Abstract
This overview study is concerned with a theme that is not very deeply explored in Czech education and educational psychology. In the first part it builds on the work of Ježek (2014) and presents seven concepts of the autonomy of the individual in psychology.
From the perspective of differential psychology this means the concept of autonomy as self-governance, independence and vulnerability. From the point of view of developmental psychology there is then a distinction between autonomy as separation, detachment, expression of agency, and the expression of specific independence.
This task involves thee growth of self-regulation of own emotions and own behaviour, greater independence in decision-making, the acquisition of greater rights and acceptance of greater responsibilities in the framework of the given society. In the second part of the study there is a discussion of the three different levels on which autonomy in the upbringing and education of pupils may be investigated.
These are as follows: the level of the educational system, the level of teacher-pupil interaction and the level of the pupils alone. It is with the level of the pupils that the study is more deeply concerned; it presents a model of adaptable learning (Boekaerts, 1996), which works with pupil autonomy.
It has the following parts: the task and its context, the knowledge and skills of the pupil, self, assessment; strategies of learning that lead to the acquisition of competence and strategies of coping. The final part of the overview focuses on the targeted development of the autonomy of pupils in the school.
It describes different sides of autonomy. It characterises the means whereby the autonomy of pupils can be developed in the framework of organisational, procedural, cognitive and emotional autonomy.
Running through the exposition is attention to the developmental aspect, particularly the specificity of the autonomy of pupils and students in the phase of emerging maturity.