John R. Savery is Professor of Education and Director of Instructional Services at the University of Akron. His research and teaching interests focus on problem-based learning and technology-rich learning environments. As Director he supports faculty integration of instructional technology across the spectrum, from traditional classrooms to…

Interviews with staff and students explore the purposes of Puget Sound Community School (Seattle, Washington), which offers self-directed and community-based learning for students aged 12-18. Since its inception 7 years ago, the alternative school gradually became more scheduled, until the students initiated a restructuring to restore flexibility.…

An English instructor notes that educators must re-examine their methodology and allow for students to be engaged as full partners in the learning process. She provides examples of activities and projects from a course about the intersection of language and culture and suggests that self-directed learning will equip students for college level…

A new model for pedagogy needs to be developed that is based on the use of technology and student independence. There is no meaningful research leading to a new theory of pedagogy; current educational practices do not reflect contemporary needs. It must be determined whether children have any standing in the debate over educational reform. (AEF)

Public education focuses on the lowest common denominator; cannot meet individual student needs; teaches competition; teaches children to learn for praise, not for the sake of learning; and has a 40 percent failure rate. These factors lead many to choose home schooling, but approaches to home schooling are so varied that a common definition of…

Democracy within the school without participation of the students in planning and carrying out the program is just as lacking as it is within a state where the people who are governed are denied the privilege of determining the scope and processes of the government. There is no one who is more directly concerned with and affected by the…

Education has traditionally been seen as a pedagogic relationship between teacher and learner. Although andragogy has provided many useful approaches for improving educational methodology and has been accepted almost universally, it still has connotations of a teacher-learner relationship. Some have argued that the rapid rate of change in society…