Moving Away From Traditional Cultures of Learning

How do we get students to focus on learning over getting good grades?

This question stuck out the most to me during lecture this past week.

Our textbook Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment, makes the statement that “Once students (and their parents) and teachers adopt a learning culture, as opposed to a mark-obsessed culture, students will put in effort to improve performance” (Drake, Kolohon, & Reid, 2014). In theory, I agree with this statement. If students become more invested in WHAT they are learning, then students will want to learn MORE. This desire to continually build knowledge in today’s world helps students to be more involved citizens prepared with 21^st Century skills; effectively reaching the “goal” of education.

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 The implementation of this learning culture however can be an intimidating task. Students today, including myself (as well as teachers), grew up in an environment that focussed on grades. This accountability and need for standardization is significantly present in a society with increased technological developments changing our perceptions of what “knowledge” is. Students, like myself, learn what they THINK the teacher WANTS them to know, and do not actively challenge ideas presented by teachers because all they want to know is how to get a good grade. The value of student learning today is measured not in the effort put forward or the process, but in intelligence and talent. Assessment is thus OF learning and not FOR learning.

Here is the video in class that really made me think about grade praising vs. effort praising:

Thinking back to the time I was in elementary school and high school, I can see that this happened quite a lot. I always listened to my teachers and did well on tests and assignments. I always got A’s and usually did this with minimal effort.

Now that this notion of a “learning culture” has been brought to my attention, I can see how the mark-obsessed culture may have hindered my actual learning. If I was motivated through feedback that acknowledged my efforts and made areas of improvements easier to see, then I might have applied myself to my schoolwork in a more fulfilling way.

Why does this matter if students are just going to be put back into this traditional mark-obsessed culture once they move on to post-secondary education?

This is a question I seem to be struggling with a lot. It is hard to imagine that students can benefit in a culture of learning so different from what they will face in post-secondary life. Furthermore, implementing a learning culture so different from what is already embedded within their personal story and cultural lenses will likely be welcomed with resistance. I can even see this happening within our own class right now.

Will the project-based learning and collaborative assessment techniques they will be accustomed to prepare them for the independent study and the tight curriculum of the post-secondary world?

I believe that it can. From what I have heard in lecture and read in Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment it is clear that the desire to self-improve and self-assess can promote good study, research, and critical thinking techniques that can allow students to adapt to different types of curriculum situations. This desire to continually improve performance can enhance the student’s desire to learn THROUGHOUT their schooling career and later in life. Learning thus becomes personalized and student driven.

It is the notion of assessment AS learning instead of assessment OF learning that can foster a positive change in student’s lives. It is assessment AS learning that can align the processes of curriculum, instruction and assessment to allow students to effectively KNOW, DO and BE.

“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” – John Dewey

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Reference:

Drake, S. M., Kolohon, M., & Reid, J. L. (2014). Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21st-Century Learner. Don Mills, Canada: Oxford University Press.

Creating a "New Story" of Education

What is the role of a teacher in today’s world? 

Everyone has their own opinion on how a teacher should manage their classroom to create an environment that encourages optimal learning. The variations within these perspectives are what make defining the goal of education so difficult, especially for students aspiring to be teachers one day like myself. 

Everyone goes through schooling and it is those personal experiences in the classroom, through various cultural lenses, that shape how people believe teaching should be done. Schools, for the most part, are still structured to fit the OLD STORY (or traditional model) of education. Teachers are seen as experts and students are expected to be passive learners. School is about accountability and preparing these students to deal with “the real world.”

But how can students learn what they need to be prepared for the future if they are unable to fully engage in classroom learning? 

These OLD STORY values in an ever-changing world are hard to maintain. NEW STORY principles that are beginning to come into the teaching scene should be integrated with OLD STORY practices. I believe that with this integration it is possible to hold schools and teachers to our society’s high level of accountability AND still be able to allow students to construct their own knowledge and understanding of what they believe they need to function in “the real world.”

Technology seems to be a great way that this can be achieved in the classroom. Everywhere you look, people are connected through technology. Whether they are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. people are sharing their lives and ideas through this technological connection.

If the world has become so connected because of technology, then why shouldn’t students use this connection to enhance their learning? 

Students today have grown up with access to technology that their teachers and parents never experienced while in school and use it every day. This everyday use of new age technology is exactly why it should be embedded within student learning. 

As a student coming into the teaching profession I can see how implementing technology into the classroom might be a daunting task. Although we have grown up with technology, we didn’t have it implemented into the classrooms to the same extent as it is today. We had our computer labs and sometimes our teachers would let us listen to our iPods while working. For the most part however, you could see that some teachers feared technology as being too distracting in a classroom setting, especially when you know you and your friends were on Facebook half of the time anyways.

When I did one of my placements in an elementary school with a 7/8 class, I was surprised to see that students had ready access to iPads in the classroom. That was not something that I had access to while in school and I found it amazing that items like iPads could be incorporated into everyday school life. Furthermore, students were connected to each other through twitter, tweeting reflections on their lessons and any local or world issues that they found interesting.

Since I did not use this type of technology while I was in school, it never occurred to me that technology could be used in a school setting in this way. It is because of this that I can see why implementing technology into classrooms might not be as readily embraced, especially since teachers might not know as much about technology as their students. 

The ability of the students I observed to use this technology responsibly and remain focused on their learning however, make it clear that there is a great amount of potential in the possibilities that NEW STORY practices can bring into a classroom to supplement the OLD STORY values that are still held today. 

Stories, whether they are educational or not, are always changing. As described in lecture, the present story is one that is part OLD STORY but also one that anticipates the future. With this anticipation of the future and the desire of educators to implement NEW STORY practices, it is clear that the “New Story” of education is already in the making and constantly being revised. This ever-changing nature of the educational story is what can inspire positive changes in engaging students today.

“Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.” – Plato