We Are One

Week 8 – EDUC471D100 – October 27, 2017

What an amazing day… WEEK 8… How lucky am I? Seize the day. This is my third course at SFU and I had always adapted to the room’s structure… meaning, the placement of chairs and tables. Of course, I could not move rooms or change the windows, walls, or even chalk boards. I believed that I was a “skilled” teacher and that I would make things happen. At some capacity, that is true, but I really, really wanted to move the tables into pods. Voila. MAKE IT HAPPEN. And, so I did. Let there be pods. I just loved it.

Moving chairs and tables are within my control… just as it is for others in the same room before me. I’ve been participating in #IMMOOC (The Innovator’s Mindset) and I realized that we just have to make it happen for our students, not for ourselves. Let’s take this further… this has a dual meaning. For most of my teaching career, it’s always been about the student in the centre, but what I learned was when I’m adapting (aka. coping), so are my students. That’s not a good thing. I felt EMPOWERED to move the tables and chairs.

I’m moving the tables for the rest of the course. I just loved it. Group discussions were sooooo much easier to do and facilitate. The students were more willing to speak with one another, so much so that they did not stop talking during the journal reflection time. Truth… I loved that too. Learning is dialogical. “Sense-making is not a solo affair” (Spillane, Reiser & Gomez, 2006). We are better together than apart. What a way to honour our EDUC471D100 Learning Community with PODS. We rocked it today!!

JOURNAL REFLECTION QUESTIONS

• With BC’s New Curriculum, what is possible?

Today’s class was about MEANINGFUL LEARNING and STUDENT-DRIVEN LEARNING. We are trying to model the intentions of BC’s New Curriculum in EDUC471D100. What’s so cool is, I think we got it today. When we focus on competencies, we can focus on personalized learning and find our strengths with problem-based, inquiry-based, or design oriented learning. It’s my job as the teacher/facilitator to create the framework for learning, guide learning, and share my expertise. It’s the students’ job to make sense of what they are learning and collaborate with others to gain a deeper understanding of the content while developing the competencies and walking away with the big ideas.

• What are the advantages of student-driven learning?

Witness this class… Go meta… Today’s class I believe that WE ARE ONE. As mentioned, I create the framework for learning and the students take control of the class soon after that. Almost 90% of the class is led by students. What I loved about today’s class was, all of our student-led activities were ALIGNED. There was cohesion with the theme of today’s class, this week’s reading, and TEDx video. The strange part is, we did not collectively plan it that way. We planned the class and student-led activities separately and yet by the end of the class all of what we collectively contributed tied together. It blew me away. This is the power of student-driven learning. Students have choice. Students have agency.

• What are some challenges to inquiry-based learning and cooperative learning in the context of curriculum?

One of the things that would be challenging about inquiry-based learning are teachers trying to facilitate inquiry-based learning as if they were experts but they themselves as learners have never experienced inquiry-based learning. You can’t teach what you don’t know. As my friend would say, she loves it when I go BETA… learn while I am doing. I am not an expert in inquiry-based learning and I am not an expert in BC’s New Curriculum… but I do have some tools and I am willing to learn. So, I deliberately design the course so that I am learning too. I’m not learning what the students are learning, but I am learning more about my practice and how to make it better so that it enhances the student learning experience. I am so honoured that students are willing to learn with me.

MY REFLECTION

We are one. I cannot describe how I feel today. I’m just blown away how nicely everything flowed in class this week. I the class with a big take-away from my students. What tweaked my awareness to the amazingness of today’s class was the fact that the student-driven discussion questions were very similar to the reflection questions I posed (as seen here in this blog) for their journal reflection. During class discussion, one group said that one of the difficulties of collaboration is group projects and assessment. It’s tough for students to be “collaborative” when they are being “marked” on the group assignment as a group. Some students do everything while other students do nothing.

There is a lot at stake when summative assessment practices happen throughout the group assignment. As a result, “authentic” collaborative learning does not happen. SOLUTION: Ongoing formative assessment throughout the group activity, then a summative activity (if needed) at the end of the learning process (which is the most appropriate time to do a summative assessment) for each student to demonstrate their learning. Have the collaborative learning precede the summative assessment and provide as much formative assessment as the teacher to help students with their learning. Then… and only then, can collaborative learning happen authentically. Assessment matters.