Most classrooms are built around control — control of content, pace, questions and outcomes. This book makes the case that genuine learning begins when that control is loosened. Grounded in Dr Ron Ritchhart’s Cultures of Thinking approach from Harvard’s Project Zero, it brings together Australian educators to show what teaching for deep engagement actually looks like in practice.
Cameron Paterson argues that to genuinely empower learners, teachers must first unlearn their desire to control them — positioning students as co-constructors of their learning rather than passive recipients of it. Simon Brooks extends this, arguing that cultivating curiosity leads to deeper engagement, richer understanding and improved wellbeing. Together, the book shifts the frame from classrooms as repositories of information to dynamic spaces of inquiry and discovery, where students are motivated by a genuine desire to understand the world around them.
A practical and compelling resource for teachers and school leaders ready to move from control to curiosity.