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Life is amazing, and a teacher had better prepare himself to be a medium for that amazement.
--Edward Blishen
This week's readings from both Guillaume's K-12 Classroom Teaching and Koch's Science Stories feature advice on instruction and model lessons that spotlight both the teaching theory and the science facts behind the model lessons.
The Koch text features several wonderful examples of teachers stepping out of the way and allowing students to construct their own learning experiences. The teachers are clearly shown as mediators (Mr. Wilson's allowance of Jamie's question regarding the take-home of an icicle) and facilitators (Ms. Koch during the bottle and balloon experiment, Ms. Parker in the "skin" of water experiment).
Experience leads to the understanding of ideas and the capacity to conceptualize.
--John Dewey (paraphrased)
The teachers in Science Stories all respected students' ideas and questions. I especially liked how Mr. Wilson allowed students to re-do an experiment instead of giving them the simple answer. The students were trying to weigh an icicle in a pan to determine if the icicle and the water it would eventually melt into were the same weight. The students were not factoring in the pan as a variable. Instead of suggesting that they weigh the pan and then subtract it from the icicle's weight and the water's weight, he allowed them to problem-solve by themselves, even if it meant extending the lesson throughout the day. As educators, allowing students the intellectual freedom as well as respectful support is absolutely invaluable. If we are in a hurry to rush through a lesson, the students are shortchanged by simply memorizing facts and data but having none of the understanding behind them, exactly as John Dewey said in 1933.
I know that for myself, a theory in print or in lecture means nothing until put into practice. Learning about the science of theatrical lighting in my undergraduate work did not make sense until I was on the road, staring at homemade lighting boxes and dimmer packs and calculating how much (or how little) energy it might take to blow the fuse (and possibly the building's electrical grid). Reading in text that the morning hours are considered "precious" by educators does not make sense until one has taught a roomful of sleepy, lethargic students after lunch.
One of our goals is to help students become autonomous learners--to take charge of their own learning by performing tasks and making meaning of those experiences.
--Janice Koch
Once upon a time, all of American society was focused on creating a workforce to be reckoned with, most particularly during WWII. During and after the Vietnam War, as more and more of the populace pursued an education, students began questioning the theory of a workforce, the theory of war, the theory of government as they experienced what Dewey calls the "grounding" for which those theories and experiences connect. I see a shift in education today as opposed to thirty, twenty, even ten years ago. We may still be educating a potential workforce, but we are educating them to think for themselves. We are asking and teaching students in the constructivist theories of students building their own experiences with teacher as mediator/facilitator. As I synthesize information throughout my educational career and into my Master's program, I can see a trend that defies the "traditional" classroom. We are empowering our students with enriching experiences that will lead to fuller, more educated lives. I do not necessarily believe in a "race to the top" because there is no race when educating children. It is a lifelong, rewarding process, not a race. Too often, society is obsessed with product over process, as proven by rabid attention to test scores, but our children possess brilliant minds and with the right amount of active experiences and autonomy, they will do well.
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