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 Sch n-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.
By:
Karen Brennan,
Sarah Blum-Smith
Foreword by:
Mitchel Resnick
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9780262051460
ISBN 10: 026205146X
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 31 March 2026
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Contents Foreword Part 1: Foundations What are the most important questions? A prologue written by Karen, reflecting upon the development of the classroom as design studio metaphor What is the relationship between self-direction and support? A description of self-directed learning within a broader historical and intellectual context, our approach to understanding how teachers support self-direction in K–12 classrooms, and how this book explores these concepts in the context of the classroom as design studio Part 2: Questions An illustration of the classroom as design studio through forty stories of teachers supporting self-direction, each consisting of an opening question, a vignette of classroom practice, and a theoretically-grounded analysis of the classroom activities What are you interested in? What’s important to you? What’s your vision? What are some possible ideas? Do you think you know how to start? What’s a good thing that happened in your life this week? What’s interesting about this? How could you use this for your own ideas? What do you want to do? Do you want to make any changes? Would you like to stay and code with us this morning? Can you help us learn? What can we make together? What do you want to build today? Why can’t a bowl of noodles be a character? What did you try? Did you make the music come out like you wanted? That looks awesome! What will happen next? What’s up? What have others done? Who doesn’t get it at all? What do you think? What are you going to do now? What can you make with it? How can we fix it? Does anyone want to share? Who discovered the coolest things? What are other people doing? Did you ask your neighbor? Would you like to do that? Can you teach that to me? You’ve got this, right? What are you trying to do? What do you expect of yourself? What does this mean to you? What does quality mean to you? What would you like to showcase? What were your struggles? What would you have done if you had more time? What do you see? Part 3: Directions What did we see? An exploration of core themes across this collective description of classroom as design studio What can we do? An epilogue written by Sarah, making meaning of these ideas in the context of her own classroom practice Acknowledgments Notes Index
Karen 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.
Reviews for Start with Questions: The Classroom as Design Studio
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 University
