Month: September 2018

I am currently taking a course where we were asked to define the roles of the teacher and students in an inquiry based classroom…..so I thought I might write a quick post about it.  

Teachers Role

As more and more classrooms are shifting from teacher lead lessons to a more student centred student lead approach, it is evident that the roles of both teacher and student will need to change.  The “sage on the stage” or teacher knows best model is no longer relevant in our ever changing world. By no means does that mean that the teacher no longer has control over what is happening, it is that the teacher is no longer the keeper of all knowledge, as we now have access to anything and everything at our fingertips.  In this type of classroom the teacher needs to learn to let go and become a facilitator / mentor to their students. Teachers need to become the CEO of their classroom with many projects happening under them. In my opinion, in an inquiry classroom a teacher’s role is to:

• Take Risks – be ok with failure.
• Expose students to new ideas and issues that are in our world.
• Provide opportunities for their students outside of the classroom.
• Help ignite passion within their students.
• Support their students in finding ways to explore those passions.
• Help their students learn where and how to find credible information.
• Support students on learning time management skills.
• Connect curriculum to their passion projects.
• Connect students to experts and community members that can support their projects.
• Model the love of learning and promote lifelong learning.
• Advocate on behalf of your students.
• Help students reflect on their learning – what worked, what didn’t and what will you do differently next time?

Students Role

I have slowly moved from a teacher centred classroom, to a teacher / student centred classroom, to a complete student centred passion based classroom over the past 5 years or so.  My grade 12s have been a part of this for the last three years. When trying to think about what the role of the student is, I thought who better to ask then them.  This is what they had to say.

“In your classroom failure is okay and we are allowed to fail and it won’t be a bad thing or effect our marks. It is actually a good thing in this class. We are allowed to talk through all sorts of issues we have in the classroom to figure them out. It’s like everyone is apart of your project and contributes to it even though is just your project. We all like to see each other succeed. We also are allowed to use our phones and computers pretty much all the time without getting in trouble.”

“What became evident in your classroom is that it wasn’t a regular learning system that people have been used to for the last 10 years. We are allowed and encouraged to  delve in to our own minds and reveal are true passions. From there we are granted access to further research upon what we are passionate about in the inquiry process. We are also expected to do more self-directed learning as opposed to the traditional standards of memorize what the teacher says and study for the test. So our role is to become the guide to our own studying. We are encouraged to go on our phones and use twitter and other media devices to help enhance our learning. Whereas, in most traditional classrooms the only time you would be allowed to take out a media device is your computer when taking notes. We are still expected to work hard in both types of classrooms but we are allowed to fail in yours and make mistakes without getting a failing mark. We are also encouraged to talk about our failures over the course and reflect on them (in your classroom), as opposed to failing on a test and never looking at it again and missing that learning opportunity.”

“I find that I can help some less experienced students and I’m able to think bigger when it comes to things that I can do for school work.  We’ve been planning out our project, getting in contact with Parkdale Food Center, and I help other students figure out issues that they want to look at.”

So what I get from these students is that their roles are to:

• Think big and figure out what they are passionate about.
• Have an open mind.
• Take Risks – don’t be afraid to fail.
• Think creatively.
• Support one another in their learning.
• Guide their own learning.
• Be more self directed.
• Learn to time manage.
• Use non traditional ways of researching.
• Connect with community.
• Reflect on their learning and learn from successes and failures.

 

If you look at the two lists they are quite similar.  Both teacher and student need to have an open mind, not be afraid of taking risks and failing and to support each other in their learning.

I feel as though I have left a few things out – I would love to add to these lists for future discussions.  Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks for unlearning with us 🙂

R