This Toolkit forms part of the project entitled "Time for a New Paradigm in Education: Student-Centred Learning" (T4SCL), jointly led by the European Students' Union (ESU) and Education International (EI). This is an EU-funded project under the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP) administered by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture…

"Creating a Learner-centred Primary Classroom" is an essential resource to improve teaching practice, examining the key elements that contribute to a learner-centred classroom and offering strategies to encourage children to take a shared role in their learning. Including case studies describing teachers' methods for linking theory to…

This booklet focuses on effective mathematics teaching. Drawing on a wide range of research, it describes the kinds of pedagogical approaches that engage learners and lead to desirable outcomes. The aim of the booklet is to deepen the understanding of practitioners, teacher educators, and policy makers and assist them to optimize opportunities for…

Advocates students being allowed to regain control of what and how they learn. Proposes use of a new teaching tool in the curriculum design process: the "learning profile," a list of a young students' learning needs, interests, and inclinations. Describes types and formats of learning profiles; their justification; prerequisites for creating…

Notes that projects provide opportunities to study in detail interesting subjects, and explores factors of successful project planning. Groups projects in three categories: event- or goal-oriented; child-initiated; and in-depth topic studies. Details attributes of the class, school, and teacher that determine project appropriateness. (LBT)

Rather than prescribe activities, teachers should approach the development of literacy programs from a functional point of view, allowing students to achieve purposes relevant to their situation. Research leading to this view is summarized. (MT)

Explores the role of purpose in reading lessons by discussing some common problems with teacher-directed purpose, looking at how purpose works during reading, identifying purposes for reading and instructional strategies for each purpose, and developing a set of guidelines for thinking and making decisions about purpose and reading lessons. (MG)

The combination of goals, concepts, generalizations, objectives, skills, attitudes, activities, teaching methods, and evaluation procedures into a long-term plan for dealing with a specific topic has generally been called a "unit plan." The child-centered approach to developing such a unit plan contains four stages; these are to (1) determine the…

Providing opportunities for students to generate their own curriculum requires courage. Student interests are unpredictable. Teachers should garner support, start small, use library resources, eschew curriculum guides, develop assessment tools, allow for noise, schedule record keeping, allow a routine to emerge, be learners, communicate…

These English as a Second Language (ESL) Content Standards were developed to accommodate the local conditions Pennsylvania's ESL students and teachers face across the state and to align state standards with the National Reporting System Educational Functioning Levels. The standards are designed as a teaching tool in the development of…

Employs Gilles Deleuze's and Slavoj Zizek's ideas concerning the global society of control and de-oedipalization to argue that many writing pedagogies manifest an authoritarian violence that restrictively re-oedipalizes students. Suggests that educators might theorize a "post-pedagogy" that recognizes the inventive possibilities already inherent…

Asserts that reading and writing skill instruction should not be taught as a set of discrete steps with phonics workbooks, but instead should be based on examples taken from texts which children write and read. (MM)

Posits that an emergent curriculum is a continuous revision process. Describes relevant experiences in kindergarten classrooms, noting how students' interests guide activities but teachers keep curricular goals in mind; unit themes are chosen according to children's expressed interests; and the flexibility necessary for this approach makes…

Claims compositionists misrecognize stylistic and institutionalized conventions of academic discourse in their own rhetoric and in the evaluation of their students. Argues that students should be included in the practices by which compositionists "normalize" these conventions. Suggests how students might be included in the evaluative…

Developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) concerns teaching techniques which identify and foster developmental needs of children individually and in groups from birth to age 8. In a DAP classroom, play is a central focus, as it enables children to make sense of their world, develops social and cultural understanding, and fosters flexible and…