The Importance of Knowing our Students

As a teacher we have a huge responsibility in educating students to the best of our ability. I believe that an essential tool to give students the best opportunities to learn is to personally get to know them all. Education is very much based on individual attributes from students and it’s important to develop learner-centered curriculum (Cherif, 2011). As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog I had an awesome grade 6 teacher. She got to know all of us students and it made us feel special and like she cares. Since she got to know us I felt more engaged in school because I wanted to learn and she wanted to teach us based on what she knew worked best for us. Each year teachers get new students that are vastly different from the group before. In order to teach each student to the best of our ability us as teachers must take the time to get to know them so we know their personal strengths, weaknesses, and needs (Drake, Reid, & Kolohon, 2014). Not just one format of teaching will work for every student. We shouldn't be teaching students the way we were taught, but how they want to be taught (Cherif, 2011). In addition, we want to be able to make the content we are teaching interesting and relevant to the students’ lives so they want to learn (Drake et al., 2014). Teachers can better use the strengths of students to overcome their weaknesses when we take the time to get to know them (Cherif, 2011).

OdysseyInitiative: Know Your Students [Video] Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1FC1ZPN7cw

In the above video it is an interesting demonstration of teachers expressing how important it is to get to know your students. One teacher mentions that she never does the same thing each year because she always has different students with different sets of needs. It is clear in the video that teachers see the importance of getting to know their students and making lessons that accommodate them.

There are many ways we can get to know our students, even before they enter our classroom. Teachers can look into old report cards, have meetings with parents, or send out questionnaires to students (Drake et al., 2014). This website is a great resource for more ideas on how to get to know your students in unique ways. Also This link will take you to the survey website that Drake et al. mentions in the text that could be useful as well (2014).

All About Me [Image]. (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.djinkers.com

Some things that are essential for teachers to know about students are thinks like their social, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds that effect how they learn (Drake et al., 2014). Being aware of these different attributes can help teachers identify unusual behaviours in their students and why they are acting this way (Drake et al., 2014). From my own experience as a camp counsellor we had a child who would constantly act out. After getting to know the child they told me that they didn't get much time to spend with their parents, who were always busy working. The child was acting out as a way to gain attention he wasn't getting at home. Since I was able to get to know the child I could understand his behaviour and better manage it because I knew were it stemmed from. There are so many different aspects of a student’s life that can cause them to act out from motivational issues, home life, or media (Levin et al., 2016). We would be failing our students if we weren’t taking the time to get to know them and what causes their behaviour or affects their learning. This is why getting to know our students and creating a comfortable bond with them is so important for learning (Levin et al., 2016).

Causes of Student Misbehaviour [Image]. (2014). Retrieved from: http://behaviourmanagement.weebly.com

References

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21^st Century Learner. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

Cherif, A. H. (2011). How well do you know your students? Guest Editorial, 73(1), 6-7.

Levin, J., Nolan, J., Kerr, J., & Elliott, A., Bajovic, M. (2016). Principles of Classroom

            Management: Fourth Canadian edition.  Toronto, ON: Pearson.

"Involve me and I will Understand" A Blog on Inquiry-Based Learning

Inquiry Based Learning Method [Image]. (2013). Retrieved from http://iblinstitute.com 

Inquiry-based learning or discipline-based inquiry really caught my attention when looking through the textbook Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment by Drake, Reid, and Kolohon. It caught my attention because it talks about how these methods of inquiry-based learning can promote creativity within students and help problem solving (Drake et al., 2014). I loved this idea of allowing students to ask questions and be active in their own learning rather than teachers simply relaying information to the students.

Here is a short video explaining inquiry-based learning to start off my post so that you have a clear understanding of the topic:

 Scott Crombie: What is Inquiry [Video]. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u84ZsS6niPc  

This time of learning often incorporates discipline-based inquiry projects that engage students in exploring topics that they want to learn more about with an added level of authenticity and accountability (Drake et al., 2014).  I have realized through many classes that inquiry-based learning and learning through projects can help with critical thinking. In my own experiences I find myself having more trouble critically thinking, most likely due to a more fixed mindset instead of growth, because I never experienced lessons where I was given an active role. It is important that we instil the ability to think critically in our students and I believe inquiry-based learning is a great tool to do so as it allows for deeper and richer learning (Drake et al., 2014).

           In an article by Server and Guven (2014) they explored how inquiry-based learning can help students who are disengaged in science courses. I found this very interesting to me personally because I often found myself disengaged in science class because I was never able to understand the concepts. Server and Guven (2014) were able to conduct research that showed inquiry-based learning to help lessen resistant behaviour in science classes because students were engaged in the subject matter. Studnets in the study were allowed to be creative, ask questions and do their own research, which made the topics more relatable (Server & Guven, 2014). In a similar article by Walan and Chang Rundgren (2015) they found that there was an effective three step model that helped increase interest in science among students. The researchers explain that by contextualisation, de-contextualisation, and re-contextualisation students are able to first learn about a topic, inquire and ask questions about it, and then reconstruct their ideas of that topic (Walan & Chang Rundgren, 2015). By doing these steps students are not just taking the new information for its surface meaning, but inquiring about it to understand what the topic means in their own terms. The purpose of inquiry-based learning in science is to fill the gaps of what students learn in school and their real life (Walan & Chang Rundgren, 2015). I feel like this is important because often in science I was confused because the concepts were just being told to me, but if I had the chance to relate it to real life and reconstruct meanings for myself I believe I would have been more engaged and understood much more.

