Book Review: Purpose-Driven Learning: Unlocking and Empowering Our Students’ Innate Passion for Learning

Abstract

This book review on Adam Moreno’s book titled Purpose-Driven Learning: Unlocking and Empowering Our Students’ Innate Passion for Learning aims to explore the intentional framework of Purpose-Driven Learning (PDL), which advocates that the primary goal of education is to empower students’ innate drive to learn. This book review summarises and evaluates the book with the hope that it can help readership decide if this is a book readers would like to purchase that might prove beneficial for student learning. Based on a first-person narrative, a “connecting to my story” section in each chapter, the author explores strategies of inclusion, social-emotional learning (SEL) and self-assessment. This book review assesses the keys of PDL – the ten SEL skills which unlock and empower students’ passion for learning: Confidence, Enthusiasm, Focus, Creativity, Initiative, Dependability, Curiosity, Empathy, Resilience and Effort. Moreno’s book is significant as it challenges the purpose of formal education that it should not focus on content knowledge, cannot be demonstrated through standardised tests and is not reflected in grades. Formal education must serve to help students explore the innate drive to learn, discover the key skills needed to unlock their potential for growth, and empower them to embrace this passion for learning during and beyond their time in school and university. This book proves a worthy contribution in any educational context by sharing heartfelt stories, intriguing research and effective action steps. These guide on how PDL explored and utilised to intentionally unlock and empower one’s innate drive for authentic, holistic lifelong learning.