| The purpose of this dissertation is to answer this question: What are the possible root causes of disengagement in school and how can educators better engage learners in learning? To answer this question, I propose a deeper more personal shift in how educators perceive schooling, how learners perceive learning, how humans perceive knowledge, and how humans create new knowledge. Over the course of this dissertation, I describe how historical understandings of education and learning, in theory and in practice, have been counterintuitive and counterproductive by removing the learner from the learning. In addressing this disconnect between the learning and the learner, I argue that the learner is at the heart of learning, that learning is personal, and that providing learners with the tools to create personal theories is one approach to more effectively engage learners in learning. Although my proposal for personal theories is based on a synthesis of a number of educational theories---constructivism, rhizomatic education, rhizomactivity theory, discovery learning, transformative education, creativity theory, project-based learning, cognitive flexibility, cognitive psychology, and connectivism---there is currently no curriculum, pedagogy, or process that helps learners scaffold the creation of their own personal theories. Creating personal theories can engage learners in learning by identifying personal purpose, by linking personal purpose to new understandings, and by creating new knowledge and new understandings.;Key Words: Activity Theory, Cognitive Dissonance, Cognitive Flexibility, Creative Disequilibrium, Creativity, Engagement, Expansive Learning, Literacy, Literacy Processes, Narrative Inquiry, Personalizing, Storytelling, Systems Thinking, Writing to Learn. |
