Students at the Center

5/17/12

Student-Centered Learning vs. the Master-Apprentice model: some questions from the music teacher
OK, so the trend in education is away from sage on the stage, towards student-centered learning. I get that: given that almost every student in the classroom now has access to a world of information and other resources, I can no longer pretend I am the fount of all knowledge (as if!). So we are rightly moving to a pedagogy in which students share the direction-setting of the class, and take a greater degree of control over their own learning journeys. Thats exciting, and promises all kinds of meaningful learning experiences. I will get to work alongside students, guiding them along the way, helping them learn from mistakes and blind alleys theyve taken, and (hopefully) instilling a sense of wonder at learning in the process. Students will be more engaged in learning, as they pursue subjects of interest, in ways which make sense to them, and express their learning in ways which suit their strengths as learners. But I have one quibble, and it comes from my experience and the pedagogy I have inherited as a music teacher: how does this mesh with the Master-Apprentice model of learning thats been used for centuries in the Arts? Traditionally, the way to learn how to play an instrument, or paint, or sculpt, or dance, or whatever, has been to find a master in the craft whom you admire, and beg them to teach you. If you are lucky, youll live near someone truly great, who is not only a true master, but a gifted teacher as well. They will often lead you through a rigorous and often bewildering course of instruction designed to shed poor techniques and misconceptions and build a solid foundation for true mastery of your craft. Along the way, your perception of what is good in your craft develops, and your selfawareness and self-criticism as an artist matures. Its a process which is intensive, long, and risky, and its how the greats in these fields have learned and taught for years. How does this fit with a model in which the student shares the wheel with the teacher in setting the direction of learning? How effective will learning be in the new paradigm compared to the old? What about students who pursue their craft at higher levels, where they are less likely to find this new model: will students who have been brought up in a student-centered model be able to acknowledge the authority that comes with their teachers mastery of their craft, and willingly hand over control of their learning? There is a central question behind all this, one that applies to all subject areas, and not just the Arts: can you learn without paying heed to the experts? If learning is simply gathering information, sure hand the kids iPhones, and let them loose! But I think learning also involves understanding that information sorting, classifying, synthesizing, assimilating and applying it. How will that happen in a studentcentered classroom, and especially in skillbased fields such as the Arts? - Andrew

Students at the Center

What do you want to learn? An experiment
Ive just started a project with my grade 7 homeroom class based on some of the ideas in SCL. Yesterday, I began by writing, What do you want to learn? on the board. Students initially responded with a mixture of nervous joking Id like to learn how to sleep in class and skeptical silence. They asked, Does it have to do with Language? No. Does it have to do with school? No. and they were hooked. The students wrote a list of things theyd like to learn how to build a house, defeat the final level in a video game, annoy a little sister, play the bass guitar, the trumpet, the flute (well, the class was in the music room), do a backflip, a front flip, a backwards dive, speak five new languages, speak a dead language One student wrote 35 things she wanted to learn, and every student came up with at least three. I wandered the class, observing and commenting. I resisted the urge to narrow the topics at all (although I added the word legally to the topic, How to download music for free from the internet), except to encourage students to look for topics about which they currently knew nothing. Today, we started planning the unit together. I asked them to work out and jot down their answers to these questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. What do you want to learn? Why do you want to learn this? How are you going to learn? How are you going to show me youve learnt it?

6/4/12

5. How will you assess your success in learning this? Some students have already changed their topics. Thats OK; a nights reflection convinced one student that learning how the cultures of the world live their lives was a little ambitious for a two-week project (he literally meant ALL the worlds cultures!), and some others have made similar choices. It will be interesting to see at what point I say stick with the plan Some students have already asked me to teach them, especially those who want to learn new musical instruments (yes, Im the music teacher as well as their homeroom teacher). I guess old habits die hard! Ive encouraged them to a) find other ways to learn that dont involve me teaching them, and b) if they really get stuck, to come to me only with very specific questions. I wont show them how to play the bass, but if they ask me which note is wrong in a riff theyre learning, Ill tell them that. Im also doing some learning. Ive told the class Im going to learn the play the drums. I can play a very simple rock pattern (and I mean REALLY simple), but Id like to be able to actually use my left foot (the drummers out there will get now what I mean by simple). So Im going to work on that while theyre learning their things, and in two weeks, Ill show them how much Ive learnt. (Gulp. Pressures on!). Watch this space for progress updates! - Andrew

