Empower: What Happens When Student Own Their Learning

by John Spencer

Are we trying to develop students to fit into our world, or are we hoping students feel they have the power to create a better world both now and in the future?

So why do we spend so much time in school, playing the game of school, following rules, and waiting for others to tell us what to do? Why do we rarely give students choice in what they learn, how they learn, when they learn, and why they learn?

When we empower students, the fourteen thousand hours have a new purpose. It’s not all about what we want students to learn, it is about what they learn through their choices in what they do (create, build, design, make, evaluate).

When students are making, designing, creating, and evaluating, they are going way past what tests cover. Would you rather have a disengaged, compliance-driven student take a test, or an empowered maker and designer take the test?

“The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”8

To reinvent school, we don’t need to scrap the entire system. We don’t need to start from scratch. We don’t need to throw away what has worked. Instead, we need to change our focus from rigor to vigor.

I notice that the makers are better equipped for life. They are taking ownership of their careers and forging a way into whatever vocation they have chosen. But this goes beyond economics. The makers have better endurance and deeper thinking. They know how to handle frustration.

In an empowered classroom, we can help students distinguish between plagiarism and inspiration. We can help them figure out how to use a work as a starting point but then take creative risks and modify what already exists. It’s critical that they understand issues around Copyright and Fair Use, but it should be something addressed as a learning experience rather than a punitive measure.

the best stories occur when I’m joining them on the adventure, when we are embarking together and learning by each other’s side. We may be learning different lessons along the way, but the journey is shared.

you want to go fully independent and long term, you can try a Genius Hour Project. Here students spend an allotted time each week working independently on a project that they design from the ground up.

Help people to understand that this isn’t simply an issue of letting kids do whatever they feel like doing

I realized that the real power in the mural project was the power of empowering students. They were different because they had owned the learning.

But there’s something you can’t take away, and it’s the mindset that students develop when they define themselves as makers.