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Pedagogical Approach

Unschooling

Named Pedagogical Models and Movements

Unschooling is a child-led approach to education, distinct from the broader legal arrangement this atlas records separately as Homeschooling, in which a young person pursues topics from their own curiosity and daily life with no assigned curriculum, textbook or fixed schedule, on the premise, associated with educator John Holt from the 1970s onward, that structured schooling itself, not merely a particular school, can suppress a child's natural motivation to learn.

Facts
Central Question
Does the anxiety, fear of failure and threat of punishment built into conventional schooling reduce children's actual ability to learn 1
Most Effective For
Preserving children's intrinsic curiosity as the ongoing driver of their own learning 1
Sources
1. Unschooling - Wikipedia
  • Motivations section
    the anxiety children feel at constantly being tested, their fear of failure, punishment, and disgrace, severely reduces their ability both to perceive and to remember
  • Natural learning subsection, under Methods and philosophy
    Unschooling is based on the premise that learning is an ongoing process driven by intrinsic curiosity.
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