Toward Self-Directed Learning in the Secondary Classroom [Hardcover]

Toward Self-Directed Learning in the Secondary Classroomexplores the challenges teachers have faced and continue to face in a pandemic and post-pandemic context while attempting to implement self-directed learning in the secondary classroom. Drawing on contemporary research from around the world as well as candid interviews with educators in Canada and the United States, this book addresses both the challenges and successes teachers have experienced while attempting to guide students toward self-directedness.Erik N. Powellis a full-time teacher at Joel E. Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington and an educational consultant.

Powell, a full-time high school teacher, realizes that in the post-COVID classroom, educators need to help students become self-directed ... to invest in their students social-emotional needs before they could expect academic achievement. Building on established frameworks like Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction, he advocates for preparing and guiding students to build their capacity for self-directed learning. After describing the participants in his learning community, both in his high school and among educational consultants, and their process of exploring the dynamics of self-directed learning, Powell identifies the three areas his group prioritizes: relationship building that addresses social-emotional needs in authentic ways; intentional strategies to create purposeful learning experiences for all students; and ... methodical support that creates the scaffolding needed to make that purposeful learning happen. His learning community provides curricular and educational reforms to explore authentic relationships, academic strategy, and structural support. Convinced that students need to develop skills for self-directed learning, he concludes that school is not simply an academic clearing house, but rather a living, breathing community in which teachers and students build strategies together to growlF