Shares stories from the author's classroom to show how literature discussion groups can help students raise their own questions about literature, and support students in moving away from instructional dependency to thinking critically. (SR)

Founded in 1975 as a magnet school, Isaac Dickson school adopted the Foxfire approach in 1992. Instead of a one-size-fits-all process, students participate in planning their own learning, and teachers serve as facilitators, ensuring that each learner has developmentally appropriate subject matter and resources. Test scores verify that this…

This book describes the framework for an individualistic approach to learning--critical self-directed learning (SDL). A preface explains what is meant by "critical practice of SDL," describes educational streams that have fed into the concept, and situates the context within which the ideas about critical SDL developed. The order of the chapters…

Using the metaphor of a river to describe continuous and lifelong learning, this paper details an action research project aimed at developing effective learning environments in a large, distributed organization called Thiess Contractors Proprietary Limited, an Australian mining and construction company. Two major outcomes of the project are…

A cooperative activity involving eight sixth grade students over five days focused on inventing static representations of motion. In generating, critiquing and refining numerous representations, strong metarepresentational competence was found. An intricate blend of the children's conceptual and interactional skills, their interest in and sense of…

This case study examines a 2-year faculty-centered professional development program for high school teachers. The program, which used a Foxfire approach (Wigginton, 1986) and was based on Deweyan principles (Dewey, 1963), involved having the teachers initiate, pursue, and share self-selected, independent group learning projects. Inservice sessions…