The Playbook for Self-Directed Learning: A Leader’s Guide to School Transformation and Student Agency

The Playbook for Self-Directed Learning offers school leaders a student-centered, relationship-driven approach to fostering learner-led success and autonomy at school. In self-directed learning, learners set their own goals, manage their own progress, and assess their own outcomes, all under the guidance of teachers and administrators. This accessible book offers evidence-based insights, real-world examples, and practical techniques for leaders seeking to transform their schools and empower students to become responsible for their own learning within an interdependent network of relationships with educators, peers, and involved adults. Each chapter includes a variety of strategies for supporting the conditions in which students can enthusiastically develop self-regulation, time management, adaptability, problem-solving, and other important skills. Principals, superintendents, teacher-leaders, and curriculum/assessment designers will come away with bold, yet intuitive methods for transforming schools into self-directed learning environments.

Dr. Tyler S. Thigpen is CEO of The Forest School: An Acton Academy, The Forest School Online, and Institute for Self Directed Learning in Fayetteville, Georgia, Academic Director at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, and Guest Lecturer at Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Dr. Caleb Collier is Co-Founder of The Forest School: An Acton Academy in Fayetteville, Georgia, and Director and Head of Research at the Institute for Self-Directed Learning.

Amber Bryant is Assistant Head of School for Learning at The Forest School: An Acton Academy in Fayetteville, Georgia, and Co-Founder of The Forest School and Institute for Self-Directed Learning.

Brittney Toles is Co-Founder, High School Guide, and Assistant Head of School for Culture and Enrichment of The Forest School: An Acton Academy in Fayetteville, Georgia, and Co-Founder of the Institute for Self-Directed Learning.