Reflections II

Still trying to reconcile engaging lessons doesn't equal fun lessons. In a book written by Garth Boomer in the 1980s, the author went around interviewing students how they learnt best and he compiled some answers...

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1 Engagement. We learn best when we intend to learn, when we become personally involved and interested in the learning we are to do. Our learning should be purposeful - our purposes not the teachers! We need to know what we are to do and why and how we are to do it, but we do like our intentions to 'mesh' with the teachers so that, as much as is possible, we are all thinking along the same lines. Our intention to learn becomes engaged when we become curious or puzzled by things we are to learn. It matters to us that we solve our puzzlement and find satisfactory solutions to our own problems.

2 Exploration. We need it acknowledge that we are all not equal in experience in what we know and can do so we need learning experiences personalised as much as possible to cater for our differences in starting points, needs and interests. We like the teacher to open up a range of options to give us some choices in our learning.
We need to be helped to inquire in ways that suit our needs and to learn through trial and error, and by finding out, rather than being told by the teacher. We need to be involved actively in real learning experiences and not be passive receivers. We understand best when we do things ourselves and arrive at new knowledge through our own discovery.

We need to work and relate with other learners and our teacher. We like working individually, in groups, and as a whole class but small groups is our preferred option because it allows us to learn together, and from each other, as we go along. We like to use each other as sounding boards and as an audience for our ideas. We feel most secure working in groups.

We need help from our teachers, but not dominance by them.We want a supporter, a facilitator, not a dictator. We need to take risks as we struggle for new understandings but will only take those risks in a supportive environment - one in which we are both challenged and encouraged to stretch our thinking. We don't like being frightened of being wrong and like it when teachers help us through any difficulties.

Besides this supportive role we want the teacher to be available to work with us when we need help. We don't want to be bored or confused by the teacher telling things to the class when we already know what is being explained or are hopelessly lost because don't know enough to understand. Anyway in the whole class situations all too often we can't ask real questions or talk things through and we need to do those things.

3 Reflection. At the need of the learning experience we want to feel we have achieved something worthwhile to us. We need to come up with products that mean something important to us and that will please the audience we are preparing for. We don't doing things for no reason at all. We like to share what we have found and the sharing is a way to show others how well we have learnt.

We need to think about what we have done and how we could do it better next time. Out of such reflection new questions, challenges, and ideas will arise that we can use to continue our learning.
[Source: Leading Learning Blogspot]
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So I gather that in order to make a lesson engaging, I have to be able to rouse not merely their interest, but also their curiosity. It makes my role as an educator different. My job is no longer to teach per se, but to facilitate students' learning. It puts a whole new perspective into my jobscope. I think when I start practicum, planning for a lesson will not be that tough. But to plan for an engaging lesson... that will take some brains racking. But I think that's what makes teaching so challenging. Where teachers are "forced" to be creative to meet the needs of today's youths.

And how does ICT come in? The generation today are already termed "digital natives" and we as teachers sometimes have to hurry to keep up. But even though the youths today spend so much time online, how much of that time is put to constructive use? The web and the media are still so much for social networking among youths than for other purposes. If we can only harness the tools out there and give students an avenue to channel that time/energy to actually learning something relevant for their lives in future, then cyberspace can be a true learning hub. Now... if only I can start my creative juices churning.

And to share an interesting article "Engage Me or Enrage Me" by Marc Prensky, the CEO of Games2Train, a games-based learning company.