followed a similar process to the first, with CLD occurring at a teacher level and also a
teacher/student level. However, whilst in thematic CLD students had a certain level of agency
and autonomy in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, student initiated CLD crossed all
boundaries, with students having almost complete agency and autonomy in these areas. The
stages of student initiated CLD are shown in Figure 10.
Student Initiated Collaborative Learning Design at a Teacher Level
The difference between thematic CLD and student initiated CLD was that students could identify
and make their own decisions about the topic area in collaboration with the teacher. In the same
vein as thematic CLD, the teacher must first individually identify and define key learning
elements and learning evidence for students. Yvonne then created another visual representation
of the collaborative learning design to share with students featuring the key learning elements
and learning evidence. This became known as “the umbrellas” (see Figure 10). The key learning
elements included research, planning for ideas, experiments, critical analysis and a final
assessment product. To position students to make these decisions, Yvonne had to decide whether
she would place any limitations on the curriculum choices that students could make.