The Teacher As Facilitator: Student Voice and Choice Part One

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide by Alfie Kohn

Optimized Learning by Paul Solarz

Learn Like a Pirate by Paul Solarz

Transcript:

Melissa Milner 0:09

I've been decluttering and spring cleaning. And I came upon a really great article that I haven't read in a while. And it's really a lot of my philosophy about giving students voice and choice, which I talk about a lot. It's called Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide and it is by the great Alfie Kohn. And it's from Phi Delta Kappan, in September 1993. There's a lot of things I want to share from this, but I will just pick a few for this minisode. And then I might do some other ones, some other quotes and things and break them down in another minisode. So here we go. One big piece of the article is talking about the rationale. So it says to talk about the destructive effects of keeping students powerless is to describe the benefits of having a sense of self determination. Five such benefits seem particularly compelling. One is effects on general well being, it's desirable for people to experience a sense of control over their lives. I'm sure we can all relate to that. So why would it be different for kids. And then the next one, is effects on behavior and values. So the truth, it says, I'm going to quote it, the truth is that if we want children to take responsibility for their own behavior, we must first give them responsibility. And plenty of it, the way a child learns how to make decisions, is by making decisions, not by following directions. Again, when I read this, I mean, there, this whole article is highlighted all over the place. That one was a really powerful one.

Melissa Milner 1:56

Then the oh later in that section about effects on behavior and values, it says, "The only way this can happen, the only way children can acquire both the skills of decision making and the inclination to use them is if we maximize their experiences with choice and negotiation. And then the next one, the effects on academic achievement. So if learning is a matter of following orders, students simply will not take to it in the way they would if they had some say about what they are doing. And I know teachers listening, you're probably nodding your heads. When students have a choice, they are more interested, they are more invested. And I have some more highlighted in that section. So how students can be given more say about what goes on in their classes. That's what we should be trying to do. It says when second graders in Pittsburgh, were given some choice about their learning, including the chance to decide which tasks they would work on at any given moment. It says they tended to quote, complete more learning tasks in less time. This is the same number three about effects on academic achievement. It says they put in more time than they had to spending extra laboratory periods checking results that could have been accepted without extra work. Some of the students initially resisted having to make decisions about how to proceed. But these grumblers later, quote, took great pride in being able to carry through an experiment on their own.

Melissa Milner 3:27

And then number four is the effects on teachers. It says, despite attitudinal barriers, to creating democratic classrooms and schools, educators who are willing to share power, may well find that they benefit directly from doing so one's job becomes a good deal more interesting, when it involves collaborating with students to decide what is going to happen. I absolutely agree. It is so fun. And you can see the excitement in the kids faces. And you can see the investment and it makes your job easier. Although Yes, who you need to prepare things and have things ready and be ready to facilitate. But you have an exciting classroom, you have students buzzing, it's it's, there's nothing like it. And then number five, was intrinsic value. So finally, it needs to be said that allowing people to make decisions about what happens to them is inherently preferable to controlling them. It says it is more respectful and consistent with basic values to which most of us claim to subscribe, apart from the skills that will be useful for students to have in the future, they ought to have a chance to choose in the present. So that whole section that I just read those five points was called the rationale. So basically, what are the benefits, the five benefits to having a voice and choice kind of classroom? So I'm going to stop there because that's the rationale. And then maybe the next minisode. There's this whole section I love this article called choosing in practice. So what does it look like? It talks about academic issues. It talks about social behavioral issues. And then it talks about the reasonable limits. This just yeah, this is a great article.

Melissa Milner 5:23

All right. So I hope you I hope there isn't too much of the noise while I'm turning the pages. But I just a quick heads up that as I'm, you know, as I was rereading this article, it just brought back to me all the work that Paul Solarz does. That's Paul S-O-L- A- R- Z. If you don't know Paul Solarz, he wrote, learn like a pirate. And he just completed an amazing book called optimize learning. So I'm hoping to have Paul on in the fall, to talk about his book, Paul reached out and asked if I would write a little review. And I got an advanced copy, which is so exciting. I feel like I'm like media. But anyway, I got an advanced copy. And it was really amazing to go through and see what he had created. It's basically taking learn like a pirate and fleshing it out, you know, and learn like a pirate. It's the talks about that self directed learning, he taught me it's all about choice. And then in this, he breaks it down even further. And really, it's, it's an amazing book, and I highly recommend it. It's called optimize learning. If you're liking what you hear about this article that I'm sharing, you're definitely going to want to check out at least learn like a pirate, if not, in addition, getting optimized learning, there's lessons in there. It I mean, you can start the first day of school, setting your students up to be self directed learners. And it's pretty exciting stuff. It's pretty revolutionary. Thanks for listening.

Melissa Milner 7:01

For my blog, transcripts of this episode, and links to any resources mentioned, visit my website at www.theteachers.com. You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram @melissabmilner and I hope you check out The Teacher As... Facebook page for episode updates. Thanks for listening. And that's a wrap.