November 18, 2025 | Updated November 15, 2025
from The TeachThought staff
I recently came across this interesting article: Moving from pedagogy to euthagogy and while I endorsed all that was contained in it, it made me think of the inevitable dangers I run into when I accept this and other progressive forms of teaching.
See also 7 Differences Between Good and Great Teachers
Going against the grain can sometimes be a lonely experience, and while sound theory and instinct act as a nice warm blanket against the cold, one could do with a practical survival guide to help implement a new practice. Teachers must be prepared for the reality of what lies ahead to help reshape their classrooms and ultimately strengthen their resolve to uphold their chosen epistemology.
Most progressive teaching models from heutagogy, constructivism to PBL are primarily concerned, as much as possible, with placing the learning process and outcomes in the hands of the learner. But let’s cut to the chase, implementing such a pedagogy is very confusing, requires enormous patience, a degree of pragmatism, and most importantly, requires a highly skilled teacher who can unschool his students to engage with it.
Look
1. Deschooling means retrofitting.
As you shift your teaching practice to a style that focuses more on the learner and less on the teacher, be prepared for many students (and parents) to vehemently complain that you’re not teaching them, and for the inevitable confidence-killer these wild claims create. Never is that feeling stronger when you have students with good abilities who start complaining. In these times it may seem like you are robbing Peter to pay Paul, but to counter such a case, make sure you have very well a thought-out plan and rationale that can be defended in case your line manager decides to investigate their anger, and more importantly, one that you can discuss with yourself in foreseeable moments of doubt.
Always remember what real learning is and you’ll be fine.
2. Be pragmatic.
Having said that, it would be wise to initiate students with small doses of the new style, easing them into what for many can be uncomfortable territory. Imagine the look on most students’ faces if you start the lesson by saying, “Okay, here are the outcomes you need to achieve by the end of the lesson, but you design the learning to achieve them.” It’s not just throwing the students in the bottom. This drops them from a helicopter in the middle of the ocean.
You have to create the space, create the culture for them to succeed: how to explore, how to work collaboratively, how to set incremental goals, how to manage time, how to work independently. Remember, by the end of high school, students have had up to 11+ years of teacher-led learning, and as they get older, they’ve been told probably thousands of times how important it is to achieve a certain grade, a grade that can seem in jeopardy without the strong guidance of a teacher.
This mixing is exactly what I do. I always start a unit with a strong learner-centered approach and slowly incorporate a much more focused flow towards the end as we approach assessment. Whatever anyone says, we must be pragmatic at the end of the lesson: the students will be tested for specific learning outcomes and there is a lot at stake for me as a teacher if these are not achieved. However, the overall goal is to continuously manipulate the ratio in favor of learner-based learning.
3. Patience (in the midst of a great mess) is a virtue.
A lot of patience is needed here. In some groups, it may take much longer to become standard practice. You must remember that achieving success with student-centered learning is by no means an easy feat, and so you must be patient with yourself as you try to get it right. You have to be especially patient with the messiness of it all.
Sometimes the mess can be overwhelming, especially for learners who have been largely disengaged from learning. To them it may seem like a free ride, a chance to do nothing, and the compulsion to manage and structure such cases by falling back on old tricks is strong. In such cases, guidance and coercion down a certain path may be the only chance to keep the dream alive. But that doesn’t mean it has to be entirely teacher-led. Ensuring that students reach an end result does not mean that there is only one way to get there.
Smart networking strategies aren’t compromises, but smart decisions made to stay afloat.
4. No pain, no gain.
If this all sounds pretty intimidating, that’s because it is. But we shouldn’t expect less, because after all, we’re talking about perfecting teaching models that bring the teacher to the top of the game. The number of times I’ve fallen off the wagon is too numerous to name, but I always come back knowing that the learning is significantly stronger and that, ironically, the mandatory tests end up yielding better results.
But more than that, I keep coming back because when it works, the feeling I get from watching students learn on their own and taking ownership of their experience is a real joy and always reaffirms why I love education.
Flickr user to credit adapted image And; Innovation often means teaching against the grain
