Facilitating Student Autonomy: An Exploration of Student-Driven Curriculum Development and Implementation

• Main Author: Keyes, Edwin James
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2018
• Subjects: student autonomy; secondary education; student motivation; art education; Art Practice
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/7034; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8034&context=etd

In order to improve his own teaching practice, the researcher observed and studied student-driven approaches to public art education that not only achieved the aims of the national standards, but also encouraged secondary students' engagement with art in personally relevant ways. Inspired and informed by these observations and studies, the researcher developed a curriculum based more on student concerns, which was studied using action research. The action research approach was driven by experimentation with the curriculum's content as well as its implementation and is fundamentally about improving the researcher's own teaching practice. Hence, the study focuses largely on the researcher's curriculum and teaching. Relationships or correlations between intrinsic motivation, engaging with art in critical ways, and classroom autonomy are explored in the present study. This thesis investigates what students might accomplish when given more autonomy over their projects and learning opportunities. This study focused largely on how a student-driven approach changed the researcher's own feelings and understandings about teaching and learning. The results of the present study lead to a variety of conclusions regarding teaching, curriculum, and student learning.