Start with Questions

An exploration of how K–12 teachers support students’ self-directed learning.

What if classrooms were places where all learners have opportunities to work on projects and explore ideas that feel important to them? To have their voice and curiosity honored, and to have access to peers and teachers who support them on their learning journeys? In Start with Questions, Karen Brennan and Sarah Blum-Smith explore how K–12 teachers are making this possible by supporting students’ self-directed learning—an approach to learning that enables students to find joy and meaning in what they are doing, enhancing their learning in the moment and creating excitement for future learning.

Based on a year-long study with 25 teachers in elementary, middle, and high school computing classrooms across the United States, the book showcases teaching that centers students’ ideas for what and how they learn. The book shares stories of practice drawn from teacher interviews, classroom observations, and reflective journals. Each story is accompanied by theory from educators, researchers, and philosophers—such as Eleanor Duckworth, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and Donald Schön—to illuminate the powerful principles underlying teachers’ support of self-directed learning in the classroom. Collectively, the stories and theory offer a vision of how beautiful learning happens when teachers start with questions and create the conditions for learners to take themselves and their ideas seriously.ENDORSEMENTS

“With clarity and heart, this book offers a compelling vision of classrooms as design studios, where learners’ passions drive inquiry and creation. A transformative contribution to the future of learning.”
—Kylie Peppler, Professor of Informatics and Education, University of California, Irvine, author of New Creativity Paradigms: Arts Learning in the Digital Age

“Start with Questions is a practical reframing of constructionism that puts teachers’ inquiry at the center of design. I look forward to a new generation of design-based classrooms that honor teachers' expertise and students’ passion for ideas!”
—Erica Rosenfeld Halverson, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, UW-Madison

“Start with Questions is a delightful invitation to reimagine classrooms as spaces for playful creation. Brennan and Blum-Smith offer an accessible vision of design that takes seriously the brilliance of students in every classroom.”
—Antero Garcia, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education, Stanford UniversityKaren Brennan is Timothy E. Wirth Professor of Practice in Learning Technologies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she directs the Creative Computing Lab.

Sarah Blum-Smith is an elementary classroom teacher in the Medford Public Schools.