Handing control to students and planning for every possible
outcome as well as adapting instruction is extremely difficult but it is worth it.
This is so because you will never be able to predict what students will do with
the information you throw at them. They are going to learn by exploring the
topic as it relates to who they are, which will be a much more meaningful
learning experience. A teacher
taking this approach has to be creative in how she is going to help the
students meet the standards. They are learning in the ways they know how, not
just following directions. A teacher must determine if they are getting all
they need. You can find a balance by handing over some control and still
supporting learning. Finding a balance can be done by incorporating big
projects into lesson in which students have choice and the freedom to
demonstrate their grasp of the concept and relate it to their own life. In my
fieldwork, my teacher did this a lot by allowing students to work individually
and in groups on larger scale, more creative projects. She also had them
incorporated into the learning process and had her students explain the steps
to a math problem rather than her teach it. In this example, the teacher
controls the lesson to be taught and can jump in where the students have a
misunderstanding but they students are able to explain the steps in their own
words and relay this information to their classmates. I think motivation would
be improved when students have more control in a classroom because they feel
like they can control if they do well or not. They do not feel like they are
smart or not smart, but their effort affects the outcome. At the same time, a
student who has already learned to be helpless would probably not benefit from
more control because they feel like when they are in control they are not
capable of learning and succeeding. I would also expect students who need more
time to grasp concepts to have the freedom to take that time, as well as have a
little extra help from their classmates. I think their needs could be met very
well using a balance of teacher controlled and student centered classroom.
I liked your idea about including projects in the curriculum to give the students control. This is a good way to go about this because it ensures that they are still learning the correct material, but they have a choice about what to learn or how to create a project from the material.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of students explaining and teaching math problems, with the teacher jumping in if there was a misunderstanding. I saw some of this in my own fieldwork, and think it's a great idea. Students explaining how they did a problem can often help others students understand it. And even if the student makes a mistake, it can still be very helpful to others students who may have made the same mistake. I think it gives students a lot of confidence when they can get in front of the class and teach, and feel that the teacher trusts them enough to do so. This is a great example of handing control over to students in a way that still fosters learning and motivation.
ReplyDelete