Learning Through Participation

Auerbach refers to participatory teaching as the “dance of teachers and students as they negotiate their respective goals, expectations, and understandings” (as cited in Richard-Amato, 2010, p.92). Students’ interests and questions are not only accounted for, but also often become the leading focus of their learning journey. Participatory teaching allows students to form their personal meanings and own understanding by being active participants in their learning. A classroom incorporating such methodologies promotes student learning through problem solving and working together in groups.

Cooperative learning methodologies tie deeply with participatory teaching and appeal to the affective domain in second language acquisition. Students learn through working together and inquiring on questions that either they have come up with themselves or are posed by the teacher. The teacher in this approach becomes the facilitator and delegator rather than the knowledge keeper. Learning that occurs through this process goes beyond textbook concepts. It can encourage intrinsic motivation to learn, curiosity, and creativity. Successful implementation of such methodologies can also facilitate positive relationships amongst students, which all work to enhance second language learning through the affective domain.

An example lesson that I have taught in the past utilizing this approach would be when I introduced students to fables. Students were first organized into their regular groups, which we called “home groups” and then numbered off into jigsaw “expert” learning groups. I gave each expert group a short fable to read and had them discuss the major events in the story, characters, and if each story carried a message. Afterwards, they split up into “home groups” and taught each other the story they’ve read. After sharing, they discussed what the commonalities were between those stories. Eventually, I asked them to try to come up with a definition of a fable based on those commonalities. Students came up with various definitions that included essential elements of a fable, which are stories involving animals as characters that have a moral lesson. Follow up lessons involved students creating their own fables either from scratch, or rewriting an existing fable with a twist. The lesson objective of having students understand what a fable is could have been taught through me directly telling the students what the definition of a fable is. However, allowing students to work together to critically assess and problem-solve before arriving at the same learning objective switches the dynamic of student-teacher relationship. Students are more engaged, obtain teamwork skills, and learn to trust each other as well.

By facilitating activities that incorporates students as active participants and allowing students to build on each others prior knowledge, students not only are able to internalize better the knowledge they attain in classes, but also form their own definition and perspective on different topics. Through discussion, collaboration, and exchange of ideas with peers, students become the voice of their learning and gain a deeper understanding.

Work Cited

Richard-Amato, P., 2010; Making it Happen

Decades of systemic research on why some students are successful versus those that are unsuccessful have seen an increased focus on that of the mindset of a student. The differences in a growth and fixed mindset have largely convinced researchers as the one of the major reasons for whether a student will be successful or not. Overall, the main concept is that students who look at ability as something that can be developed as opposed to something that is inherent will achieve their potential.

The mindset of a student is what one carries with them while they operate through everyday challenges, obstacles and learning opportunities. By definition then, a fixed mindset is one where, “basic qualities such as intelligence, or talent are simply fixed traits. Those with a fixed mindset spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them”. A growth mindset is one where people believe their “most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work “.

The debate surrounding this topic came from the issue of whether intelligence is fixed or whether it can be developed. The view prior to 50 years ago was fairly one sided; intelligence was seen as fixed and impossible to change. This idea stemmed from the idea that the genetics given to us at birth wholly determine our capacity to learn or master skills. The approach was understandable at the time given that the great nature vs. nurture debate had not been out in the open. The result was that educators from this era motivated students through more or less through a lens of “discovery” or identifying what your strengths were. If a student was not good at something, it was labeled as a “failure”, in which the criticism suppressed further effort.

The view has now drastically shifted as considerable scientific evidence is demonstrating that intelligence can be altered through focused effort. Research studying geniuses in their respective fields has shown that talent alone cannot explain the level of mastery obtained, but instead the one thing that sets geniuses apart from others is the level of focused, extended effort. This follows correspondingly to the model of a growth mindset. With this new knowledge, to foster a growth mindset within students, it is tantamount that the students understand that success comes through effort and persistence.

As an educator, looking for ways to inspire students towards a growth mindset will come through lesson plans that reward effort rather than the quality of a finished product. Specifically, when assessing ELLs’ writings, rather than correcting all mistakes with a red pen which can be very demotivating, a qualitative feedback on what they have done well on and how they can improve or verbally discussing the results of their writing with them would be a better approach.

The end goal of inspiring students towards a growth mindset is to reinforce the fact that effort is an absolute must when it comes to growing and mastering skills.

References

Dweck, C. (n.d.). Growth and fixed mindset. Retrieved http://www.learning-knowledge.com/self-theories.html

Richard, M. G. (2007). Fixed mindset vs growth mindset: Which one are you? Retrieved from http://michaelgr.com/2007/04/15/fixed-mindset-vs-growth-mindset-which-one-are-you/

Sternberg, R. (n.d.). What is mindset. Retrieved from http://mindsetonline.com/whatisit/about/