Is Spoon-Feeding in Education Stifling Initiative in Young Adults?

“The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done … The second goal of education is to form minds which can be critical, can verify, and not accept everything they are offered.” — Jean Piaget, as cited in Duckworth (1964)

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An educator’s reflection on independence, initiative, and the hidden cost of structure

I’ve been working in education for seventeen years. I’ve trained as a teacher, worked in schools, taught privately, and now run an education centre which hires young adults. The students who were toddlers when I started teaching are now applying for jobs in my company. Over the years, I’ve seen a growing trend towards spoon-feeding.

As teachers, we are hard-wired to help; it’s why most of us get into teaching in the first place. With the powers from above determining how our teaching is judged, it becomes our responsibility to ensure each student achieves the highest grade possible. But does this approach truly help the students we teach, or does it merely appear to; through impressive grades and perceived “progress”?

Grades over growth

As Torrance (2007) observes, assessment cultures increasingly reward “criteria compliance” students learning to perform for the rubric rather than to understand deeply. Balloo, Evans and Hughes (2018) warn that transactional transparency, where assessment criteria become a checklist, produces dependent learners focused on satisfying the system rather than thinking for themselves.

Rubrics, intended to clarify expectations, can unintentionally limit creativity and self-regulation when students treat them rigidly (Panadero & Jonsson 2020). Our drive to help may have shifted from guiding learning to over-managing it.

Learning that lasts

I’m forty years old; when I was in school, we did maths coursework. I tell my young learners and employees this and they’re baffled by the idea. Mathematical investigations were common: we chose our own direction, explored hypotheses, and discovered outcomes for ourselves. There’s not a great deal I remember from school, but those projects and investigations have stayed with me.

Even going back to primary school, we started a plant business in Year 5 to raise money for the school. Everyone had a role. We held meetings, and I was the secretary taking minutes. The students ran the business; the teachers were there only to support and guide. I wonder how many experiences students have today that would compare.

Henriksen, Richardson and Mehta (2021) found that creative risk-taking declines as instructional structure tightens, while open-ended projects foster originality and persistence. Torrance (2012) similarly warns that when measurable outcomes dominate, inquiry and exploration are sidelined. My own memories echo these findings: discovery-based tasks linger because they belong to us; they were ours to figure out.

“We risk creating students who can pass exams but not necessarily think or act independently.”

When initiative falters

Our education centre is close to several schools that require Year 10 students to find a work-experience placement for one or two weeks. We’ve hosted a few students over the years. From what I’m told, a significant number never secure a placement and instead remain in school. The issue isn’t businesses refusing to help; it’s that many students expect someone else to arrange it for them. They lack experience of organising themselves.

This absence of initiative isn’t confined to school. Worsley, Harrison and Corcoran (2021) found that students who had been spoon-fed at school struggled to self-manage upon entering university. Raelin (2009) makes a similar point: decades of spoon-feeding in management education have produced graduates less able to act independently in professional settings. A system that prizes compliance risks breeding dependence.

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Balancing accessibility and autonomy

Teachers today are rightly encouraged to make learning accessible to all. While accessible design is vital for neurodivergent learners, it can have unintended effects on others. Template-based instruction may help students pass exams, but it can also stifle curiosity and free thinking.

Torrance (2007) cautions that when assessment frameworks dominate, students “focus on satisfying the framework rather than thinking for themselves.” Panadero and Jonsson (2020) similarly argue that rubrics should guide, not prescribe; overuse risks dampening critical and creative thought. Henriksen et al. (2021) note that overly structured curricula reduce opportunities for divergent thinking.

However, for some learners, structure is enabling rather than restrictive. Hamilton and Petty (2023) describe how predictability and clear scaffolding reduce anxiety and cognitive load for neurodivergent students in higher education, helping them participate more fully. The nuance is important: structure should empower, not constrain. The art lies in offering scaffolds that can be gradually removed as independence grows.

Education as liberation

Education, as Piaget suggested, should create minds capable of doing new things, of verifying and questioning rather than accepting. That spirit of independence and curiosity is the heart of real learning.

Perhaps it’s time we measured progress not by the grades our students achieve, but by their ability to go beyond what they were taught; to discover, to adapt, and to think for themselves.

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References

Balloo, K., Evans, C. & Hughes, A. (2018) ‘Transparency Isn’t Spoon-Feeding: How a Transformative Approach to the Use of Explicit Assessment Criteria Can Support Student Self-Regulation’. Frontiers in Education, 3, 69.

Duckworth, E. (1964) ‘Piaget Rediscovered’. The Arithmetic Teacher, 11 (7), 14–17.

Hamilton, L. & Petty, S. (2023) ‘Compassionate Pedagogy for Neurodiversity in Higher Education’. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1164742.

Henriksen, D., Richardson, C. & Mehta, R. (2021) ‘Creative Risk-Taking in Teaching: Exploring the Relationship between Structure and Innovation’. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 39, 100788.

Panadero, E. & Jonsson, A. (2020) ‘A Critical Review of the Arguments Against the Use of Rubrics’. Educational Research Review, 30, 100329.

Raelin, J. (2009) ‘The Practice Turn-Away: Forty Years of Spoon-Feeding in Management Education’. Management Learning, 40 (4), 401–410.

Torrance, H. (2007) ‘Assessment as Learning? How the Use of Explicit Learning Objectives, Assessment Criteria and Feedback in Post-Secondary Education and Training Can Come to Dominate Learning’. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 14 (3), 281–294.

Torrance, H. (2012) ‘Formative Assessment at the Crossroads: Conformative, Deformative and Transformative Assessment’. Oxford Review of Education, 38 (3), 323–342.

Worsley, J. D., Harrison, P. & Corcoran, R. (2021) ‘Bridging the Gap: Exploring the Unique Transition from Home, School or College into University’. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 646212.