Balancing Structured Instruction with Creative Freedom: Navigating the Path to Effective and Joyful Learning

Abstract

It is widely accepted that a high-quality education leads to better life outcomes as young people transition into adulthood (Tyler & Lofstrom, 2009; Archambault et al., 2022). However, tension arises in defining what constitutes a high-quality education and how teachers can best deliver this for their students. As teacher-educators, we are particularly interested in the debates surrounding pedagogy, or how we teach. Long a focal point of educational discourse, debates persist over whether there exists a singular Science of Learning with common principles that best explain the processes of human learning (Immordino-Yang et al., 2025), or whether multiple understandings of learning coexist in ..