Who controls the learning?

Posted on April 29, 2012 by whatedsaid

An extract from a post at What Ed Said, inspired by a conversation about inquiry on #pypchat…

How much do you plan for inquiry?

Do you prepare a range of teaching activities in advance?
Or do you plan a strong provocation  and then see how the learning unfolds naturally?

Is your plan a checklist, on which you cross off each activity you’ve ‘done’?
Or do you change your plan every day depending on the needs and interests of the students?

Do you know exactly what will happen in your classes?
Or do you really listen to students’ questions, answers and thoughts, allowing those to direct the learning?

Does every student do the same thing in your class?
Or do learners have choice where they take their learning and how they might share it?

Do you focus on covering the material and how best to teach it?
Or do you spark curiosity so that learners are inspired to question, explore and discover?

Is this you…?

Image: Eneko

About whatedsaid

Teaching and Learning Coordinator at an IB PYP school in Melbourne, Australia. I'm a teacher, a learner, an inquirer...
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2 Responses to Who controls the learning?

  1. Mr. Sam says:
    April 29, 2012 at 1:07 pm

    Well… it’s all the “ors” for me, almost all of the time. Naturally, this is harder, more “controversial”, more messy, more difficult to control and more likely to lead to getting in some kind of trouble at some stages each academic year.

    I recently dabbled with the first options in the wake of increased prescriptive stuff being introduced and comments being made designed to induce guilt in me. However, both my students and I quickly started to dislike school much more as a result, their behaviour worsened and I became quite depressed! So, we back to doing things the interesting way now. Hooraay!

    Love the little comic strip by the way.

    Thanks, Ed. The way you think reminds us that the way we think is OK!

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  2. whatedsaid says:
    April 29, 2012 at 10:09 pm

    Isn’t that often the way? The stuff ‘they’ want us to do (whoever they are) is the stuff that messes with the real learning. Our Year 3 and 5 inquiries seem to be ‘on hold’ while the teachers prepare kids for NAPLAN… sigh.

    And oh, I though it was the other way around. The way YOU think reminds me…

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