Bells: Begin. Move. Warning. Penalty. Time’s Up. End. Repeat.
According to the theory of learning noted by Frank Smith’s The Book of Learning and Forgetting (BLF), students attend schools that divide them into age segregated classes and then inserts the students into disconnected pockets of instruction. Giving the students a rich and comprehensive education is increasingly difficult because the system stifles connections.
Now, in isolation and bell driven days, no literature connection is made to history, which might enliven the science classes which could be explored through written response or artistic expression in any or all of the core classes. Ignoring extraneous influences and connections is hardly a real world experience: a major tenet of Common Core. Not to mention the superior apprenticeship system of our ancestors. (Stone Lantern Film: School the Story of American Public Education).
While I cannot change the age segregation, I can make allowance for ability, interest, and content to enrich student comprehension. Which awakens their thirst to discover what they know, do not know, need to know, and most importantly, where to find the information.
Bells Take Toll on Creativity
As this video on teaching creativity demonstrates, when the bells signal an end to ideas creativity dies.
To genuinely nurture interest driven creativity, we have to challenge the notion of pouring bits of learning into every compartmentalized portion of the day. To expect broad comprehension from this, is not learning, nor is it engaging.
On the other hand, when the ideas are given proper care and feeding, sort of the “free range” model of learning, the kids will connect their interests to the task at hand.
In other words, they’ll arrive at the goal if given extended opportunity which can be found by breaching, at least for part of the day, the bell guarded pens of coursework.
In the model that Thomas and Brown discuss in their A New Culture of Learning (NCL), students should ideally direct how they get on with the business of learning. The means is primarily that of student inquiry. When asked what was the best thing that he learned from taking a collaborative online programming course, the best NCL example I recall is the student, Sam, who replied,
“Something really cool that [you] could never know on [your] own.”
What is interesting to me about his comment is twofold. Here’s Sam’s process:
- Researched for a course needed to discover a skill.
- Looked for something that he desired to learn.
- Found a method to receive instruction.
- Included in his instruction peer evaluation.
- Enhanced a personal experience.
Surprisingly, Sam actually sought the feedback from his peers. The peers, in this case, were not necessarily his age nor even in his classroom.
It was a community without time constraints, and Sam found the “where.”
Presumably, Education must sit up and take notice of this phenomenon. Sam took a course in a classroom without bricks and mortar, included other students from all ages and backgrounds, and it was a self-paced course. The course was an ideal one for him to learn in because the peers truly have common high interests in game programming.
If I had had Sam in my 8th grade writing class, I could tailor some of his compositions, oral presentations, and Internet production to center around this class and his experience. He could write a compare/ contrast paragraph to analyze different systems of code. He could explain by way of infographic, storyboard, or even the process essay, the steps used to achieve different screen effects or perhaps the online course enrollment process.
The connection to interest, ability, and content became seamless.
Brown’s classic and progressive theory of learning is modeled by Sam from NCL.
“The classic view of learning is concerned almost completely with long-term memory, with how experiences and attitudes determine the kind of person we become…”
Obviously, a student who is self-directed will naturally have a great attitude about the content of his writing. The key here is to provide the setting for students first to ignite a passion for learning about something, whatever it is. I must be concerned about what type of person the students will become as they apply learning in my class. Further, it is critical that I must do all I can enable successful inquiry and analysis. In essence, I must lead the students to self-direct which in turn achieves the lofty goals of encouraging scholarship and citizenship. Finally, it shouldn’t matter which medium the kids use to communicate their comprehension.
What matters is that they can recognize where their gaps in comprehension are through production of high interest projects.
Then they keep the sense of inquiry alive.
What the infographic below illustrates is that students should be thinking about what they know, don’t know, desire to know, and how they can close the gap by collaborating with others and then leverage that with other self-directed learning. (Teachthought). Learning that comprehension is a process and understanding how to use the tools available to them should under-gird the critical thinking. Knowledge is no longer the “what” but the “where” as Brown and Thomas discussed in NCL.
Because of the digital age, students must become adept with multiple online tools, formats, and be able to adapt with the the varying interfaces. Not just to use them, but know what the best uses of them are. What we must train our students to be aware of is that
“…self-knowledge is the ability to take those ideas and fundamentally inform how [they] interact with the world around [them].” (Teachthought).
Bells aren’t bad, they can give order. But when they stifle actual learning, it’s time to silence them.I’d love to hear your thoughts on retiring the bells. Or at least letting the kids ring them!
Return soon,
The MiddleWest counter help…
Debra