It's all too easy for teachers to focus on building students' knowledge and skills without paying attention to the mental habits that students need to be effective learners. Guy Claxton discusses the need for teachers to design their instruction in a way that promotes resilience, curiosity, independence, and a positive disposition toward learning.

There is a long-held but inaccurate belief that new teachers' expertise and talent is mostly innate and that it peaks and plateaus within their first few years of teaching. William Slotnik and Bryan Goodwin explain that school systems need to abandon this conventional wisdom and instead build true talent development systems that support the…

Helping students become responsible for their own learning is an incredibly challenging task since it requires transforming their previous, passive "sit-and-get" learning style into a go-and-get orientation. The authors present a collection of eight schools that offer valuable examples of how to develop students as self-directed…

Thousands of teachers are exploring the boundaries of their practice together on Twitter, in blogs, and at seminars, and they represent a new generation of educators who are actively redefining how innovation occurs in the schoolhouse. For many of these educators, exposure to adjacent possibilities--the first step toward innovation--starts in the…

Discusses a recent doctoral study of several schools in Indiana that investigated the effects of school programs on student control. The study aimed at providing useful information for school officials anxious about student control in programs where students have unstructured time. Recommendations are made for those contemplating the use of…

The University of Mid-America brings low-cost education to people in their homes through reliance on self-instruction packages and the mass media. (Author/IRT)

A "Walkabout" program for second-semester seniors at a public alternative school is described. Cited as keys to the program's effectiveness are staff commitment of one-half their workload and intensive and clearly defined student preparation. Students not participating engage in a similar but briefer independent learning project in the…

Describes the integration of a Walkabout program into the curriculum of a charter middle school in Chico, California. The Walkabout program provides a structure that enables students to make decisions about their learning based on personal needs and interest. (PKP)

A group consisting of department coordinators, the director of the library media center, the chairperson of the guidance department, a building administrator, and members of the teaching staff work with a carefully selected group of career-oriented seniors on an independent study program. (Author/IRT)

A rationale and blueprint for what could be the most powerful movement for the reform of secondary education in our time. Inspired by the walkabout of a native Australian boy -- the 6-month endurance test that precedes his acceptance into adult society -- it outlines the requirements of a similar transition to adulthood in postindustrial…

Lauds Fargo, North Dakota, elementary school's efforts to enhance students' natural curiosity and enthusiasm for learning. (Author)

At several New York State high schools, seniors hold internships in architectural firms, Planned Parenthood, dentists' offices, and television and radio stations. Some make documentaries or pursue independent study in various subjects. These opportunities arise through a program (WISE) allowing second-semester seniors to design and complete their…

An education professor describes bewildered responses to basic, if annoying, questions he asks regarding education's role and purpose. There is probably no single thing that everyone has to know. Education is a lifetime, seamless experience, connecting individual episodes into an ever-expanding web of meaning, insight, and understanding. Teachers…