"Learning is fundamentally an easy thing that we do from the day that we are born until the day that we die. For most of our lives, it is natural and it is effortless, everywhere but school." This quote by Dr. Douglas Thomas (TED, 2012) really hits a teacher hard. Where, through the years, did things go wrong so that learning is more difficult at school than any where else?
Our world is in a constant state of flux. Nothing stays the same. Most of our schools are currently running under the same model of teaching that has been used for over a century. The old methods were more acceptable during those times because the knowledge that needed to be taught stayed pretty much the same. Now, new things to learn are being found constantly, and the old ways can't keep up. We have to have new methods for our students to learn through.
The old approach is mechanistic. Thomas and Brown (2011) said that the mechanistic approach treats learning as steps to be mastered in order to complete a task. Efficiency was key. "Learn as much as you can, as fast as you can." Everything is standardized and testing measures the results. Instead of the mechanistic approach, Thomas and Brown (2011) suggest that we should consider learning in terms of an environment where all the new digital resources come together with the students, teachers, and boundaries that define it. The traditional approaches to teaching can no longer cope with the ever-changing world, so we need to change our ways of thinking. The key to creating the new environment will be to allow for freedom to investigate in the digital environment while having structure. We will need to "embrace what we don't know, come up with better questions about it, and continue asking those questions in order to learn more and more (Thomas & Brown, 2011)."
Thomas and Brown (2011) said that one of the three principles of the new culture of learning is peer-to-peer learning. By interacting and participating with others, students are able to learn things that they may not know about themselves. Any member of the collective may act as the mentor at any time. The interactions bring in more resources, skills, and talents which further the learning of the whole group. Teachers won't have the sole responsibility of bringing in the information that the students are supposed to learn. Peer-to-peer learning is one aspect of the new learning culture that I would like to bring into my classroom.
Much of what needs to be learned in our ever-changing world is tacit knowledge. Thomas and Brown (2011) define tacit knowledge as "the component of knowing that is assumed, unsaid, and understood as a product of experience and interaction." This means that we need to be learning by doing, watching, or experiencing the material instead of just being told about it. As you do things, more knowledge is absorbed and connections are made. Students need to be allowed to act on their passions for a topic within a set of constraints that keep them within given boundaries. Questions need to be asked and actions taken in order to find the answers. This is the process of inquiry. As students continually learn more about a particular topic, inquiry may become indwelling where the knowledge is second nature. If a student is passionate about a particular topic indwelling will happen quicker.
One of the more difficult portions of the new learning culture to justify at a high school level is play. Play is a way to engage with material in order to create meaning. I know that in the DLL program, I have had time to play in order to learn how to use an ePortfolio. It has taken time playing around with different settings and layouts to get my page the way that it is now. I have learned a lot about how Wix works along with Canva that I use for graphics. The problem with play is that with how tight our curriculum schedules are, we teachers don't have time to let our students play around with a subject in order to develop their own learning. We basically skip that step which is detrimental to our students.
In the video "Creating Significant Learning Environments," Dr. Harapnuik (2015) mentioned that we need to look at building courses holistically. This means that we need to consider the big picture of how everything connects instead of focusing on the smaller pieces. We have to start planning with the end in mind to make our environment is student centered while being engaging, supportive, and motivational. Digital aspects are absolutely necessary these days because the technology is at the palm of our hands to find any information we could ever need. Teachers then become the mentor or facilitator to ensure students are going along the correct path to learning.
My innovation plan is to utilize a flipped classroom approach to teaching. Having the students watch a video made by myself or find one on a particular topic themselves will allow more time in the classroom for there to be collective meetings where students can discuss what was in the lesson and how they can apply it in class. It will allow for the needed "inquiry" time to investigate the concepts in class where I can facilitate the conversations and help students come to conclusions along the way. The added peer-to-peer tutoring will help all students involved because being able to teach one another really shows that you understand the concept as well. Getting the time to use inquiry strategies will help students build their own learning instead of relying on the teacher to give them what they need to know.
There will be challenges. My students will need to be taught how to watch a video on their own to glean the information needed in order to have conversation in class about the material. It will take going through several videos with them in class before entrusting them to do this task outside of my classroom. Conversations will have to be closely monitored in the classroom to ensure that they are staying on topic. When working on inquiry skills, students may need a little push to try things out on their own. Students have been conditioned to receiving the information for so long that now it's difficult for them to trust themselves at doing a task. I still partially feel this way in the DLL program even with this being my fifth class. I really struggled in my first class at being given so much freedom to do things my own way. I will have to work with my students to help them adjust to a new way environment in which they have more control of their own learning.
All in all, I believe that improvements can be made to our classroom environments if we are able to let go of the reins a little bit. Our students need to be given more control of how the learning occurs. It will be an adjustment for all, but it is necessary for our students to be able to better understand the concepts we are trying to have them learn.
References:
Harapnuik, D. (2015, September 8). Creating significant learning environments (CSLE) [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/eZ-c7rz7eT4
TEDx Talks. (2012, September 12). A new culture of learning, Douglas Thomas at TEDxUFM [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/lM80GXlyX0U
Thomas, D., & Brown, J.S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. CreateSpace.
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