ABSTRACT
Independence means thinking and acting for oneself. As the above Case study shows, creating the right learning environment in helping children to develop the necessary skills, attributes or emotional integrity for independent learning is very important for practice. However, as Hendy and Whitebread (2000) found, in their study of independent learning in the early years, practitioners all agreed on the importance of promoting independent learning in children, but held differing opinions as to what this meant in practice. Their findings further suggested that practitioners’ understanding of the concept tended to focus on the development of independent children rather than encouraging independent learning; where the latter concept acknowledges the important role of the practitioner. In essence, independent learning involves learning how to think and act for oneself, where the necessary skills, knowledge, understanding, dispositions and emotions should be developed in the earliest years of education.
