This is a great topic. I feel all human can be successful if they are given opportunities to persue what they like to do. I also feel, after some basic standard, there is a need to assess the child's inclination based on which future learning path will be defied. If we implement personalized learning for the individuals then it will best for the future generation!

Montessori methods encourage more freedom in learning for children. There have been a number of studies of that method. You might try some of the gifted education methods. Joe Renzulli, for example, has a defined approach that starts with exposing gifted kids to a variety of topics. The child chooses his or her own topic to work on and later present to a group.

Malcolm Knowles's work in adult education is all about having adults being in charge of what they want to learn. One large obstacle in having learners self-selecting topics are the requirements for regulatory bodies and progression to higher levels of learning. Kids need to learn basic math but would they all choose that as something they want to learn? For years I taught research to undergraduate and graduate students. I use to tell them I know they would not have taken the course if not required to do so. They would usually laugh. I of course would promise them it would be fun and gain them exceptionally useful and valuable abilities.

That is a very critical question. There are always dilemmas in the context of teaching. As some scholars suggest and you said it succinctly, there are times when children may be left out to choose what interests them. But, that may be wrong in some of the contexts. I mean when we work on satisfying children's interests we may go far below the set standard. So, I suggest having a reasonable balance between satisfying interests and maintaining the standards.

What age are you talking about?

You should look for "interest-based learning".

Both children and adults learn faster what they are interested in.

Here is some research https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/411423

The first question is "What is learning". Is eating dirt by a child is learning? Of course it is learning. So what happens when left on their own to do whatever interest them? Adults spend hours daily watching Facebook, and children play video games for hours. In both activities, they neglect their duties for themselves and their families to spend their time in useful learning or gaining experiences and improving their life and the life of their families. The answer is "Directed Learning". That's why we have schools and learning curriculum. There are many studies on learning models. An interesting question is "Where and when people learn?" Learning is an individual activity. That is why we are given homework to do individually. But we also learn in group activity, like playing in groups. Group dynamics have been studied quite a bit, but individual dynamics have not so much. Young students and their teachers agree that school environment has a negative effect on learning. Some of the destruction is because of discipline and authority issues and some because of group dynamics. One of the questions about learning is how you measure the success of the learning? From a social point of view, learning should produce a "well rounded" person who can become a productive member of society. The individual may care less about the goals of society and more about their own success. Drug dealers, for example, are individuals who decided to inflict harm on their fellow neighbors for personal gains. They spend years learning their skills, where to sell and how to avoid being captured, but also how to survive the deadly competition with rival gangs. And we can also look at those young adults as children who have the freedom to pursue their own interests!

I suggest you do a search on "Discovery Learning" and "Discovery Learning and achievement." Discovery Learning is an approach in which the child's abilities and experiences are the foundation for the child's problem-solving in new situations. Proponents of this model claim that it results in better learning.

Thank you all so much for your helpful input! I'll be sure to research interest-based learning as well as discovery learning. Yigal Goldshtrom had a very striking response which, I believe, seems to point to an underlying conception of mankind as lazy or corrupted (or corruptible). I don't know that this is the best place to have such a debate, but I'd like to put forth the following questions to him or to anybody else interested in taking part in the conversation:

- Are adults essential in order to centre children's interest in topics and challenges that are socially acceptable?

- Would it suffice that kids be surrounded by normalized (ethical/moral) values?

- Without adults as guides or role models, would kids naturally tend to destroy their communities? Do they really need the moral guidance of adults?

- If so, what does this mean in practical terms? Are there topics which are forbidden, which fall outside of what's acceptable to explore and learn about?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Have a great week!

Human beings are learning all the time. If we want to understand learning we need to observe and study behaviors where they occur and in all conditions and not necessarily where and when it is convenient to us. The examples I gave are a little uncomfortable to us, but are real life learning situations. As researchers, we cannot afford to be "delicate" and while we need to act within the norm of society, learning and morality are 2 different things. The question is what exactly is the goal of studying learning? Marc has added some new questions to his first question, which is a positive process, narrowing down the topic and showing what avenue he wants the research to take.

Personally, I am a psychologist and a researcher with interest in neurobehavior, and experience working with people with addictions, some of them are drug dealers, and all of them are normal human beings, seeking normal life and relationships. Their problems is not learning, the authorities, being lazy or corruption, but the stigma society put on them and their inability to find work, relationships, and live a normal life as possible.

Children by nature love to explore. Adults intervene when they percieve a situation to be unsafe and reprimand children for their behaviour and incite a negative message as a deterent from the behaviour thereby inhibiting the child from exploring something that may have been of natural interest to them, for example, a child playing in the dirt allows tactile development but a parent can incite a message incorporating shame and anger resulting in the child becoming fearful of such an activity due to a parent's reprisal

Hola, Marc.

Me gustaría aportar la temática es fascinante, pero ¿Puedo escribirlo en español?

Bien, puedes considerar la teoría de las Inteligencias Múltiples de Howard Garner, basado en sus estudios se creó un programa llamado Inteligencia múltiples dentro del aula. El cual consiste en recrear centros de aprendizajes por cada una de las inteligencias y cada una de ellas es representada por personajes famosos que poseen dicha inteligencia, otra ventaja de este programa es que las actividades van orientadas a fortalecer todas y cada una de las inteligencias en el día a día. También hay investigaciones que evidencian la relación existente entre el abordaje de las inteligencias múltiples y la autoestima.

Pd. Espero mis comentarios sean de ayuda.

Abrazos fuertes!

You should start reading History of Pedagogy. Perhaps Comenius, perhaps Jean-Jacques Rousseau ("Emile"), Pestalozzi.... They asked the same question and tried to find an answer. There is nothing new under the sun.

Children learn more when they explore their environment on their own but should be offered a little guide.