Independent research projects in school science: case studies of autonomous behaviour

A group of students were interviewed about their experiences in pursuing independent research projects with a view to building up a picture of autonomous student behaviour in the pursuit of expressed interests. In each case the students were led to autonomous behaviour beyond that normally expected in school science. In quite a few cases the independence and commitment shown were remarkable, and matched by a coherent personal philosophy that valued such behaviour. The range of objects and their sources were varied, but school and teachers had surprisingly little impact on either the topics chosen or the progress of the project. Most encouragement and support was found within the home environment. The projects proved in many cases to be major vehicles for knowledge acquisition, and it is argued that the knowledge was gained in a more valid way than is generally the case in school science.