We usually picture a "traditional" classroom as a one-to-one dialogue between teacher at the front and students sitting in rows paying attention, ready to answer questions. In the MYP, we often change the model to have students sitting in groups working collaboratively with each other, with the teacher there to act as a guide. But sometimes small-group collaboration can be messy and noisy. A parent or another teacher might walk in and wonder what kind of learning is going on here? Why are there so many students talking at once? Is the teacher in control? What is everyone doing?

Which is the better example of effective learning?

During this professional growth month, I've gone into many classrooms to see what kinds of interactions are taking place. I've seen the whole spectrum from “traditional” to “messy”. One Friday afternoon with a notably active bunch of students, I had a colleague come in to my class and observe a rowdy debate among 14 students. At first I was concerned about my perceived lack of control, but the feedback I got from both my colleague and students was actually quite positive. Even though they were constantly trying to interrupt each other and words were flying everywhere, the students were eagerly focused on the debate topic for over half an hour.

I think we all know there's definitely a time for more “traditional” teacher-student interaction, and also time for the messy, noisy collaborative student-student interactions as well. We just need to know when to let go and let things get messy. I think if the teacher frames the lesson with an engaging topic or question for the students to grab on to, we have no choice but to let them run away with it.

What if students were able to choose when and what they wanted to be assessed on?  That simple question was posed by Dan recently to me in a staffroom chat.  It quickly exploded into an hour long discussion, that resulted in about 2 weeks worth of work on re-imagining my classroom experience for next year.

I think I was alway comfortable with the idea of students choosing their own topics or concepts for inquiry, but I was never able to come up with many good assessments that allowed for good student initiated action.  It was hard to think of open ended assignments.  Dan’s question allowed for an end-around to the problem of the teacher structuring tasks, and then making students fit their learning and inquiry into the teacher’s structure and time-frame.

Luckily, I teach within an MYP context, so there are skill driven objectives set out for my classes already.  Currently, I set an assignment for a specified objective, like I think most teachers do.  Why do I do it that way?  That’s just the way it was always done.  Teacher gives instruction;  teacher gives assignment;  teacher chooses objective; teacher gives a grade; and so on.  Why do we usually not let students decide on what they want to demonstrate when studying plants, or civilizations, or poetry?  Most likely, we teachers want control.  If we let students run free, then how will we ensure they’ve learned!?

So what we’ve come up with in addressing that question is a simple framework in essence, but difficult in management.  I will be teaching a few weeks of base content, then allowing students to inquire into anything they want that addresses the unit’s key/significant concept.  I will be conferencing with students regularly (once a week minimum), and negotiating how they will meet certain minimum requirements over the course of the year.  Most likely students will need to choose two or three ways to be assessed over an 8 week unit on a particular concept, and keep a portfolio journalling their progress.  However, they may choose more if they are really into that topic, or fewer if they could care less.  The skill driven objectives of the MYP admittedly make this much easier.  The role of the teacher will drastically change.  It’s honestly a bit scary!  Students will be allowed to decide what objectives they want to meet; how they will demonstrate they met them; how and when they will be assessed; and who their audience will be.  They will be free to choose more, while I spend more time directing, rather than dictating, learning.

So what if students actually had the choice to choose how and when they were assessed?  Here are a few advantages and challenges I foresee right now before diving in.  Please leave comments and feedback to help us work through this process of enabling students to direct their own assessment!

Pros

Increased practice at research skills

Increased practice at planning and organizing time

Variety of assessment products (movies, blogs, teaching lessons, video conferencing, etc)

Increased formative and self assessment, as well as re-assessing work

Possibility for year-long assessment

Natural differentiation of tasks

Increased student ownership of learning

Students targeting specific areas that need improvement

All projects become individually tailored

Challenges

Me giving up control!

Keeping track of all students tasks

Managing the learning environment

Making sure students make wise choices

Maintaining motivation

Testing knowledge (can you test? individual tests?)

Changing stakeholders’ perceptions of learning

Can you think of any more?

Of course we're likely to be neither but somewhere on the middle of a spectrum between these two points. However, professional dialogue is vital to improving our practice. Most of us would not have this built into a work-day and so it can be hard to find the time or motivation. On a recent weekend escape, I was with colleagues. Imagine the dilemma? What a great opportunity for professional dialogue. But we didn't want to talk about work! It was a weekend to relax and escape. However, I still managed to come away with a brilliant idea that I'm excited to put into practice. That happened because in talking about work with a colleague, we were also talking about subjects we are passionate about. It didn't seem like shop talk. I also finished the chat and filed it away for thinking about further during work hours.
What was the idea?
My friend is participating in a social networking photo-a-day activity. Done for personal reasons and enjoying it. After talking about this for a while I made the connection to my own subject and we started discussing ways that I could do a similar thing for my students. What would need to be changed? What would be the best platform for feedback and sharing? It was a quick, enjoyable conversation, that did not interfere with our personal escape from work, but was also a mix of personal and professional interests.
It's a fine line, knowing when to talk shop and when not to. I'm glad i did, and I don't think it changed the tone of our weekend. Or maybe I'm being selfish because I have been on the receiving end of conversations that I thought were not in the right time or place.
The bottom line is, there needs to be more opportunity for colleagues to get together, during work hours, to inspire and share together. or at least to get on line and share and learn more because it is valuable, but  difficult to find the right time and place.
When I was younger, professional retreats were popular. Businesses do them. We arrange them for our students, but we don't do them ourselves.  Food for thought.

