Share Paper: Fostering Flexible Education Through High School Capstone Experiences

1. Nicole Buzzetto-More, University of Maryland Eastern Shore & The Maryland State Dept. of Education, United States

Abstract: Educators seek to introduce flexible educational experiences that are predicated on student-centered pedagogical practices. In these experiences, the teacher is not the focus of instruction, instead, there is a transference of responsibility as the teacher becomes a facilitator who guides students on highly-individualized inquiry-oriented scholarly journeys. The inductive nature of capstone experiences serve as an exemplar for excellence in flexible learning and are discussed in the following paper, which identifies the best practices for successful capstone-based instruction, introduces a capstone experience model, and discusses a State-wide capstone initiative adopted in high school business completer programs in Maryland.