ABSTRACT
The extent to which children are able to take responsibility for aspects of their own learning is also addressed in the next extract, by Alister Fraser. (This issue is also raised in discussions of liberal romanticism (pp. 83-6), liberal pragmatism in the extract by Conner (pp. 111-17) and in the previous extract on cognitive styles (pp. 368-72). It is also considered, in extracts from Bonnett’s discussion of child-centredness and structure in learning in Volume 2 of this series.)
Fraser expresses concern that most opportunities provided for children to take control over their learning tend to be rhetoric rather than reality. Stimulated by a visit to Summerhill, he involved his class of third and fourth year junior children in a series of regular meetings for which they were responsible and in which they could make decisions about the organization and structure of aspects of their school life. It is an attempt to liberalize some of the features that typify educational provision in the primary school and attempts to place the teacher in the position of adviser and facilitator of children’s learning rather than director of it. The evidence presented suggests that given the opportunity, children react extremely positively.
