In an educational institution, the school authorities set certain pre-decided expectations and regulations for students to fulfill and abide by. Consequently, there is always constant pressure on the students to act a certain way, learn certain things and secure a certain percentage of marks.

Unfortunately, students failing to meet the traditional standards of excellence are often regarded as a lost cause by the school authorities. Such students are often subjected to jibes, humiliation and scolding leading to confidence loss, self-doubt, self-harm and at times, even suicides.

All the younger generation desire is some constructive guidance, a little faith in their abilities and empathy to excel in life. So, to keep up with the ever-evolving younger generation it’s high time to bring in some major positive alterations in the educational scenario.

Moreover, blindsided by their own expectations, has anyone realized that it goes both ways? That just how parents and teachers have expectations from them, the students too have certain expectations and visions of the ideal learning environment? That may be considering and working on those may lead to the formation of fruitful, positive and interactive learning space? Something to definitely ponder upon, isn’t it?

What is Student-led Learning?

As suggested by the name already, in student-led learning, education is imparted as per the liking or vision of the students. Designed to facilitate better comprehension and enhance creativity and curiosity among students, student-led learning helps build their confidence leading to full engagement in classes.

Rather than encouraging parrot learning, uninteresting lectures and other traditional teaching methods, student-led learning is formulated around students’ visions. It allows the students to freely communicate with teachers and incorporate their interests, favoured teaching methods and classroom activities into the educational curriculum.

Student-led learning is greatly beneficial for educators desperately trying to understand the diverse requirements of different students to help and support them accordingly. As for students, learning becomes more fun and less daunting thereby making them motivated, disciplined and hopeful towards their academic future. So, all-in-all, student-led learning, which helps teachers and students co-create a class vision, seems to be a win-win situation for both.

Are Rules always for the best?

In recent years, the realisation of the need for a student-led vision of learning has sunk in. This has led many educational institutions to let go of their rigid old school teaching methods and accommodate various student-feedback based alterations.

The negative impact that rigid, unnecessary rules leave on the students were comprehensively discussed by Jess Lifshitz, an avid supporter of student-led learning. The message Lifshitz is trying to convey is that often while focusing on the bigger picture, people tend to forget the little things. They ignore the significance of the little things and how they altogether complete the bigger picture.

In education too, the fear to abide by the conventional rules and methods is deeply inculcated in students. While in the past years students silently followed them, the present generation questions and rebels against such unfair rules and rightfully so!

Hence, rather than questioning their behaviour and expecting them to fall in line, the school authorities need to address their needs and concerns. It will help both sides to understand each other’s perspectives, come to a middle ground and develop a healthy, harmonious learning environment.

Core Questions of Visioning

From asking students about their expectations from their teachers and classmates to their opinions on rules and which ones they feel to be unfair. It took a lot of trial and error for Lifshitz to develop an interactive classroom environment and get the discussions started.

After building a free rapport with all of them, Lifshitz along with her students came up with four primary questions for visioning.

• What do you need from this physical space?
• What do you need from yourself?
• What do you need from the people around you?
• What do you need from the people teaching you?

To prevent overwhelming the students, inculcating in them that our entire life is a learning journey and we’re all learners is extremely important. Another significant point to consider is, although student-led learning encourages maximum learner engagement, not everyone is outspoken or extroverted as others. This may lead to certain students getting more or less attention than  others.

To avoid such disparities in treatment, the best approach to opt for is the multi-modal one. Also, encouraging group discussions among students would enable them to share their knowledge and learn new things from one another.

Besides the above-mentioned suggestions, here are four ways to incorporate student-led learning in the classroom setup.

An Inclusive and Positive Learning Space

By now, we’re all aware that student-led learning is all for prioritising the needs of the students and discovering and honing their individual abilities. So, the space, classroom atmosphere and the equation between students and teacher or fellow students should reflect that.

From encouraging healthy, judgement-free communication, to teaching them to respect each other’s individuality and backgrounds, to curating a safe and cosy learning space. The teachers should aspire to provide an educational environment, comfortable and fun, for all students to feel heard and acknowledged.

Prioritising Student Choice

Student-led learning being all about priortising the choices of students, they should be provided with the freedom of choice whenever and wherever possible. Be it by allowing them to choose the genres, topics or authors they are interested in and in case of the primary subjects, allowing them to choose their study technique.

Also, by asking for their inputs in teaching methods, extracurricular activities they’d like to include in the curriculum or educational trips they’d like to take. The school authorities can also asks students about the changes they’d like to see in the school infrastructure.

Stimulate Problem Solving Ability

An innovative way to include student-led learning in the educational setup by honing their problem solving and analytical skills. Unlike the predictable, conventional projects that students are least interested in and enthusiastic about, they’re far more motivated and invested in projects of their choice. Hence, no matter how difficult a project or a topic is, student-led learning encouraged students to not give up until they’re successful.

Assessment

In student-led learning, the abilities and learning techniques of each student may differ from the other and that exactly is the beauty of it. Besides providing the students the scope to learn so much from each other, it helps them to be self-reflective and self-aware. Reflection and awareness inculcate in them the valuable qualities of kindness, humility and discipline that help maintain a positive mindset throughout life.

From the above discussion, one thing has become evidently clear: the time to shed those rigid educational norms that are inflicting more harm than good, has come. If only the educational system would stop dumping new curriculums on the students and simply ask them what they want, half of their academic problems will be solved. So, let’s begin with that, shall we?