Written Response for Workshop 1

Teaching…the never-ending journey

Reading the articles written by Andrew Manning and Walter MacGinitie has allowed me to reflect on teaching on a level that is so often clouded by the “demands of the job”. Relentlessly, as educators, we strive for perfection and certainty by ensuring that we cover the curriculum, prepare kids to successfully write the final exam, and report marks accurately. In so doing, we fail to see the real teaching quest, which is the quest for learning.

This quest for learning needs to be driven by the learner’s curiosity. When curriculum is created by anyone other than the students themselves, it is imposing upon them someone else’s truth. When we interact with curriculum as conversation, we remove the barriers that prevent learning from happening. This makes sense to me on many levels, in my role as coordinator of secondary programs. The conversations I have with my colleagues deal with many topics…we talk about curriculum expectations mandated by the ministry of education; we talk about assessing and evaluating the degree to which those expectations are achieved; we talk about how we will report the level of achievement; and we talk about what we will use to help us determine the accuracy of this reporting. These conversations almost always take place in the absence of the very subject we are talking about…our students. Although, their involvement in directing their own learning would seem to be the most natural approach, since as Manning says “no one learns by asking someone else’s inquiry question”, our students are rarely involved in the negotiation of their own learning..

What seems to drive the current school system to want to ‘ask someone else’s inquiry question’ for them is that those who have the authority are ‘certain’ that they have the ‘absolute knowledge’ and, as MacGinitie highlights in his article, “we inflict our certainties on students in many ways”. Most evident to me is that, as educators, we think that the grades we give students are absolutely accurate because of the electronic marks reporting system we use, the judgment we impose on their work and the approach we use to impart knowledge. This ‘certitude’ limits student learning because, and I agree with MacGinitie, in order for learning to occur there needs to be a degree of uncertainty, “for only an uncertain person can learn; only an uncertain person can show how learning is done. That is the power of uncertainty.”

Presently, our system level conversations at my board have converged on self-directed learning, as a possible approach for students to earn credits. This approach depends on conversation, conversation that is lead by students in regards to their learning. It requires students to be curious, ask ‘what if…’ questions, engage in problem solving and, most importantly, have a voice in co-constructing their curriculum. Affording students the opportunity to have a voice is giving students permission to learn. And since the process of learning involves action, reflection, and reflexivity, it seems only natural for us to provide students with opportunities to answer their own questions. In doing so, we truly believe that curriculum is conversation…and that the conversation needs to continue if we hope to make learning available to everyone!