Creating a learning environment that encourages students to do their best and fosters their natural curiosity and creativity is one of the most important jobs of a teacher. In my observational practicum I have had the chance to view several teachers work towards this goal using some of the ideas we have been discussing in the education program. I observed teachers using more formative assessment in conjunction with summative assessment, letting students pick project topics that interested them, and emphasizing lesson topics that resonated with students.
Students that were working on formatively assessed assignments were visibly less stressed and more likely to work through problems in the classroom. By making the learning itself the goal of the assignment instead of a letter or number at the end of the task the students were not focused on the end result but instead were focused on the learning itself. Students also tend to choose easier tasks when they know they will be graded on them as that makes the goal of graded work more easily attainable. Shifting the focus to the learning from the grading then also encourages students to select more challenging tasks, and therefore allow for more learning.
Allowing students pick their own projects or subjects taps into another basic human reality that curiosity drives learning. Students who are allowed to explore what they are interested in will have strong intrinsic motivation to learn, rather than relying on the extrinsic motivation of “I need to know this to get a good grade”. The idea of story telling in presenting key concepts as it helps topics to resonate with students, for example a science teacher I observed used the story of the Hindenburg explosion to discuss the reactivity of different elements. This lesson excited the student’s curiosity and is far more likely to be memorable than simply telling them that the elements on the left side of the periodic table are more reactive than others.
From my time in elementary and secondary school I experienced far less engagement in learning than is possible with these new methods of teaching. It will take me some time and effort to continue to familiarize and make myself effective at using these methods to encourage student engagement. I have also recently observed how resistant some parents can be to reducing grading in classrooms as they often view this change as a reduction in the value of excellence or simply a way of avoiding discouraging poorly performing students. However I feel it is paramount to continue the shift towards encouraging learning for the sake of learning instead of results, and I personally would have had a better time throughout my environmental science degree if my own intrinsic motivations for learning would have been fostered more.