   

Patrick O'Connor
Visual Arts Teacher KIS International School
Artist
THAILAND
www.itsapatoconnor.blogspot.com
 

"Most teachers, teach they way they were taught."  That's what research says. Apparently by Shymansky, Hedges, and Woodworth, 1990. I googled the phrase, and it is used a lot.

In fact, when I became an art teacher, I specifically set out to do things differently than from the way I was taught in the early 80s. There are some obvious differences: My teacher then used to smoke incessantly. Sometimes his ash would drop off his cigarette onto our art work as he leaned in to look. He would also duck into his store room for a nip of whiskey from his hip flask mid-lesson. There are many reasons why I do not share his practices; legalities not the least of them.
There are some subtle differences as well. It seemed like he was preparing us for a life as a tradesman; a painter or sign-writer. Our materials were also limited to water-colours. Though one year we got to use a silk-screen. It was fun. My teacher thought it a useful skill. Now it is an outdated method, replaced by an inkjet printer. My teacher did not squash my love of art. But I dont think I learned a lot from him, except for a few techniques in lettering and printing, now a redundant novelty. I certainly did not understand art. He was skills focused. It was like a trade course.

However, as a teacher, I still thought that skills were important. Instead of instructing how to develop the skills, I would set students a problem, ask them to research how they could accomplish the task, then they would experiment, with feedback from me, they could learn the skill themselves. What I did not realize till much later, the skill that was most important was the inquiry process they went through, not the end product. I only need to learn how to use a silkscreen, if I need a silkscreen print. But there is likely to be something that can do the task better, in the future. I need to be able to learn how to teach myself to use it, and I need to want to learn. This is how reflection and inquiry has changed my teaching style. Skills are important, but we each develop these to different degrees and we should be able to decide which skills are appropriate for us.

Another way I teach differently from the way I was taught is that I do not teach content. I spent many hours as a student taking dictation. Then memorizing my notes. Now I teach context and concepts. Huge differences. There is no memorizing, but there is knowing.
When my students have finished with my classes, I want them to understand and appreciate art, whether their skills are refined or not.
I want my students to decide what it is they are ready to understand and access about art. Visual art, Like most liberal arts (or all) is an introspective subject. It meets every person in an individual way.  There is no correct answer. But learning how to articulate your response to art is our challenge. By applying some skills, our own appreciation of other artists' skills grows. The need to know more about art, is what I want students to get from my lessons, and to understand why art is important.

So I'm not "most teachers". I hope that most of us or not. just in case the research is true, I teach my students with an awareness that some of them may become teachers. I want to show them that I am a reflective inquiring teacher, changing and adapting how I teach. Hopefully it will pay forward.

   

Patrick O'Connor
Visual Arts Teacher KIS International School
Artist
THAILAND
www.itsapatoconnor.blogspot.com
 

"Everything flows, nothing stands still."

~Plato paraphrasing Heraclitus

@angemolony took up my suggestion for posting ideas about how we have changed as educators.  I've been thinking a lot about this...

I've come to realize that my beliefs about education were set long ago...when I was in 4th Grade, I remember getting in trouble during Math class when I asked one of my friends if I was on the right track.  I didn't want him to "give me the answer", I wanted to check my understanding with my peers!

I remember the teacher telling me to do my own work...I can still picture clearly how I felt (anger and frustration) and what I thought..."What job exists where you can't ask each other for help when you need it...".  I have known for a long time that learning is a collaborative experience! 

This is just one example, I have also always known that good learning comes from taking risks and failing at the initial attempt but learning something else instead!  My belief list could go on, but let me come back to the topic of "Change as an Educator".

I've come to realize that my core beliefs about education have been mostly the same since I decided to become a teacher.  What has really allowed/prompted/demanded me to change through my career has been the organizational structures of the school/environment in which I am in.  I now teach with collaborative grouping strategies, mastery assessment procedures, and as many audio/video resources that are possible.  I do this not because I've changed my way of thinking about education, but because of the expectations of the school/environment in which I teach.

As an educational leader, this has great implications for me.  If I am helping teachers become better teachers, the priority will not be on changing their minds; it will be changing the expectations and procedures of the learning environment to help them do what they have always known is "best practice" for teaching and learning.

Now, reading a good book, taking a course, having a good discussion, or engaging with peoples' blogs my help me articulate my ideas and re-remember what I believe (as well as energize me!)...but rarely do they "change me".

This is my story, yours might be completely different...How have you changed as an educator?

"The only thing that stays the same is change."

~Melissa Etheridge