ABSTRACT
Giving students significant control over their learning is increasingly popular and is foundational to pedagogies such as project-based learning, problem-based learning, and inquiry learning. Common to these approaches is the belief that students, not teachers, should determine and largely drive the key aspects of the learning experience. When students have advanced knowledge of content, student-directed learning is preferred. The same is true when students are engaged in deconstructing, hacking, or reverse engineering objects, solutions, or phenomena, or when deriving rules or patterns from examples or data. When students have advanced knowledge or general ability, teacher-directed learning can actually be detrimental. For example, take a class of students who are deeply familiar with a text. While students should generally not direct their own learning, there are times when it is the tool of choice. In general, students learn best when teachers design the resources, orchestrate the activities, and provide feedback on performance—i.e., students learn best when teachers direct the learning.
