This past week has felt like quite a journey, I feel like every day I wake up with certain ideas and thoughts and when I go to bed they have transformed and taken new unexpected turns. This is quite unsettling and overwhelming at times. There is so much movement, so much to take in, digest and make sense of, that right now my brain feels like when you are moving: there are old things to get rid of, things that appear you didn't even know were there and how they got there in the first place, other old things, that you know are not useful anymore, but you just can't seem to let go of them and then there are all the NEW things, which are great and inspiring, but they are still standing around in the middle of your living room, and you have no idea, where to put them yet, even though you spend the whole day moving and shifting them around....
Just now I have come across a citation in the "reflective Practice book", that gave me a new perspective and approach, to look at that process, that seems to unsettle my mind at the moment: "Reflective practice helps us to meet this in the spirit of discovery rather than defensively" (Schön 1987).
And some of those "new things" are really inspiring already and I would like to take the time to explore them further in my practice in the next couple of weeks. Especially one paragraph of the "reflective Practitioner" resonates quite strongly with me:
"We learn by doing, through the very struggle to make our own judgements, not by being told where, when and how to turn, who to trust, and what is the correct path. The reflective educative process is one of each individual constantly asking why of everything.."
I was reflecting on my own practice, asking myself if I give my students the freedom and the space for this kind of learning? And in which moments of my own learning journey was I allowed to learn in this way? What is needed to create and support a learning environment, an atmosphere where you allow learning to happen? How can you accompany your students, so they can feel empowered and trust in their own learning experience? This are just some questions Im writing down, there is so much more to explore.
My aim in the next couple of weeks is, to be more aware and question and look at my current teaching practice from this perspective, and observe which moments in class allow for this process to happen and feed this kind of learning and why (or why not!) (and actually also at home with my kids) and search how I can find ways to encourage such learning.
Very curious to hear your thoughts and experiences!
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Hi, it's me again! :-) My research inquiry is about the questions you are starting to ask. I want to go beyond the physical execution of steps in dance and have a look at the process of learning dance focusing on the creation of learning environments where students have this freedom and space to own their learning. However, the "space" I am looking at is rather the teacher-student relationship than the environement we are interacting in.
AntwortenLöschenThis week, my students were overexcited and it was very difficult to attract their attention. It was full moon... But something quite interesting happened, and I have let it happen. Some students (from age 5 to 12) started to give me advise. I want to give one example: We were doing a flex and point exercise with some knee bends in sitting and lying on our backs. I was talking to one student and tried to ignore the chaos around me. When I turned around, a girl (who keeps interrupting the class) asked me if we could do the same exercise lying on our sides because it was harder. I first wanted to tell her she should concentrate on what we were doing (I wanted to react 'defensively'), but realised that this is exactly what I want to work towards to in my research and that I should 'discover' my students' suggestions. So I am trying now to understand how the relationship I have to this girl and to the other students and how the learning environment we have created together in this class through our interaction has motivated her to search for new ideas and allowed her to share them with us. I guess a first step is to show the students that there is not only one 'correct path' to do something and to accompany them in their way of doing something.
Hi Maite, its great to read your comment and your research topic seems really interesting. And I agree that the relationship that you have with your students and the atmosphere it creates in class, has a great impact on the way they feel (and act out) about their learning. And as we can experience now in this course, but also reflecting upon my own learning journey, I feel that questions and being curious and intrigued by something, is always the door to learning. If students feel confident to ask questions you can explore answers together. It also reflects the trust they have in you, that they will be taken seriously. I can relate to what you write about that girl who keeps interrupting class. I also have a couple of students, that keep on commenting and giving advice and asking questions a lot and I some times find it hard to find a balance between, how much I get involved in their suggestions and how much I want to stick to my program. But as you said, often when you take the time to explore their suggestions you can learn a lot from them and it gives you a better understanding on where they are on their learning journey, which then again can inspire your teaching.
LöschenI've just found another phrase that is related to that topic, that I found interesting:
"Questions determine directions, and what might be discovered, rather than destinations. "
[© SAGE Publications - Reflective Practice - http://app.kortext.com/read/43744/?page=26]
I like the thought on helping a student to find their direction and accompany them on the way, as far as I can, rather than showing them where exactly they have to arrive.
Im very curious to know more about your research project and how it evolves!
Yes, confidence and trust is an important part of the student-teacher relationship. You can only ask questions if you feel that you are moving in a safe, caring and non-judgemental environment and this environment is created by the relationship between teacher and student. And the word that seems to always come up, also during the interviews I did last week, is 'balance'. It is all about finding that balance. And I think this is the hardest part. Thank you for the reference, I completely forgot about this book that I was reading in module 1!
LöschenI am inspired by your first paragraph as it made me realise how we are always evolving in our thought. We are forever changing our opinions and ideas based on our experiences so I found this particularly interesting.
AntwortenLöschenAs teachers, I think we are always questioning ourselves; am I doing what is right for my students? Am I giving them as much as I possibly can in each and every lesson? We just want to 'get it right' even though what may be best on one day would perhaps change the next day depending on the individuals and classroom scenario. I can relate in as much allowing space for my students to be creative but with other classes this would not work as they were so used to be choreographed so this took more practice, more theory and more time before they were comfortable.
Thanks for sharing!
Becky