Open Education:
The Student - Centered Classroom
5 Beliefs of Teachers in Open Education
According to Nel Noddings:
1. Learning is Interactive
“The children interact with both their environments and their fellow human beings in order to learn and grow”
2. Learning is Continuous
“The open educator also accepts the notion that what children learn is connected to their own personal experience and provides the setting for further experience.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFdrYxYIdDI
Scene where the Trunchbull comes into the environment created by Miss Honey and intimidates the children. The students react to the Trunchbull in the best way that they know how. They answer her when they are spoken to and they share with her the things that they have been learning in class with Miss Honey. Their environment changes drastically but the space that they are in is the same physical space. These changes happened by one catalyst, the Trunchbull.
3. Learning Environment is Unbounded
“Not only is the learning environment considered to be unbounded, but learning outcomes are also not bound to specific and pre-determined objectives.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03fsFku_HAQ&feature=fvsr
This is the audience’s first impression of Miss Honey. Her classroom environment is that of a very loving and beautiful person. She encourages students to succeed in all that they do and creates the environment that the students need to do well.
4. Learning is Social
“…the open educator recognizes the unique status and importance of fellow human beings as part of this unlimited educative potential in the world and also recognizes the efficacy of social interaction as a special dimension of the continuous learning and growing process.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwpF1XHCpR0
This is a scene from Summer Heights High in which Jonah is finishing a final project; the project of reading. He finds help from his fellow students to sound out words and is successful because his teacher, Mrs. Palmer, has worked with him as a human being rather than working with the problems that he presents to the class.
5. Learning is Transcendent
..."open educators see the child as a transcendent whole and learning as surpassing itself and that which can be captured in the responses of the moment."
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMfessler?feature=mhee#p/u/7/zLfDGkRH6xc
Before we can attempt to include all of our students, we have to understand that each student brings something different to the table. In her book, About Teaching 4MAT in the Classroom, Bernice McCarthy states, “we perceive things differently. We take things in differently. In new learning situations, some of us sense and feel our way, staying with our direct experiences. Others think things through, preferring to move quickly to abstractions” (p. 34). This statement can apply to our students but it also applies to us as teachers. In knowing that no two students learn in the same way is to also say that no two teachers learn or will teach in the same way. This is an important concept to keep in mind. The realization that all of us are different can become instrumental when deciding which role we play as teachers.
Including all children in the curriculum will not be an easy task but it will be less challenging if we, as educators, understand that we are all different. We must also be willing to modify our teaching style to adapt to our classroom environment. In my video, Teacher as Builder, the audience will find that I have adapted my teaching style to include each of the four learning styles, as mentioned by McCarthy. I describe the teacher as builder as someone who can create one classroom, aka banana bread, out of many different ingredients/students. This allows for a different view of a classroom. This answers the How question asked by the type 3 learner.
As we continue to watch the video we find that each of the four questions are answered, what if, why, how, and what. This is just one example of adapting your teaching style to fit the needs of your classroom. By knowing that no two students are the same, we have already allowed ourselves the ability to understand similarities and accept differences. It is important to have the awareness that student differences can impact the role that the teacher plays in a classroom. It can also be said that the role the teacher chooses will impact the students differently but if we place more responsibility on our students, they will then become an integral part of their education.
Tomlinson's 6 Constructs that Provide Foundation in an Open Classroom Environment
1. The learner must make meaning of the information.
2. Meaning making is influenced by the student's prior understandings, interests, beliefs, how the student learns best, and the student's attitude about self and school.
3. Knowledge must be clearly organized.
4. Students should be highly active in the learning process.
5. Assessment should be rich and varied.
6. Students should feel a sense of safety and connection.
In the following video, you will see eighth grade students highly active in their learning process. You will also see that the students are not afraid to make mistakes, that they feel connected to their teacher, as well as to their surroundings. The lesson in the video is a brief warm-up that can be used as a foundation for other lessons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE2PU8vn00E
2. Meaning making is influenced by the student's prior understandings, interests, beliefs, how the student learns best, and the student's attitude about self and school.
3. Knowledge must be clearly organized.
4. Students should be highly active in the learning process.
5. Assessment should be rich and varied.
6. Students should feel a sense of safety and connection.
In the following video, you will see eighth grade students highly active in their learning process. You will also see that the students are not afraid to make mistakes, that they feel connected to their teacher, as well as to their surroundings. The lesson in the video is a brief warm-up that can be used as a foundation for other lessons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE2PU8vn00E