At the end of class this past week, Charles Graham asked students to think about different structures that we've been given and to think of them in terms of facilitating learning. I have decided to focus on the family. In my family right now there is a mom, a dad and four children. So each of my children has two "teachers" and three "peers." This makes lots of opportunities for teacher-learner (parent-child) and learner-learner (sibling) interactions. Unlike a typical classroom, in which students shuffle from place to place, we are in a long-term learning relationship. This is important.
As I think about the students I teach here at BYU compared with students that I taught in Miami, I was probably able to teach individual Miami students better because (for most of the students) I had taught them for several years. So on average I knew my Miami students better than I knew my BYU students. And I believe knowing the person helps in teaching them. In this case, the family provides an opportunity for deep knowing of each other and for the potential for better teaching to take place as a result.
Shawn Cates also made a good point that families provide opportunities for collaborative learning. Another idea is that the family can provide a structure similar perhaps to an apprenticeship environment. Like the "Mayan Midwives" situated learning example, children have the opportunity to learn from their older siblings and parents.
Recently I read an article in which the author talked about how it was learning from an older sibling that made the difference for him. He wrote about some poor decisions he was making in his life, and when his older brother talked with him about it, he decided to make some changes. Although his parents had tried to get him to make these changes it was the influence of his sibling that made the difference.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
I also agree that a long-term relationship can be very important. I think that in schools we often start out with that by being with the same teacher for most of the day for an entire school year. As we get older into Jr high and High School we see individual teachers less frequently - perhaps 5 days a week or less depending on the school. Class sizes are larger so teachers often don't know all students intimately. Then as we move into college we are expected to be more autonomous learners - and we might even be put in a class with hundreds of students that meets once or twice a week.
I suppose that you are right that the structure of the family is set up so that you can develop intimate long-term relationships. From my experience this really helps. The ways that I provide help and encouragement to one child can be very different from another.
From a family life educator's perspective this is exciting to think about. I believe the most powerful and influential learning takes place in the family. How great of you to make the connection. The elementary and high school teachers that I still remember are ones that I conversed with outside the classroom, with clubs or extra-curricular activities and discussion topics that had nothing to do with the class subject. I believe this enhanced my learning in the classroom and really those experiences are what I remember most from the teacher.
Post a Comment