Our students learning is for them, not us!

The notion that our learning design for students should be student centred is very important especially for the generations of today. Young people today need to find value and interest in their learning for them to be engaged. The 'Engagement Theory' (Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. 1999) is one example of how student centred learning can occur.

This theory is descibed here:

'The Fundamental idea underlying engagement theory is that students must be meaningfully engaged in learning activities through interaction with others and worthwhile tasks. While in principle, such engagement could occur without the use of technology, we believe that technology can facilitate engagement in ways which are difficult to achieve otherwise. So engagement theory is intended to be a conceptual framework for technology-based learning and teaching.' (Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. 1999)

After contemplating this theory I have looked back at my own learning throughout my life and tried to recognise some student centred learning that I had experienced. Here is a picture of a performance that I created with a group of performing artists at The University of Wollongong. It was a perfect example of student centred learning as we designed our own characters and production that we were to perform for the public. We engaged in the style of circus performance which included acrobats, comedy, fire twirling and clowning. Then after learning these performance skills we then designed, created and mastered our own performances. Just quietly, I am the one with the red wig.

This example of student centred learning was great for us as students as we felt an ownership over the perfomances as we developed the characters from our own life experiences and imagination.

The Relate, Create and Donate theory was evident in this learning for me. To add to this, I have planned a basic lesson plan that incorporates this Relate, Create and Donate theory however more in depth planning is needed for this plan. It does show however an example of this theory to reinforce the notion of Relate, Create and Donate.

Learning Experience for Year 9 Drama Class

Content: The school is required to address bullying and the principle needs you to help educate young people new to the school about the problem and ways to overcome it.

Note: Bullying can occur in School, home, work, internet and social gatherings and how can we deal with this?

Relate: In class, I will offer the students to choose a place of where bullying can occur. In small groups then I will direct them to brainstorm ideas using a graphic organizer on large paper about what is bullying. After this, in these groups they will need to write a small monologue or diary entry of a day in the life of a person being bullied. It could be based on a personal experience or someone they know. Then one member from the group can read the diary entry/monologue out in front of class or if they are not ready for this they can pass it onto another group to read.

Create: From this, then students will be directed to brainstorm ideas on how to deal with bullying. This can be achieved by having small groups go to library, google searches and conducting interviews with the school councillor in regards to effective strategies to bullying. They will then use these strategies to create small 5 minute dualogues/performances of a situation where bullying has occured and the way the person dealt positively with the situation.

Donate: After a few lessons to articulate their performances, then I will facilitate an area in school for the rest of the Year 9 students to be audience for these performance.

If students do not wish to perform in front of the audience that is their peers they can design a video to present for their viewing instead.

Some other learning experiences that show the division between student centred learning and teacher centred learning can be shown here. I have rated these learning experiences between one and ten. With ten being highly student centred learning experiences.

1. Lectures at University : 5 points
2. Company conference: 5 points
3. Leadership Camp / 4 Day trip: This was highly stimulating, hands on, self-related learning, problem-solving, discussions, input, motivation from people of experience from other organizations. 10 points
4. Photograpghy workshops: 7 points
5. Work training seminars: Sit in chair and watch speaker with powerpoints. 6 Points
Average total score: 6.6

As you can see the highly student centred learning experiences were more memorable for me and I took alot more skills to use in my life long learning now from the leadership camp.

On another note I have also discovered from many self quiz tests and readings that we all have differing learning styles and that I am a highly visual learner. I thought about this and how it would effect me as a learning manager. I believe that you need to plan lessons that incorporate all learning styles and student centred activities. I have learnt from discussions from my peers to be aware of your learning styles and your students but remember not to always label. Another good notion to think about is the idea that all our young people nowadays are in a very visual and technological world so naturally they are using this style in everyday life.

"Technology provides an electronic learning mileux that fosters the kind of creativity and communication needed to nourish engagement." (Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. 1999)

Reference:

Reading: Kearsley, G. & Schneiderman, B. (1999) 'Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning', Maryland.

Photos provided from the University of Wollongong, Faculty of Creative Arts. Photo gallery.