Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and practice, (pp.3-7). New York: Teachers College Press.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes MA: Harvard University Press.