Mosh Learning Pits?

Okay, how's that for a title!  So far in the course we have been looking into different theories and styles of learning and teaching.  Seems as though I like to use many different styles of teaching (or at least I think I do) based on the many styles of learning I get in groups of students each year.   So I look at how I do things in a typical week in the classroom.  Most activities and learning situations seem to be more instructivist than I thought.  So when I try to break things up a bit and let the students "run away with an idea"....lots of things happen, just not a lot that I planned.  Well, no surprise there.  That's the most difficult thing for a teacher to do is let the students "take it away....".    Part of it is that we have a curriculum....we have to show coverage of it and assessments of it to know what the students really got out of it.  So letting the students "run away with it" means more significant guidance and more demarcation of learning territories.....Kind of like, "okay, here is the topic, here's what I need you to learn about, how would you like to do that"?  It is a new kind of learning for sure, but of course a new kind of teaching as well.  Yes, as an experienced or "matured" teacher, this was not how we started.  And like anyone else, learning new tricks means breaking from a comfortable environment into a possibly "unstructured learning mosh pit".  Wow, what does it really look like?  Can I be comfortable with how the room sounds?  Too loud, looks chaotic?  But is learning happening, and is it better?  And what about the kids who need the traditional structure?  Would I run multiple classrooms in one?  Multiage is one thing...is it different than where we are going?  Am I asking too many questions?  A true "mish-mosh" 0f learning and teaching....or is it really going to be learning and guiding?   Are the kids really ready for this transition at a young age........

Cool animated GIF site:  http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~andyl/stuffyoushouldknow/bravery/