Self-directed learning begins with a powerful premise: students should have meaningful ownership of their learning. But creating classrooms where students genuinely exercise voice, choice, and agency requires something equally important. Teachers themselves must have the autonomy to design those environments.

This is where the work of Teacher Powered Schools intersects with the philosophy of self-directed learning. Both movements begin with the same insight. Schools are most effective when the people closest to students have the authority to shape learning.

At H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program, where I teach, that belief is deeply embedded in our culture. Self-Directed Learning (SDL) is one of the school’s core pillars. Students are encouraged to take initiative in diagnosing their learning needs, setting goals, and identifying resources to pursue their education.

But student ownership does not emerge automatically. It grows in environments where teachers are trusted as designers of learning, not simply implementers of curriculum.

Teacher Autonomy Enables Student Agency

Teacher-powered schools operate on a principle that is simple but transformative: decisions about learning should be made as close to students as possible.

In many traditional systems, curriculum, pacing, and instructional approaches are largely predetermined. Teachers are asked to deliver content within fixed structures. But when educator teams have collective autonomy over curriculum, schedules, and learning structures, their role changes.

Teachers move from being transmitters of content to facilitators of learning.

That shift makes space for student agency. Teachers can build inquiry into their courses, invite students to pursue meaningful questions, and adapt learning experiences to student interests. Research increasingly suggests that when students play a more active role in shaping learning environments, they demonstrate higher engagement and deeper learning. Student-led assignments and inquiry-based instruction can strengthen both motivation and critical thinking by shifting students from passive recipients of information to active participants in knowledge creation.

These ideas align closely with the principles of student-centered learning, a core component for Teacher Powered Schools, which emphasize student ownership, real-world relevance, and competency-based progress.

Self-Directed Learning in Practice

At H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program, where I have been teaching for 19 years, self-directed learning is not just a philosophy. It shows up in daily instructional practice.

One approach we often use, which aligns with principles of Universal Design for Learning, is what we describe as firm goals with flexible means. Teachers define the core learning objectives, but students have multiple pathways for reaching them. When I work with teachers on how to meet state standards while still designing for student agency, I often use the metaphor of fencelines: the standards establish the boundaries of what students need to learn, but within those boundaries students have meaningful freedom to choose how they learn and how they demonstrate their understanding.

Students might choose the topic of a project, the texts they explore, the format of an assessment, or the pace at which they move through certain learning experiences. Reflection and revision are also central. Students regularly analyze their own learning, revise work, and demonstrate growth over time.

The result is not a classroom without structure. Instead, it is a classroom where responsibility for learning is shared.

SDL Increases Agency over Learning Goals

H-B Woodlawn also supports SDL through schoolwide structures that extend beyond individual classrooms.

Students can design independent studies when a subject they want to pursue is not offered in the regular schedule. They propose a learning plan, find a teacher sponsor, and manage their progress throughout the term.

Historically, the school has also supported an Outside Teacher Program, where students invite experts from the community to teach specialized courses not available among the school’s staff. This year one outside teacher is teaching English to a group of seniors through food: they read poems, plays and excerpts of prose and cook and recreate the scenes depicted in the stories.  

These structures reinforce a powerful message. Learning does not have to be confined to a predetermined pathway and the student voice can meaningfully impact what is learned. 

SDL Increases Agency over Learning Outcomes

For more than a decade of my teaching years at HBW, I taught English electives that were built almost entirely around student choice. Each year, students nominated course ideas and then voted on the classes they most wanted to take. The results were often creative and unexpected.

Over the years I taught courses such as Road Trips in American Literature, Storytelling, The Western as genre film, Human Rights, Trauma and the brain, Women’s Studies, and a course called “Weird People,” which explored literature with unconventional central protagonists. One year students designed a course called Survivor, which blended stories about survival with elements inspired by the television show, turning the class into a gamified exploration of narrative and resilience. I even hid an idol around the school each week that could be traded in for a quiz exemption. 

Those courses grew directly from student curiosity, interest, and passion.

For the last 17 years, I’ve taught A.P. English Language and Composition, and while the course has more defined expectations, I still design structures that allow students to pursue their interests. Students choose thematic pathways that guide the texts they read and the perspectives they explore. These pathways include topics such as Black American perspectives, immigrant experiences, mental health, ethics and society, Indigenous voices, science and technology, environmental writing, LGBTQ+ perspectives, and women’s voices.

Students in different pathways practice the same analytical and rhetorical skills, but they do so through different texts and lenses. Throughout the year they share their learning with each other, teaching across thematic groups and expanding the range of perspectives in the classroom. We often learn that the intersections of their interests result in the most interesting projects. 

One of the most powerful parts of the course is the research project. Each student chooses a topic they care about and conducts a sustained inquiry using both primary and secondary sources. Every few weeks they meet with me for research conferences where we talk not only about their findings but also about the emotional and intellectual experience of the research process.

The final products are often remarkable.

One student researching the history of protest music in the United States wrote and performed an original protest song as part of her project. Another student studying microplastics brought a microscope to class and led an interactive session showing how microplastics appear in everyday products such as detergents and food packaging. In addition to writing research papers, students build models, write plays, create art, websites and informational pamphlets; their choices reflect their interests, their strengths and the places they identify that research can really impact the lives of their audience. An annual exhibition of these products pull parents and community members in as an authentic audience for their projects. Students light up as they share not only their final products but the research journey they designed for themselves. 

When students have ownership of their questions, the work they produce often goes far beyond what a traditional assignment might generate. Their AP scores, which are consistently well over the state and national averages, reflect not only their ability to study for a rigorous assessment, but also their capacity to think critically, pursue complex questions, and communicate ideas that matter to them. In other words, student agency and academic rigor are not competing goals. When students are trusted to take ownership of their learning, both deepen.

The Conditions That Make Self-Directed Learning Possible

The connection between teacher-powered schools and self-directed learning ultimately comes down to trust.

Student agency grows in environments where educators also have agency. When teachers are trusted to design learning environments, they can create classrooms where students explore meaningful questions, pursue interests, and develop the skills needed to guide their own learning.

But when teachers are constrained by rigid systems, those opportunities become much harder to create.

Schools like H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program demonstrate what becomes possible when teacher autonomy and student agency reinforce one another. Teachers can respond creatively to student interests, and students learn that their curiosity and initiative are valued parts of the educational process.

For schools seeking to expand student voice and engagement, the lesson may be simple but profound.

Empowering students begins with empowering teachers.

If you want to learn more about how to create self-directed learning opportunities for students even within conventional schools or in alignment with state standards, reach out to jennifer@teacherpowered.org for more information.