Leading view papers – Days 1 to 7

School is boring? Inspiring learners

 

 

Introduction

I must be a very lucky parent. My two boys love school. They can’t wait to get back there on a Monday morning (especially after a long school holiday). But maybe it is they who are the lucky ones. They attend Minimbah, the junior campus of Woodleigh School, and it is the school environment which consistently draws them back. That is a learning environment built on our ‘3R’s’: Respect for Self, Respect for Others and Respect for the Environment and the “Woodleigh Way”. The Woodleigh Way is a little difficult to describe simply (it needs to be experienced) but is best summed up by a quote from the founding principal, Michael Norman.

‘We ought never to do for young people what they, with a struggle, could be expected to be doing for themselves’ (1982, p.74).

At Woodleigh, students are recognised as individuals. That is, in each class we see 25 students with different needs, different learning characteristics and different passions, interests and desires. We, as teachers, look to develop each of those learners as a complete person ready to take their place in the society of their future. While a good year 12 results and entry to university is important, we don’t focus on this as our only goal.

At Woodleigh we challenge students to act on their convictions. To act consistently with their beliefs. We praise success. Not just those who do outstanding things and win prizes, but those who achieve personal bests, those who have taken a challenge and done better than anyone expected. We recognise gifted students and work to challenge them and we have support systems for students challenged by learning difficulties and disabilities.

We have a school culture that creates a busy, full experience of academic, cultural and sporting activity and of social and environmental service. If a student claims to be bored, then the challenge is for them to struggle to solve this problem.

To try to illustrate what happens within the classroom at Woodleigh, I’ve included two examples with which I was personally involved; the first from year 8 and the second from year 7. To understand the culture of the whole school requires one to experience it.

Case study 1. A sustainable management plan for Woodleigh School

In term 1, Year 8s at Woodleigh spend some time considering the environment. In 2006, as we were considering how to implement the changes required by the VELS (Victorian Essential Learning Standards), we recognised an opportunity to explore ways of incorporating the Personal Learning and Thinking strands. So we set the students a challenge: prepare a sustainable management plan for the school. This required them to consider the term ‘sustainable management’ and come up with a working definition for their report, assess the natural environment, the energy use of the school, the water use of the school, the waste production and management of the school and the ethical care of animals at the school. They then needed to recommend a series of actions that would meet the goals of sustainable management. We approached the task with some trepidation and were pleased by the enthusiastic response of our classes.

The students investigated a series of guiding questions.

• What is meant by the term sustainable?
• Why is it important for the school to have a sustainable management plan?
• How could we develop the land to attract local native birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects?
• Why would we want to recreate the natural environment?
• How much energy is used by the school?
• What is the energy used for?
• How could the school’s energy use be reduced?
• How much water is used by the school?
• What is the water used for?
• How could the school’s water use be reduced?
• How much waste is produced by the school?
• Where does the waste come from?
• What can be done to reduce the amount of waste we produce and what can be done to re-use or recycle our waste?
• How are animals used in the school?
• What can be done to ensure that the use of animals in the schools is done ethically?
• Why should we treat animals ethically?
• Why would we include ethical animal use as part of a sustainable management plan?
• What costs would be involved for the school, if it decided to address these issues?

We started each class by distributing useful information, taking student questions, having students share what they may have discovered and delivering short ‘lectures’ on the various concepts that the students would require: food webs, trophic levels, transects, quadrats, enhanced greenhouse effect, water conservation, waste management and sustainability. We also used some local experts as guest speakers.

We were amazed with the manner in which the students approached the task from the first lesson. They were instantly engaged by the intellectual challenge and enthusiastically planned their groups and the various information they would need to collect. Our roles quickly became facilitators of learning, not founts of wisdom. We were able to have meaningful conversations with small groups of students about how to collect data from the field; who to speak to in the school to get data about energy, water, waste and the care of animals; what do we mean by sustainability; what does a management plan look like; and what does it attempt to do. That is, we were able to respond to student needs, getting to know our students better, rather than always setting the agenda of teacher-student talk. The students came and went from the class, visiting the business administrator, senior staff and other staff who may have information they could use, using the computer facilities, monitoring the bins, and visiting the school’s bush and farm areas to take measurements. Each class they had information to share and questions to ask. Each class we were able to add to their information store with energy audits, waste audits and water audits that had been carried out or with information about the natural environment and copies of a small management plan to use as an example.

The classes were frantically busy. The students were rarely disengaged or idle. The reports were fantastic. The highly capable students produced very sophisticated documents that were glossy and professional looking. The less capable students produced reports that displayed that they had learnt a lot from the experience, without necessarily having the gloss or sophistication of the more capable students. Importantly, students acted in a manner that showed they had thought through the issues and were applying them to their own lives.

When talking to students about the task, the response was almost universally positive. Most students commented on the interesting things they learnt about their school and the independence they felt in being able to move about the school, interviewing various staff and collecting the information they required. Some also commented favourably about the changes to their behaviour.

• ‘I learnt a lot, like learning by myself, learnt that Woodleigh could do a lot more to be environmentally friendly.’
• ‘I liked learning more about the animals at Woodleigh.’
• ‘I liked how it was very open, free to go about the research any way we wanted, but extra work to keep track of every one in the large group, I’ve changed the way I use energy, water and paper at school and at home.’

• ‘I don’t litter any more because I understand how much it costs to clean up after me and the damage my litter can do.’
• ‘I liked going out and doing it rather than reading out of the book.’

