Questions, questions and more questions

This week I found myself plagued by many questions and a desire to challenge the design and assessment model that is favoured in the twenty-first-century classroom and that is exactly what I intend to sort out and do in this blog entry.

One of the three approaches to assessment, which is assessment for learning or AfL, redefines the role of both the teacher and students. In doing so, various methods can be used that are meant to enhance learning, however, some of these methods that are suggested by Black and Wiliam (2004), which reflect a twenty-first-century view of education, can produce uneasy responses among students. This is problematic.

What happens to students who are personally against certain methods of instruction and assessment? I cannot help but wonder about the resistant students that feel intimidated in different scenarios, whether that be feeling unprepared, speaking publicly or directly interacting with a teacher. For instance, what if students are, in fact, prepared and attentive, as the no-hands policy requires them to be, but, just like people who experience test or exam anxiety, are not good under pressure? Are they just supposed to suck it up because the teacher has the authority to implement these somewhat uncomfortable methods in a classroom? I would, in fact, classify myself as a more reserved student that is easily intimidated, so perhaps that also plays into my deliberation on this subject.

Our course book Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment talks about the flawed nature of the traditional and Socratic style of questioning, but isn't the no-hands policy flawed too if there is an unwillingness or fear to participate? Certainly, as the book indicates, some of this tension can be eradicated as students become more confident around their classmates, with the procedures and realize that this is an attempt to create a collaborative environment and not embarrass one another. Even so, this mindset may never fade away and what happens to those students? Do they become permanently apprehensive and distressed learners? What if these incidences contribute to them no longer experiencing the joy of learning? How will the rest of their educational journey progress?

In terms of my own educational journey thus far, as a shy student the memories of being put on the spot or in an unpleasant situation in the classroom have lingered resulting in a lot of concern and anxiety over being put in a similar situation. This has caused me to simply want to avoid repeating the past, per se. Therefore, I cannot say that as a student I was completely unaffected by these "bad" or awkward classroom experiences and this has likely altered my perception of assessment and learning as a prospective teacher even though I agree that some educational reform needs to take place. 

On one hand, as teachers, how can we expect students to just forget or not be affected by the traditional model that has now been engrained into their brains and immediately be open to this somewhat drastic change of twenty-first-century learning? On the other hand, how can we expect classrooms to successfully transition into this new and necessary modern teaching model if students don't deal with and accept uncomfortable styles of learning or step outside of their comfort zone? There will be no progress and education is about progress, especially now that the use of technology is more prevalent. I guess a better question then is how do we get students on board with this idea without just forcing them into it or springing it upon them? I would suggest a more gradual introduction rather than completely overturning a classroom, overwhelming students and counting on them to just adjust.

All of the aforementioned questions lead to one overarching question that current and prospective teachers, like myself, struggle with, which is how can educators accommodate all of the their students or the vast majority of them?  Honestly, I do not have a comprehensive answer to that and I wonder if anyone really does, however, the first step to solving a problem is asking the important questions. After all, asking questions is the key to higher thinking, learning and problem-solving. 

Ultimately, the reality is that education is incredibly diverse and that there is no perfect model of teaching, only those that appear to work better than others and satisfy the needs of the majority of students in a changing world. There are always exceptions when it comes to students, learning and teaching and unfortunately not all of them can be accounted for or prevented, but maybe there are even better undiscovered ways to approach education that will benefit an even higher percentage of students. 

 Source: http://stockfresh.com/image/1860416/speech-bubble-with-question-mark-icons

A reflection on the past and a look towards the future...

Hello! My name is Amy Bourque and I am twenty-one years old. I have just entered my fourth year of Concurrent Education at Brock University, continuously preparing for my final year to commence next September. I am majoring in English and my second teachable is French. Therefore, I am a bit of a language enthusiast (among other things like photography and music).  

One may ask "why teaching?". Although that is a complicated question to answer in one blog post, as there are many reasons, there are some more basic explanations and considerations as to why I have chosen this career path and way of life.

I recall in the third grade, for an art activity, being asked to draw myself in the environment that I pictured myself working in one day. By the end of the class, there was an abundance of pictures of firefighters and veterinarians, but I drew myself in a classroom next to a chalkboard with juicy red apple on my desk, which was my clichéd representation of a teacher at the time. I now know that teaching encompasses a lot more than that. At the age of nine I had an idea of what I wanted to be when I grew up and I have not had any doubts about my choice since and that has lead me to where and who I am today as a person, a student and as a prospective teacher.

As I have grown older and closer to my family, I have come to believe that my passion for teaching may have initially been passed on somehow from my Uncle, who unfortunately passed away when I was only a few months old. I have been told that a lot of my traits resemble his and lately my fascination has grown as to how and why that could be. I have also been told that it was not only his reputation as a teacher that made him so memorable in his teaching community, but his dedication to the profession and his students. Perhaps unknowingly I take after him and I certainly hope to take something from his success as an educator.

Also, simply put, as a teacher I want to inspire others the way that I have been inspired throughout my educational journey, both inside and outside of the classroom.

As previously stated, French is a subject that I would like to teach. I am one of the only grandchildren/great-children in my family that did not attend a completely French school, but rather learned the language gradually through the Catholic education system. I felt an obligation, of sorts, to my family, to carry on with French, but I did not always have a desire to do so. With each passing school year, however, my interest in the language grew and learning French was no longer just a way for me to fit into my large family and share a commonality with them, but something that I was genuinely interested in.

One of my grade twelve teachers is responsible for my increased engagement with the language from his use of what I now know to be holistic curriculum. Rather than  just choosing to directly instruct his students, storytelling was an important part of his teachings. By doing so, the teacher modified instruction, or individualized curriculum, in order to meet the needs of a greater variety of learners, still with the goal of ensuring maximum comprehension in mind. The teacher made additional attempts to draw pictures in order to help convey his stories. This choice appealed to more visual learners, like myself.

Personalization or personalized learning is also apparent in the teacher's methods as us students had the option to take notes or just observe and listen. There was no test on the material nor was there an assessment of learning (AoL) in the form of a number or letter grade. Unknowingly at the time, my classmates and I were assessing and reflecting on our own learning as we monitored our own understanding of the French language, verb tenses and sentence structure. We could take what we wanted from the stories with the teacher as our guide on the path to improvement.  

An added bonus is that by sharing some of his personal memories with us and his own French background, the teacher created a bond between himself and my classmates and I that was built on trust and respect and he became more approachable.

This same French class took place in a rundown portable. It was not a very motivational or productive atmosphere, but it was the only space available that could accommodate our unusually large class size for an upper year French course. Therefore, on various occasions, my teacher took advantage of the bleachers that were right outside of our portable and held some of his lessons outside. This gave us a break from our strict alphabetical seating arrangement in the classroom. At first there were some distractions, but the teacher eventually encouraged us to observe our surroundings and incorporated that into our learning and building of French vocabulary. That is not to say that my teacher did not employ traditional methods and did not expect us to memorize grammar rules and verb conjugations in order to get right answers, but he did incorporate more innovative and constructivist ways of learning, most of which I had never encountered in a French classroom before, or other classes for that matter.

I can say that both of the aforementioned Old Story and New or Emerging Story approaches were beneficial to my own learning and continuation in French studies. The blend added dimension to my learning experience and allowed me to discover my own learning preferences, but now as we enter a digital age I suspect that how I learn best, and definitely my perspective of teaching, will evolve.