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November 2008 | Volume 66 | Number 3 Giving Students Ownership of Learning Pages 32-37
Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey
We must transfer responsibility for learning to our students gradually—and offer support at every step.
There is no shortage of teachers assigning students responsibility for their own learning. Who isn't familiar with the following scenarios?
Yes, students in these situations are responsible for their own work, but are they really learning? Students who do well in these kinds of activities are usually those who already understand the content. It's not hard to fill out a worksheet (or "shut-up sheet" as one of our colleagues calls it) when you have already mastered the information. Nor is it hard to answer end-of-chapter questions when you read well and are familiar with the genre of questions asked in textbooks.
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