There were some dissenting voices, however, who suggested that it was hard to manage the large groups required of the task and that they found it hard to prepare the final product. They felt this was because they had not seen a management plan before and found it difficult to imagine what one may look like. One student in particular found it frustrating that he had written a report in one style, to discover that it was inappropriate when he was shown what was really required.

This was a highly successful teaching/learning intervention from the perspective of the teachers and the students. We were stunned by the manner in which the students approached and completed this task and the management plans that they prepared. They were clearly engaged and interested in the topic and gained a great deal of knowledge and many skills from this activity.

Case study 2. Oetzi the Ice Man

Prior to 2006, the school’s teacher librarian, Heather Boundy, had worked with the maths/science team on a ‘Famous Scientist’ project in term 1. This allowed the librarian to introduce the students to the school’s library and how to use it for research. This included the books, magazines, newspapers and audio-visual materials and the use of the web. This task had evolved over the years from a poster presentation to a MS Publisher-based presentation. For the maths/science team, the activity supported a unit of working scientifically that introduced the students to safe practice, laboratory features and the way that science is undertaken. The ICT department had worked with the humanities teachers to introduce the school’s computer network and a variety of basic software and hardware applications and basic electronic file management. Oetzi the Ice Man seemed an obvious vehicle to link the library’s needs, with the science teacher’s needs, with the English and humanities teacher’s needs and with ICT, to achieve rich outcomes for our students.

Each student was required to produced a double page spread for their class science magazine. This included an explanation of the area of science being explored, an explanation of how those scientists would use their knowledge and skills to assist with the investigation of Oetzi and a biography of a scientist working in that particular field. In science we worked with the librarian to collect data by secondary research, and in humanities the teachers worked on writing and presentation styles. Some of their reflections are included below:

• ‘I found it really interesting how the scientists discovered so much about Oetzi.’

• ‘It was great to get two different responses from both teachers about the same piece of work.’
• ‘We learnt a lot about Oetzi and the scientific things that helped with his discovery.’
• ‘The assignment was pretty good and there wasn’t much that can be improved.’

This was a highly successful teaching/learning intervention from the perspective of the teachers and the students. We were stunned by the manner in which the students approached and completed this task and the science magazines that they prepared. They were clearly engaged and interested in the topic and gained a great deal of knowledge and many skills from this activity.

This unit has been valuable as it has allowed for the teaching of ICT skills in the context of a specific task that has engaged the students and made the learning of these skills more effective. It has supported opportunities for students to work independently and collaboratively on tasks. By sharing the task, we have gained a great deal as individuals and teams and learnt from each other. The students learning needs are now met with a much richer, deeper task that is authentic, that engages the students and contains many opportunities for the students to develop or practice many skills in a variety of subjects and gain conceptual knowledge across those subject areas.

Final reflections

Kyle (2006) suggested that the goal of science education should be to facilitate students’ ability to identify possibilities, seek challenges, use their imagination and transform their society.

‘With an emphasis on imagination and critical reflection, rather than cultural reproduction and transmission of knowledge, science education may facilitate the emancipatory interests of students’ (Kyle, 2006, p.10).

In this he draws inspiration from Habermas (1972), who argued that knowledge was created in communities of inquiry, guided by sets of rules or conventions for developing theories. These conventions express three deep seated interests of humans: they are technical (looking for causal explanation); practical (seeking understanding); and emancipatory (reflecting on the knowledge and its value for the society). These tasks have met these interests. The students have sought data to assess and seek explanation and develop understanding and then have reflected on this knowledge and the impact this knowledge has for their society. Importantly, the students have been too busily engaged in meaningful authentic tasks to be bored.

I started this short paper by stating that I was a lucky parent. I am also a lucky teacher. I get to work with students who, on the whole, for most of the time, are not bored or disengaged. Rather, they are challenged, supported, caused to think, to act and they have lots of fun. Woodleigh is also a small school - by choice. The junior and senior campuses are separate and the students know all the staff and other students, and are in turn well known by the staff. It is a community built on respect.

Maybe the answer to the question posed by this online conference: ‘School is boring and disengaging. How do we meet the challenges of inspiring learners?’ is that the learning environment and culture of the school determines the level of interest and engagement of the student population (and the teacher population). I feel that all of us within a school have the obligation to challenge the school culture and change it. We should not be waiting for someone else to make those decisions for us.

References

Norman, M (1982). Woodleigh. Melbourne, Dove Publications
Habermas, J (1972). Knowledge and human interests (JJ Shapiro, trans). London: Heinemann.
Kyle, WC (2006). ‘The Road from Rio to Johannesburg: where are the foothpaths to/from science education?’ In International journal of science and mathematics education. Vol. 4, pp.1-18.
VCAA (2005a) Personal Learning Strand Victorian Essential Learnings, accessed website on 9 June 2006: vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/links/standards.html
VCAA (2005b) Thinking Strand Victorian Essential Learnings, accessed website on 9 June 2006: vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/links/standards.html

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr Gary Simpson is Coordinator of Independent Learning,  and also Homestead Coordinator at Woodleigh School, in Baxter, Victoria, Australia. Dr Simpson is a NCISA Scholar who completed his PhD on the application of constructivist epistemologies to the teaching and learning of middle school science, at the Key Learning Centre for Mathematics and Science Education at Curtin University, in Western Australia, contributing editor to Science education review, coordinating author of Heinemann Science links books 3 & 4 (first edition), the recent VELS edition of these books, and a regular contributor to various publications.

 

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