As COETAIL wraps up course four’s inquiry into “New Pedagogies for Deep Learning”, the premise or focus of this week was thinking about how to transfer theory into practice. Again, a common thread that continues to stand out is that of developing self-efficacy in our learners. Essentially, empowering our learners to be in the driver’s seat of their own learning, or, as Hattie suggests, “the ultimate goal of students becoming their own teachers” (2012; in Fullan & Langworthy, 2014, p. 45). A focus on learning dispositions As we move away from more rote, 20th-century practices, the role of the teacher is less sage on the stage and more guide on the side. Relationships first, knowing our learners, listening to their interests and needs, then being responsive in our craft. Maslow before Bloom. “It’s about letting go.” Letting go of “how we learnt” or “did things” and also letting go of the 20th-century philosophies on pedagogy that still pervade schools around the world today. Philosophies like compliance and submission. It’s about trusting and listening to our learners. Developing skills of learning how to learn, rather than ticking boxes toward task accomplishment. More time on formative feedback and less time on the summative. I could rant on forever here, but visuals do speak more than words. What could “letting go” look like? One person who always provokes my thinking, and many others around the globe, is Edna Sackson. Her blog is an excellent resource to frequent regularly when thinking about “unleashing deep learning”. Like most of her posts, they are generally short but sweet provocations to spark curiosity on various topics of modern pedagogy, particularly relating to inquiry teaching. In the visual above, which appears in this post, Edna summarizes a more modern view of “release of responsibility”. In a way, it’s a design thinking approach. Observing and empathizing, then responding. Moving away from previous models of teaching that may look like this. Nothing sums up the message of Edna’s first visual above more beautifully, than this Thai pineapple ice cream commercial: After you watch this video, think of how the mother (i.e. the child’s teacher) is empowering her child …
For many of us educators around the globe, it’s reporting time. What a wonderful opportunity to honour the voices of your learners, empower them to develop skills of goal setting, metacognition through reflection and more. How? Well here is something simple that I do. Starting with a conversation, I let my students know that reports are coming up soon and that I’d rather honour their voices, than my sole voice in their reports. Next, I shared with my learners my thinking and ask for their feedback. Then, we came up with a solution. To be more specific, we thought about the sections of the report and how to make things as simple as possible. To simplify this example, let’s just look at what we came up with for the reading section. In the reports, this section calls for a star and a next step for the child. No grades. After this discussion, my learners and I reviewed and brainstormed all the reading skills we practiced throughout the semester (which come from our reading curriculum). Once we had the skills listed, I constructed a Google Form with them. Basically, the Form had the skills listed. In the “star” question, students select the skill they grew the most in this year, with a follow-up question asking them to ground their argument with a specific example. The second “step” question was the same as the first, but it was about a skill that they needed to develop further and explain why. In sum, I put full trust in my learners, “let go”, and honoured their voices. In return, they made my heart full with their honest and detailed responses. Their responses demonstrated that truly knew themselves as learners 😊. Here are visuals of a student response for each of the two questions: Starting your next teaching day! As I bid you farewell, dear reader, I implore you to ask this question below as frequently, as I do. Trevor MacKenzie and Dr. John Spencer both are known for saying this quote. May it resonate with you as deeply as it does for me!
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