Engage me
Challenge me
Ask me questions
Talk to me
Believe in me
Let me learn
Reading Knowledge relativism (New Learning: Chapter seven, page 176) the last paragraph really stuck into my mind. To what extent do all our efforts to provide varied sites of learning and modes of engagement put a deceptively democratic gloss on what sometimes turn out to be pathways to inequality? When does our ostensible sensitivity to differences do differences injustice?
I think that one of the hard things about teaching is the balancing act we have to do each day … lesson … minute … Engagement is key to a successful class, but an engaged class may not always be learning something new or stretching their minds. I think that statement made in the New Learning book is really interesting because it really highlights the problems that just engaging students can disadvantage them.
At the very basic level I am reminded of a teacher who kept her students very engaged! They loved attending her class because they knew they’d be watching a video. The video was mostly interesting and vaguely on topic. However it made it very difficult for teachers who attempted to teach the same subject (and even other subjects) and engage the students. It also meant that the next year when they did a follow on subject their knowledge was lacking, they could recall movies, but very rarely recall what had happened in the movie. By the end of year ten some students (of varying degrees of abilty) were openly over it because they were sick of movies.
On a higher level a teacher can be engaging by using interesting modes and techniques but lack the intellectual quality. You really have to attempt to get the mix right! I think the hardest thing, is that often a teacher can care and be trying and still miss the intellectual quality – something just doesn’t add up, and if you can’t acknowledge that or work it out, you can eventually lose them. Engagement only takes students so far.
I think this is something we need to be really careful about, we can easily fall into the trap of entertaining and keeping our students happy – because it makes our life easier. Or worse, we can think we are teaching but rather there is no learning. But ultimately even the students reach a level where they know they’re not learning anything. And as a teacher we have to decide how far we are willing to go. I think I am lucky to work at a school where teachers push, pull, stretch and expand the adolescent mind. And while it is hard work, at the end of the day … I think it is worth it.
It’s like Rachael’s salad analogy Redesigning the menu … they fail if the cook lacks the necessary skills and equipment. To make matters worse, service is compromised by poor organisation, lack of training and failure to understand the patron’s needs. The miracle menu may not be so easy to put in place. Engagement is the key to the door, but it doesn’t open the deadlock.
2 responses so far ↓
Rachael // May 18, 2009 at 9:52 pm |
You make such a valid point here Prue. It reminds me of the meeting I went to on Friday. The teacher from another school was describing how she changed an entire unit because the students liked a video!!
As a result, what she described seemed to have very little intellectual challenge.
On the other hand, if you can’t relate to your students and capture their attention in the inital stages of teaching something, they become bored and restless.
Thats where experiencing and looking at the known is so important. It is a way in, a way of relating the learning to the students own lifeworlds, before moving them into the new.
If a teacher never moves beyond what keeps the students quiet and entertains them, how can they possibly ever move to a new way of knowing. The same teacher I wrote about before, also made comments about not bothering with assessment or challenges for lower ability students.
I was horrified. The students labelled in this way are not being given the same access to learning as their more capable classmates.
Now that’s a pathway to inequality!!
Great post.
Rachael
rimingto // May 19, 2009 at 11:43 pm |
Great post, Prue. (by the way, you may want to check your first graphic – “engage me” – it doesn’t seem to be coming through) Teaching is quite a balancing act isn’t it? Matching the best educational approach from a myriad on the palette, to a particular student’s learning style amongst of sea of learning styles in a multi-student classroom. Ahh!!! Uhg!!! Tough stuff… And, amidst all of this, the teaching profession gets a bad wrap and is sometimes described as being a “fluff job”! I am so appreciative to be a learning community in our “New Learnings” cohort that all understand the challenges of education, and strive to embrace and address these challenges head on. Keep up the great work! -Ryan