"What the teacher wants me to say is more important than what I want to say." "If I get too far behind, I will never catch up." "What I'm learning doesn't have much to do with my life, but it isn't supposed to--it's school." These are just some of the many pernicious axioms that keep students from achieving to their potential. In Breaking Free from Myths About Teaching and Learning, Allison Zmuda analyzes and promptly dispels these and other harmful untruths that have inhibited student learning for decades and offers a wealth of ideas for combating them, including

* Refocusing learning environments with students' best interests in mind.

* Designing engaging lessons that spark students' imaginations.

* Motivating students to learn for the joy of it, not just for the grade.

* Developing authentic assessments that truly capture the extent of students' progress.

* Creating effective school missions that provide both educators and students with achievable objectives.

In addition to these strategies, Zmuda offers tips from prominent creative thinkers in a variety of fields on how to approach projects creatively and stimulate fresh thinking.

Students have been captive to falsehoods about learning for far too long. This provocative and insightful book shows why it's vital for administrators and teachers to help students shed their faulty assumptions and offers a blueprint for creating more innovative, inviting, and effective schools.