Students at the Center

What do you want to learn? Influences on thinking

6/7/12

The story so far Ive started a project with my grade 7 homeroom class based on some of the principles of Student-Centered Learning. I began by asking them, What do you want to learn? Some interesting developments today. As you know, Im the music teacher, and my classs home room is the music room. Theyre surrounded by pictures of instruments & fingering charts on the walls, and shelves of instruments. Should I be surprised that about half the class has changed their topic to I want to learn how to play trumpet/clarinet/flute? Even students who have shown at best moderate interest in music class have jumped on this bandwagon. Why is this? Some theories, which I might explore in the reflection stage of the project: peer group pressure: my friends doing this, so I do the same as them, Ill be able to do it with them (and have lots of fun social time) proximity: this is what they see when theyre gazing into space thinking, What will I do this project on? I am such an amazing music teacher that they all want to learn so much more music. OK, thats not it, but its nice to entertain the thought!

One really interesting observation is that most of the students learning instruments have, as a very first step, gone to someone in the class who plays that instrument, and said, Teach me! So I have students teaching each other, and directing their own learning all at the same time. Some of them are doing both (teaching one instrument and learning another) at the same time. Very cool (and they seem to be having fun, and staying on task), but this isnt how I thought it would look. I wonder if they are so trained in the traditional model of education that they need to have someone teach them, or if learning a skill like playing an instrument does actually work best with a teacher rather than in a vaccuum. I guess this connects back to my very first post about the master-apprentice model of learning traditionally employed in the arts. I also am fighting the very strong temptation to step in and teach, especially when I see (and hear) them doing it WRONG! Ive set myself limits: I will only step in if I need to address safety concerns or possible damage to an instrument. All other questions (because they are already asking me questions) I will answer with, How do you think you could learn that? Last thought: I havent started learning how to play the drums yet. Better get moving if Im going to play for the class in two weeks! - Andrew

Students at the Center

6/13/12

What do you want to learn? How you know youre right.

The story so far Ive started a project with my grade 7 homeroom class based on some of the principles of Student-Centered Learning. I began by asking them, What do you want to learn? Just a brief update. Today about half-way through this experiment I asked the class, When you are learning something, how do you know if you are learning it right? Two responses: Use more than one source (bravo!), and Ask someone who knows. I find this second response interesting, in two ways: 1) Students are ingrained with the need to rely on others for their learning. How do I learn? By getting someone to teach me. What if I dont learn? The teacher wasnt very good. 2) Teachers are still needed in SCL. Weve said that before, but the temptation is to see the role of the teacher disappear altogether, and thats not the case. Learners need knowledgeable teachers who can direct the learners pathways, without taking over the learning for them. One teacher role that increases in importance in SCL, is that of assessor: one of the main ways of guiding learning is by giving students precise, positive assessment. This is assessment for learning, not of learning; it promotes learning, rather than ending it. It is a crucial part of selfdirected learning. Does that assessment always have to be external? To a certain degree, yes: without any reference to some external measure, learners wont know whether they are learning it right. But the external agent of assessment can be an authoritative text, a peer, an audienceand a teacher. One yes! moment today: my bass-playing learner left the bass at home today. What can I do now? You work it out: how can you learn something about playing the bass without actually doing it? . 60 minutes later, hes back; Im thinking hes been downloading Google pics of bass guitars. Wrong! He returned to tell me he had worked in a music-writing program, writing out the bass part for the piece hes trying to learn. Bravo! Theres some independent learning. Woohoo! - Andrew

Students at the Center

6/15/12

What do you want to learn? Wheres the technology?

The story so far Ive started a project with my grade 7 homeroom class based on some of the principles of Student-Centered Learning. I began by asking them, What do you want to learn? What role has technology played in this experiment so far (other than allowing me to share it with the worldwell, the very bored or slightly fixated part of the world, at least)? We discovered in our exploration of SCL that we dont really need technology to do SCL (kind of embarrassing in the middle of a course on Online Technology in Education, but there you go). Rather, technology has been the catalyst (to use F. Desjardins term) which has led to a new awareness of this approach to teaching and learning. Still, there are technologies out there which can support SCL. So what technologies are my students using, and how are they using them, in this SCL experiment? Heres what Ive observed: 1) Retrieving information, using Google and Wikipedia, on classroom desktop computers. 2) Viewing Youtube videos on computers and mobile devices (sshhh: were not supposed to be doing BYOD in my school until next year. Dont tell my principal). 3) Making videos using a (faulty) digital camera, and then an ipod; later, that student will be trying to edit the video on a computer, using a program she is still yet to discover 4) Writing and listening to music using Finale (music-writing software), on a computer. And thats it, so far, and as far as I know. Fairly boring, really! But this is their first experience of this, and our time is limited (summer is woohoo! fast approaching), and I havent really pushed this aspect of the project. I could, for example, have suggested that the students learning to play new instruments go online, find an online music teacher, and persuade them to give one free lesson. Or try to find someone through social media who would be willing to offer some advice. (The student learning how to do origami is yet to consider the wealth of video on the subject on YouTube. He just sits there, folding paper, lesson after lesson. Hmm (shrug). I guess it is June already). Over to you: what other ways could these students learn using technology? Ill limit the question a bit: how could students use online technology to learn how to play a musical instrument? - Andrew

