In general, we don't ask our secondary level kids to handle it (activity and independence). One result is increasing conformity as students progress through the grades, rather than the increasing independence adolescents might reasonably be expected to assume as they approach adulthood. p. 38

Learning is more likely to happen when students like what they are being asked to do. Learning is also more likely to happen when they can actively engage as learners, and when they are not engaged alone but are grouped so that as they engage together they may learn from each other. p. 38

A workshop is student-centered in the sense that individuals' rigorous pursuit of their own ideas is the course content. . . p. 41

    by Nancy Atwell     in (1987). In the Middle. : Writing, Reading, and Learning with Adolescents