Teaching Students to Become Self-Determined Learners

Book excerpt: Children are born learning machines who want to learn and can organize and manage their own learning. Unfortunately, today children have little choice over what they do in school and how and when they do it. Children prepared in this "other-determined" manner will be poorly equipped to navigate an adult world requiring that they act autonomously and self-direct learning to acquire skills in rapidly changing environments. In Teaching Students to Become Self-Determined Learners, Michael Wehmeyer and Yong Zhao explore the how and why of self-determined learning—which emphasizes autonomy and choice, turning over ownership for learning to students by supporting them in engaging in activities that are of personal value to them, thus enabling them to act volitionally. You'll learn * How to promote self-determined learning in your classroom or school * The importance of autonomy supports, competence supports, and relatedness supports * Conditions that enable self-determined learning * Teaching strategies for self-determined learning * Assessment strategies in self-determined learning * The role of technology in self-determined living The practical strategies, case studies, advice, and resources here will help you help your students to motivate themselves and become self-determined learners