| Abstract: | Conclusion These case studies offer strong support for the notion that learning occurs naturally and inevitably when it flows out of
a student's desire to extend her own interests and experiences. This view was expressed strongly by the progressives (Dewey
1963], and Kilpatrick 1928, 1952:315]) and more recently by Wilson (1971). They also represent “instances of autonomy” that
challenge our normal assumptions of student behaviour.
There are, of course, matters of the transmission of those “storehouses of knowledge” that represent the disciplines, and
matters of practicality in motivating and managing a class of students pursuing their own interests (Tytler 1983), that would
make it impractical to centre all teaching around the IRP or its equivalent. The need to include IRP's at a significant place
within the curriculum, however, is indicated not only by the student outcomes that have emerged in this study, but from the
fact that an increasing number of teachers have found it to be a satisfying method, involving a more powerful and natural
view of the student in relation to the educational process (Tytler, ibid).
The case studies have something to say about all such activities (other possibilities are described in Boomer 1983]) that
invite students to take responsibility for the serious development of their interests. They stand as examples of the way students
work outside the classroom, but also as celebrations of student independence and autonomy. Too often the schooling practices
we subscribe to tend to invalidate students' own life experiences. These case studies provide a challenge to us to find educative
ways that can match the range of abilities and dispositions that students bring with then to school. |
