Conversation 2: Why We Need to Change Pedagogy
Chapter 1: Why We Need to Change Pedagogy
In Chapter 1 of The New Pillars Modern Teaching, Gayle Allen lays the groundwork for why we must change pedagogy in our schools. Data shows that the majority of U.S. workers are not engaged in their work. Is this something that can be addressed with our students while we still have them in K-12 schools? She also explains the change in access to information over the last century. Now that we are living in a time of informational abundance, teaching and learning methods must change.
Using the comment tool at the bottom of this post, please discuss the following. Label your answers by question number, for example, Q1, etc.
- Daniel Pink, author of the book Drive (2009), recognizes three environmental factors researchers point to as keys to employee engagement: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. If this is true, how can we better engage students now and hopefully assist them in becoming engaged workers and members of society later?
- How does living in a time of information abundance impact how we learn and teach? How can we work in this environment to improve student ownership of learning?
- Are you a knowledge worker or a learning worker? Please explain…
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1. Autonomy, mastery, and purpose are all factors that provide students the ability to have ownership of their learning experience. Showing students the relevance of what they are learning, making the experience meaningful, and giving them multiple tools to support them in being successful are all ways to engage students now. Once they have learned this process of learning they can then feel empowered to be a problem solver in any situation. If they learn at a young age that they have the power and tools to solve a problem then they will rely on that problem solving mindset as an adult. When they see what they have accomplished there is buy in. Realizing their purpose and ability to take control of their own learning will then be a motivating factor in all aspects of their life. It is about empowerment.
2. Living in a time of information abundance and learning educators have to take lessons and make them into meaningful experiences. Students can learn how to do anything on the internet. At the high school we have girls walking around with make up that looks like a professional make up artist was in their home that morning. When you ask them how they learned to do it the answer is always online tutorials. You no longer have to go to school to learn a skill. If what we teach isn’t a meaninful experience and relevant they can and will find it elsewhere. I believe that feedback plays a critical role in student ownership. Feedback will either give them the satisfaction of knowing that they have accomplished something or it gives them insight into other ways of thinking. I really feel that feedback is a huge factor for teachers as well. We learn a lot about how each student thinks and where connections to learning are made. I believe giving students more ownership by allowing them to design their own learning experience builds confidence to students who might not learn well through traditional methods. With both design and feedback the lessons are geared towards each students learning style.
3. I am a knowledge learner. I am living proof that you may not know everything that you need to do a job, but you can learn anything to do it. If you know how to teach yourself and know the methods that work best for you then there are endless possibilities for your achievements. It’s a lot like creativity for me. I have so much respect for people who are naturally creative, but what is really impressive is someone who is not naturally creative and has learned to seek resources and problem solving methods to improve that creativity.
Daniel Pink, author of the book Drive (2009), recognizes three environmental factors researchers point to as keys to employee engagement: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. If this is true, how can we better engage students now and hopefully assist them in becoming engaged workers and members of society later?
I believe the best way to engage students is to give them ownership of their learning. If I am teaching something that they are not interested in, it is going to be very difficult for them to be engaged in any lesson. This comes from getting to know the student, their likes and dislikes, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
How does living in a time of information abundance impact how we learn and teach? How can we work in this environment to improve student ownership of learning?
I think it is so beneficial to us as teachers that we live in a time of information abundance because students are coming to us already as self-taught learners. They have already learned how to go find information if they need to know how to do something. This information abundance is giving children a curiosity for learning new things and give us as educators a perfect opportunity to fan that flame.
Are you a knowledge worker or a learning worker? Please explain…
I truly believe that I am a lifelong learner. With the way things are rapidly changing, I think you have to be. There is constant new information that changes so quickly that not only do we have to learn to adapt, we have to teach our students to learn to adapt as well.
Q1 Daniel Pink, author of the book Drive (2009), recognizes three environmental factors researchers point to as keys to employee engagement: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. If this is true, how can we better engage students now and hopefully assist them in becoming engaged workers and members of society later? I think it is very simple. Students must have options when it comes to learning. Rather than being at the front of the classroom direct teaching, teachers need to become facilitators of student learning. Students should be doing more hands-on projects that are relevant and meaningful to them. Students are very in tune when their peers are teaching and I think that is also something that should be incorporated more into the classroom. Students who are given ownership of their own learning have a sense of purpose and develop problem solving skills more quickly. Our challenge as educators is learning what new tools and programs are out there and utilizing them in the classroom so that students can take control of their learning. It is time to get away from paper assignments where all students sit and complete the same worksheet at the same time. Teachers must get out of their comfort zone and get creative to keep students engaged so that they do become engaged in their work post graduation.
Q2 How does living in a time of information abundance impact how we learn and teach? How can we work in this environment to improve student ownership of learning? I really like this sentence from the book, “Today’s connected learners are swimming in an ocean of resources, while yesterday’s learners were lucky if they had a puddle.” This is so true! To share a personal story, almost every project I completed throughout elementary, middle, and high school was given to me with a rubric which stated how I was to complete the assignment, the length it needed to be, and what I could and could not add to it. Basically, learners were told how they were supposed to learn and gather new information. It kept students in a box and Allen is correct, we almost had to ask permission to learn. Whereas now, you could assign a project about a particular topic with no boundaries and allow students to take ownership of their learning, create something new, and share it with their peers. That kind of learning needs to be taking place in our classrooms.
