Region 1 Comprehensive Center Reimagining Education Series: Strategies for Student-Directed Learning

Historically, students have had little influence over the design of education institutions or opportunities (Benner et al., 2019; Lac & Cumings Mansfield, 2018). Decisions about school policies, programs, and structures are primarily steered by administrators, policymakers, and teachers. In recent years, however, educators and policy advocates have amplified calls for education systems to grant students--the primary beneficiaries of these systems--more capacity to direct and personalize their learning (Project Tomorrow, 2020; Schwartz, 2020). As school leaders plan the transition to the 2021-2022 school year, there is an opportunity to strengthen and incorporate promising practices to increase student agency and ownership in the classroom, which is refer to throughout this paper as student-directed learning. Two promising strategies to promote student-directed learning are described in this paper: (1) Personalized learning plans; and (2) Supporting student voice and choice The paper is organized by strategy and offers a brief description of each strategy, a summary of the evidence supporting the strategy, and common barriers to implementing the strategy. Stakeholders will also find actionable steps for implementation in schools. Although this paper describes each strategy separately, implementation of both strategies within an education system holds promise to further increase student-directed learning opportunities.