Students at the Center

What do you want to learn? Final Reflections

6/28/12

The story so far Ive started a project with my grade 7 homeroom class based on some of the principles of Student-Centered Learning. I began by asking them, What do you want to learn? So, the year (and the project) is done. This week, I conferenced with students individually. I asked them to show me what they had learned, and then chatted about the process and their experience of studentdriven learning. Several comments came up again and again: 1. It was fun: fun to choose what to learn, fun to learn something Ive wanted to learn for a while, fun to work with other students, fun to have a bit more freedom in the classroom. 2. It was challenging not having someone tell them what to do or what was right or wrong, and having to work that out for themselves. 3. It was too short: two weeks is not enough to really learn something well. The students assessed their own learning, and were generally right on the money; if anything, they judged themselves too harshly. Most were quite proud of what they had accomplished in such a short space of time. Several observations to wrap up this experiment: 1. This is an exciting approach to learning. It really motivates students to be able to direct their own learning; the students were more excited about this than many of the activities theyve worked on during the year. It also began, even in this short time, to promote initiative: several students took quite innovative steps in their learning, and went in directions that came entirely from them. 2. Its an eye-opening approach to teaching. It helped me reflect on my role in the learning process. Taking a step back and letting the students get on with their own learning was quite refreshing: I could then spend my time observing and commenting on their individual progress, rather than addressing the whole class. I think I had more teachable moments in those two weeks than in any other two weeks all year. 3. Its time-consuming. Two weeks is not nearly enough to make this a rewarding and meaningful learning experience for everyone in the class. Many students hit significant roadblocks; many changed topics partway through; some used the relaxed, non-directed nature of the classes to take, shall we say, a more relaxed approach to learning than I had hoped for. This is a project which could be extended over 10 weeks, or even a year. Would I do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat.

Students at the Center

What do you want to learn? Future plans
Heres the plan for next year:

6/28/12

1. Give the students one section of the Math curriculum for example, Measurement of TwoDimensional figures (in grade 7, that includes using measurement in real life, devising the formulas for finding the area of parallelograms and trapezoids, and using those formulas to solve problems about area). Help them understand the language of the expectations. 2. Get them to choose (in groups of 2-3) one or two expectations. Their task then is to learn that information or skill, and then teach it to the rest of the class. How they learn it and how they teach it are up to them (this idea is taken from the blog of a Grade 6 teacher from Chicago, Josh Stumpenhorst. Visit http://stumpteacher.blogspot.ca/2011/03/student-driven-learning.html). This is much more restricted than my experiment this year, but this is deliberate: I want to ease them into the freedom of student-driven learning gradually. 3. Spend some time early in the year helping students discover and explore their own learning styles, so they know their strengths and weaknesses as learners. 4. Discuss how to gather information (from multiple and varied sources), and how to master skills; help students see these as two separate learning activities, and discuss the differences in each approach. 5. Explore different presentation formats. 6. After this initial project is done, begin a new project which will run for the whole term (10 weeks) or even the whole year. In this project, students choose what they are going to learn. It can be anything (within limits of appropriateness and feasibility). They then plan how they are going to learn it, and how they are going to show that they have learnt it. 7. Students keep a Learning Project Journal, recording the steps they are taking, including failures and mistakes. Emphasize that mistakes are a vital part of learning! 8. Work with students to scaffold the task. Set weekly checks with each student; go over the weeks entries in the Journal. 9. Hold a Presentation Day invite parents, administration, whoever the students want to come. 10. Throughout the process, create and exploit meta-moments when students reflect on how they learn. Apply this thinking to other subject areas as much as possible. 11. Throughout the process, reflect and keep notes on what works and what doesnt work so well, and refine the process for the following year. Im excited about this! I hope my students next year will begin to take control of their own learning in ways that I cant even foresee. Thanks for following my brief SCL experiment, and happy educating. - Andrew