Q3 Are you a knowledge worker or a learning worker? Please explain… I would consider myself a learning worker. I believe teachers are natural lifelong learners. In a connected world, teachers are now having to learn what tools and programs are out there so that we can better serve our students. We must give up some control in order to empower students to design their own instruction, curate (find, group, organize, and share) their own curriculum, and gather feedback from their peers. If anything, technology has made our role as educators easier. Technology has not only empowered student learning but our learning as well.
1. Daniel Pink, author of the book Drive (2009), recognizes three environmental factors researchers point to as keys to employee engagement: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. If this is true, how can we better engage students now and hopefully assist them in becoming engaged workers and members of society later?
To better engage students (and create those amazing engaged workers of tomorrow), we have to offer them the opportunit(ies) to be autonomous, to attain mastery, and to find purpose in their educational journey. Insofar as autonomy— I don’t even know that offering true autonomy would have been possible even 10 or 15 years ago. Mastery, the learning/creation of a product, is one of the most profound ways we can cement any kind of learning into our students’ consciousness—making this desirable for our students’ future performance, as well as benefitting us (teachers) in terms of their ability to master the content we are trying to deliver to them now. Purpose is something I see as integral/essential to anyone doing virtually anything with excellence. Without purpose, it is difficult to commit, to justify the time needed, to tune out noise and distraction, to accomplish a task or create a product. What I think is key here, in terms of the classroom, is giving students the opportunity to develop their own concept of purpose, their own idea of how and what they are contributing to the world with their learning (or how this learning might connect to their ability to contribute/make meaning-purpose). While access to technology is still evolving/developing (meaning we don’t have one to one correspondence or tools for each student at all times), there is still far more opportunity to provide all three of these factors, as practice for the future, for our students.
2. How does living in a time of information abundance impact how we learn and teach? How can we work in this environment to improve student ownership of learning?
Living in a time of abundance means that there is, essentially, the opportunity for EVERY student to see information portrayed or communicated in a way that makes sense to him on an individual basis—we have the chance for each student to get the knowledge in a way that is accessible and understandable to them. Moreover, rather than having to be the fount of all knowledge, teachers can serve as guides and facilitators (ie. We don’t have to know it all or do it all on our own, the heavy lifting can be spread amongst the learners, with the knowledge of the facilitator being instrumental in telling students *how* to find the information, not having to regurgitate it all for them). By helping students to access the learning—and teaching them the *how* of accessing and evaluating and curated the information—we transfer the ownership of the learning to them, making them active participants rather than passive learners.
3. Are you a knowledge worker or a learning worker? Please explain…
I am a voracious learner who is constantly seeking knowledge and the framework/context (design/curation) in which to place it. I remember being in 5th and 6th grade and having SO many tidbits of information and facts, and a teacher I had at the time wisely told me that it isn’t enough to collect facts and squirrel them away to pull out later—it is vitally important to be able to place those facts, those ideas, in their context and place—to be able to use them in meaningful, significant ways in the future. As a result, I think I’ve been working on building learning experiences and frameworks for a long time. I am becoming increasingly aware of this, and more adept at providing the knowledge and guidance to students for them to do the same —in a much deeper, more connected and innovative way than I could’ve ever imagined prior to the ways in which technology has spread in the last 10-25 years.
Q1 Autonomy could be used in your classroom through a variety of different ways. For example allowing students’ to choose different ways to complete an assignment, that way they could feel more ownership. Providing more leadership roles in the classroom could also allow some students to feel more in charge. As far as mastery this could be used as stated above different ways to complete an assignment. They could prepare the assignment in countless ways. If the student prefers drama have them act it out. Others may prefer to present it. I know from teaching lower as well as upper elementary there are so many different ways to engage all learners. Lastly, purpose to me is what holds all this together. I am sure you all have heard, “When will I ever use this?” It is said probably more than we think. If students have a purpose they are more likely to see the connection and be able to understand why it is important to know or understand it. There should be a purpose in all that we teach and expect our students to learn. Using autonomy, mastery, and purpose is what makes a lesson a whole. Without them we are only going through the motions and not giving our students the full benefit of becoming lifelong learners.
Q2 Living in a time with abundance information impacts our learning and teaching because there are now more methods to use to learn and teach new things. This year I taught my first graders on how to use QR Codes. They used this to gather information or directions on different assignments. These allowed them more independence as well as seek different sources for assistance. We have so many resources to find out how to solve equations, audio books, video demonstrations, and so much more. Additionally with having so much information it can be a bit overwhelming, so teaching our students how to filter through all the information is key as well. Having the information abundance allows us to improve our student ownership by giving them different options. For example back in the day it was research this book and write an essay. Now days we have research this topic using multiple sources and present it in a way that you want. We also have the option of working in Google Classroom for discussions and provide immediate feedback to our students. Giving students the guidelines and giving them unlimited ways to perform a task will allow them ownership on their assignments and learning. It furthermore allows students to get information not just from the teacher anymore.
Q3 I would consider myself a learning worker. I wish for my students to be lifelong learners than I do not expect any less for myself. I am constantly trying to learn new things and ideas. Every day is a new day as well as every year. We as educators should be like a sponge and soak in all the new things and ideas. Our students are changing and how do we expect to guide and support them if we are ourselves not learning how to reach them. I do not think I am considered a knowledge worker, because I do not believe I hold all the knowledge my students need. There are days I look up things for my students. They are becoming more inquisitive by the day. I do not want them to lose that passion. That is why it is my goal to learn with them as well as for them.