David Scott: Introduction to Discipline-based Inquiry [Video]. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVhKTMFCgq0

In the video above it shows a grade 2 teacher in Alberta named Amy Park who instilled discipline-based inquiry into her own classroom with a project on Inuit peoples. Park explains how before she would use traditional methods of teaching by simply lecturing to her class, but she found them to be disengaged. To change this she began incorporating discipline-based inquiry as a way to actively involve her students in their own learning. I love how Park explains discipline-based inquiry because she really embraces it in her own classroom and shows that even if we as teachers don't fully understand something we can learn from our students. She explains that she didn't know much about the technology she wanted to use for the Inuit project, but the children were innovative enough to take it farther then she had ever imagined. This shows that any teacher can incorporate discipline-based inquiry and it allows students to explore subject matter for themselves.

This video on Amy Park reminded me of a grade 1, 2 split that I had the opportunity to observe last year. The class had individual I Pad’s for the students and the teaching incorporated an easy and interesting inquiry-based learning activity. The teacher would have a project called “I wonder” where the students would pick any topic they want and would research it on their I Pad’s and then later present what they had learned to the rest of the class. By doing this I could see how involved and interested the students were to learn. It allowed me to see how powerful it can be in a classroom to give students a little bit of agency in their learning because they become much more engaged and passionate.

Diette Courrege: Pilot Project with IPads [Image]. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20110406/PC1602/304069905

As a future teacher I hope to instil this same inquiry-based learning approaches in my own class because I see it as a way to allow students to build on their own knowledge and to actively learn. It also allows students to show their intelligence in multiple ways as well as creatively by having these projects instead of just having tests or presentations. Not all students will achieve in tests or presentations and by using inquiry-based learning it allows them to express themselves in different ways. A quote about inquiry-based learning is “involve me and I will understand” and I think that perfectly describes how these methods help children actively learn.

References

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21^st Century Learner. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

Sever, D., & Guven, M. (2014). Effect of inquiry-based learning approach on student resistance in a science and technology course. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 14(4), 1601-1605.

Walan, S., & Chang Rundgren, S. (2015). Student responses to a context- and inquiry-based three-step teaching model. Teaching Science, 61(2), 33-39.

Ways to Teach Social Justice in the Classroom

In the course reading Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment by Drake, Reid, and Kolohon it discusses an interesting topic of how to teach social justice in the classroom. Within the reading it discusses how different organizations such as Me to We can be used to “empower and enable youth to be agents of change” (Drake et al., 2014, p. 164). I believe that the idea of teaching students about children all around the world is essential for the development of their understanding of the world. By allowing students to learn about different parts of the world and how they can do their part, by fundraising or other things, they will learn to be more caring and aware of injustices (Drake et al., 2014). An interesting article on teaching social justice brings up another point that teachers should start teaching social justice from an early age so that they begin to develop awareness and understanding that can later be built on when they are older (Hawkins, 2014).

Here is a great link to the UNICEF Canada website that gives teachers many resources on how to incorporate social justice in their curriculum, as well as many other ways to connect with people and classrooms around the world http://www.unicef.ca/en/our-work/article/global-classroom. This website would be a great tool for teachers looking to enrich their students with lessons that connect and even help others from around the world.

This particular reading from Drake et al. (2014) had me very interested and feeling connected to the reading. From personal experience last April 2015 I had the opportunity to travel with a group of Brock University students to Namibia (South Africa). In my travels I was able to go into and volunteer at an after school program set up by a women that helped further the learning of the children in lower income areas.

Photo taken of me in Namibia by a person on my trip.

Here is a link with more information about education in Namibia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Namibia.

This was a life changing experience for me and it allowed me to learn a lot about education and how it is different and similar in different locations. From this experience I can relate to the importance of teaching social justice in the classroom because even as a 21 year old Concurrent education student I was able to learn a lot from the perspective of another country. Throughout schools it would be extremely useful for students to learn about other countries and social justice to allow them to be an agent for change. Although not all schools, especially at primary/junior level, cannot always allow for trips like the one I had the opportunity to participate in they can do other smaller things like fundraisers to help a classroom from another country, or Skyping a classroom from around the world. Hawkins (2014) states that by using children’s literature it can also be a way to easily incorporate social justice from around the world into the classroom curriculum. Another interesting article suggests an alternative method of teaching social justice through music, since music often includes aspects of social injustice in the lyrics (Berman, 2015). The use of alternative methods like music could be an interesting way to introduce social injustice into curriculum since it can often be hard to talk about serious issues with children (Berman, 2015). By doing this students could see that students from all over the world are just like them and it will empower them to change the world so that every child gets the opportunity to learn the way they do.

Photo of a class Skyping taken from www.Flickr.com

References

Berman, A. S. (2015). Teaching social justice in the music classroom: music educators can open the door to dialogue and understanding of what can be difficult subjects to address. Teaching Music, (4). 38.

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21^st Century Learner. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

Hawkins, K. (2014) Teaching for social justice, social responsibility and social inclusion: A respectful pedagogy for twenty-first century early childhood education. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 22(5). 723-738.