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What a teacher can do – all a teacher can do – is work with students to create a classroom culture, a climate, a curriculum that will nourish and sustain the fundamental inclinations that everyone starts out with:  to make sense of oneself and the world, to become increasingly competent at tasks that are regarded as consequential, to connect with (and express oneself to) other people.  Motivation – at least intrinsic motivation -- is something to be supported, or if necessary revived.

a few specific suggestions for bringing students in on making decisions, offered here in the hope that they will spark you to think of others in the same spirit:

Bring students in on the process of assessment by asking them to join you in thinking about alternatives to conventional tests.  “How can you show me what you understood, where you still need help, and what I may need to rethink about how I taught the unit?”  Beyond the format of the assessment, invite them as a class to suggest criteria by which someone’s work might be evaluated – and, later, have them apply those criteria to what they’ve done.

  Autonomy-supportive teachers seek a student's initiative                             - whereas controlling teachers seek a student's compliance

work with students to create a classroom culture, a climate, a curriculum that will nourish and sustain the fundamental inclinations that everyone starts out with:  to make sense of oneself and the world, to become increasingly competent at tasks that are regarded as consequential, to connect with (and express oneself to) other people

Autonomy-supportive teachers seek a student's initiative                             - whereas controlling teachers seek a student's compliance.

e fact is that kids learn to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following directions.

o create a classroom culture, a climate, a curriculum that will nourish and sustain the fundamental inclinations that everyone starts out with:  to make sense of oneself and the world, to become increasingly competent at tasks that are regarded as consequential, to connect with (and express oneself