Self Determination Theory

Vicki Davis allows her students autonomy in the class room. She does not make all the decisions or even lead all the classes. She really cares for them and wants them to learn and that shows relatedness. They learn autonomy and competence in that she does not define everything but lets them use their abilities to look up information. She also brainstorms with them, letting them use their ideas in class. I think that she is trying to motivate them by understanding them and their emotions but letting them motivate from their own intrinsic beliefs.

Vicki allows groups of students to choose and teach topics that she might not even understand. She mentions that a group taught themselves Terraform and then she learned about it with the rest of the class. They had created and changed avatars which was something they learned with out her assistance.

It was also interesting that she does not feel the need to explain every detail that she talks about. If they don't understand a word that she uses, she expects that they have the ability to google that term an gain an understanding. This is so powerful in that they are learning to trust themselves to learn and not expect that knowledge will just be handed out to them. It is also like building on their "zone of proximal" development that Vygotsky believes in. She lets them build from where they are with out leading them there, but letting them take themselves there.

Question -

Has letting the students learn something that you don't already know about ever back fired in that it caused problems that you had not anticipated and did not lead to an effective learning experience?