Changing Our Minds: How children can take control of their own learning

Product Information

Using her personal experiences as a clinical psychologist and a mother, Fisher presents us with educational and parenting pathways that empower learning for everyone. Even when people work at the weekend, they tend to do it in their own time and in their own way, and therefore have increased autonomy as compared to during the week. My latest book, A Different Way to Learn is a deep dive into self-directed education and neurodiversity.

I jotted down notes on my phone when an idea came to me, and wrote little pieces about seeing my children’s learning in action because I knew that otherwise I would forget.Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's daily session limit. If you remember, SDT is a theory of motivation, which suggests that autonomy, relatedness and competence underpin intrinsic motivation. It offers a real lens shift on the almost-universally accepted system of schooling, and what it means to learn, and it does so in a way that is compelling, evidence-based and balanced too. It includes stories and experiences from The Autistic Advocate, the girl with the curly hair, Me Just Me, Live.

It was backed up by lots of scientific evidence, anecdotal stories and examples of different options. Alan Thomas, Harriet Pattison, Peter Gray, Gina Riley, Rebecca English, Blake Boles, Pat Farenga – to my surprise most of them said yes, and I spent an hour by Zoom talking to them and then many hours transcribing what they said (I did not yet know about transcription software). Some of them refuse to put clothes on at all or strip their clothes off the moment they arrive home from anywhere. In fact, when children leave school to be home-educated, one of the things they often do first is refuse to change out of their pyjamas or refuse to brush their hair.As each tart went past, I would carefully place three segments, and then it would pass on to Sara, who was doing the kiwi pieces. I thought that alternative education wasn’t something I’d ever consider for my child but it turns out that I really didn’t know what this meant until I listened to this book. Her writing has featured in The Psychologist , Tipping Points , The Green Parent , SEN Magazine , Juno and more. We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. Tipping Points is delighted to publish the following excerpt from long time contributor Naomi Fisher.

In a Guardian article in February 2020, Greta Thunberg’s mother wrote about her daughter, who, at the time, was travelling the world and campaigning for governments to modify their policies on climate change. Sometimes I would start at nine, and he would send me on my break at ten, and then my lunch at twelve, leaving me working from 12. It opens our eyes to the way in which the education system fights basic human nature and the psychology of learning, all too often manifesting in a level of anxiety which actively prevents attendance. As the parent of a child that didn't fit a one-size-fits-all system, and the founder of an organisation set up to effect change, I am well aware of the level of anxiety which can be triggered by traditional schooling.

Even when, at age fourteen, they do get to make some decisions, it’s usually between which classroom they sit in and what information they will be tested on, rather than anything more significant. We stop them from playing and actively exploring their interests, telling them it’s more important to sit still and listen. Learn, and many others who told me about what self-directed education looks like in their amazing families. It provides evidence of the arguments made and helped us to feel more confident about the steps we felt were necessary.