Week 2 - Student Voice and Curriculum
How does/could student voice fit into your curriculum?
7 Replies
In my classes, I typically set a core problem or debate for the kids to tackle. They may have different interests and thus study different (interlocking) aspects of the curriculum to contribute to a larger course/class objective. This allows for differentiation to meet student priorities. Thankfully, the curriculum in my subject areas is generally more than broad enough to allow for students to employ their "voice(s)" to make their learning meaningful and relevant.
I have at times presented students a variety of options for the ways they will be assessed and evaluated as well. They co-create the criteria (with me acting as mentor and quality control) for evaluation and peer feedback. With practice, I have found that senior students and even well supported juniors can become quite adept at designing rigorous learning projects.
I have also had really good success with having students build units of study using consensus decision making processes. It really builds legitimacy for the course - tough to complain when you create the course through exercising your voice! Also, students get more engaged in their peers' work as a result. It makes for an overall more collaborative process. Bonus is that I invariably end up learning a lot as well. It frees me up to mentor the students as they work through the units of study, and to help them to make connections, improve their skills and work, and to provide overall context to help them understanding themes and related concepts.
In my classes, I typically set a core problem or debate for the kids to tackle. They may have different interests and thus study different (interlocking) aspects of the curriculum to contribute to a larger course/class objective. This allows for differentiation to meet student priorities. Thankfully, the curriculum in my subject areas is generally more than broad enough to allow for students to employ their "voice(s)" to make their learning meaningful and relevant.
I have at times presented students a variety of options for the ways they will be assessed and evaluated as well. They co-create the criteria (with me acting as mentor and quality control) for evaluation and peer feedback. With practice, I have found that senior students and even well supported juniors can become quite adept at designing rigorous learning projects.
I have also had really good success with having students build units of study using consensus decision making processes. It really builds legitimacy for the course - tough to complain when you create the course through exercising your voice! Also, students get more engaged in their peers' work as a result. It makes for an overall more collaborative process. Bonus is that I invariably end up learning a lot as well. It frees me up to mentor the students as they work through the units of study, and to help them to make connections, improve their skills and work, and to provide overall context to help them understanding themes and related concepts.
Mick Waters proposes that students taking responsibility for the curriculum, becoming involved in shaping how they are learning and evaluating the quality of their experiences shapes their attitude for learning. Assessment for learning allows for student input in the process- it allows students voice to shape how the learning should progress. I think that a first step would be to work with teachers to help them understand and use assessment as a learning tool is a natural first step in increasing student voice in the curriculum and making it more meaningful and engaging for students.
Thank you for sharing insight into your class. You have mentioned a really important point of how students need to be co-creating success criteria.
this gives students the opportunity to discuss, help shape and also deeply understand what success looks like.
In the chapter Setting the Learning Agenda: Can Pupils Do That?, Waters discusses student involvement in their learning. An interesting point that I completely agree with is about how the curriculum goes far beyond policy or document.
“The school curriculum included everything that pupils experience.” (Waters:200)
Again I come back to Emilia Reggio Philosophy of the third teacher, and I think of the importance of the environment. The physical spaces our students learn in can enhance (and I would argue motivate) learning by including them. Does the space reflect the students? Do they see themselves in the environment? There is a huge difference between covering walls with scholastic posters versus meaningful work created by the students (i.e. a word wall that students made). Does the environment include student work (both process and product)? Does it reflect their interests? Does it document their words and thinking?
I strongly believe the walls of the class should reflect the students in the class.
TIG Week 2 Posting
Response to :Student Voice: Changing Practice and Developing Partnerships Gill Mullis &
Setting the Learning Agenda: Can Pupils Do That?
Mick Waters
“Real world problems motivate learners. Their own learning is something in which the majority of learners are interested and want to influence. It sees pupils setting themselves problems, sharing their solutions, being part of a contributing learning community”. (Waters, 2011)
Certainly in my experiences across The Arts I know that when students respond to issues that they truly care about then their work in Drama, Dance and, Visual Arts and Media Arts has strong personal resonance…. And yes, the best teachers listen to what their students are saying, lending support for these authentic interpretation! In the 70’s Paulo Freire proposed a problem-posing method of education where teacher and student become co-investigators of knowledge and of the world – seeing art as a form of activism, acting as a form of self-expression, and role-playing as a method of self-exploration ,so that all these investigations became transforming experiences for the learner.
Gill Mullis (2011) raises the issue of teacher’s openness to their loss of authority when their ideas may be usefully challenged by their students, where the dynamic changes from control of the learning to co-operation.
Here student voice is not limited to student councils and committees but something that goes to the very heart of education in terms of the relevance and content of teaching and learning. In this model students have opportunities to define their learning goals, become involved in peer teaching, take risks, engage in opportunities to co-teach or lead lessons/parts of lessons, dialogue, help set the learning agenda, shape their own experience and evaluate the quality of their learning.
Waters advocates for the “self- directed, hypothesis testing, discovery of education we observe in Early years and at the Graduate level, with students having a voice in their future rather than the prescribed treatment where the person is left out of the picture.
In our Ontario context If this current thinking is to take hold and lead to school improvement then curriculum models need to reflect this paradigm shift!
“To build a successful system of personalized learning, we must begin by acknowledging that giving every single child the chance to be the best they can be, whatever their talent or background, is not the betrayal of excellence, it is the fulfillment of it.” Miliband 2004
The reading of this week about personalized learning by Dr. David Hargreaves was very appealing to me as it is always a big challenge to motivate reluctant learners. In fact, knowing students intelligence and interest will enable us to support them in their school achievement. In my Special Ed. Class, developing an IEP for each student and utilizing DI to enhance their learning has always assisted them to learn better. The reading indicated that building a system that supports students to be skilled in becoming owners of their learning is crucial since they are 21st century learners. In fact, in a personalizing learning approach, letting students be the owner and the driver of their learning could bring more success to them locally and even globally. According to the research, personalized learning is about tailoring education to individual needs. In this learning journey, a teacher can facilitate students to meet their learning goals. However, in personalized learning, student’s voice to create their learning curriculum is imperative.
Michael Alex
Mar 22, 2013 at 3:16 PM