The defining characteristic of the Learner-Initiated style is the learner's initiation, not the teacher's initiation, of the learning experience.  An individual learner initiates a request to engage in this style and to design a full learning experience making all decisions, including the specific topic to investigate, planning and implementation decisions, and evaluation criteria.  The student's role is to keep the teacher informed about the decisions made in the learning experience.

In the Learner-Initiated style, the role of the learner is to independently initiate this behavior and make all decisions in the pre-impact, including which teaching-learning behaviors will be used in the impact, and create the criteria decisions for the post-impact. Provided the teacher is qualified in the subject matter, the teacher's role is now to accept the learner's readiness to make maximum decisions in the learning experience, to be supportive, and to participate according to the learner's requests.

When Learner-Initiated style is achieved, the following subject matter objectives are reached:

To honor the individual who:

• Chooses to initiate a learning experience to discover, create, and develop ideas in an area of his/her choice
• Chooses to initiate a multifaceted learning experience
• Others

When Learner-Initiated style is achieved, the following behavioral objectives are reached:

To honor the individual who:

• Chooses to be independent
• Chooses to challenge him/herself by assuming the responsibilities for creating his/her learning experience
• Has a need to go beyond the boundaries of the activities presented to the rest of the class.
• Others