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Student Choice in the Classroom:
What We Know About Good Teaching,
Student Motivation, and Results
By Brian Donahue, Ed.D., Principal; and Stacey Noonan, Foreign Language
Teacher, Colts Neck High School.
Educators and professionals take ownership over their learning. • collaboration
in the workforce universally A classroom that promotes student • a high level of social capital.
choice and challenges students to
acknowledge that students operate on higher levels of cognitive By infusing choice into the classroom,
teachers can support a learning
need to develop 21st- demand is characterized by: environment where students take
century skills in order to • higher-order, open-ended thinking learning seriously and pursue it
vigorously because it aligns with their
• high academic standards
be competitive in a rapidly • learning from a felt need passions. Teachers focus their energy
on constructing learning experiences
evolving society. By implement- • global citizenship for their students, and spend less
ing student choice in the classroom, • technology infusion time preparing direct instruction. A
teachers can provide their students • individual learning paths classroom that promotes student
with the academic freedom necessary • student responsibility for learning choice can also make parents partners
to actively construct knowledge and • connected learning in the learning process. Further,
Educational Viewpoints -76- Spring 2018
