Learning Out of the Box
“Do we actually need to learn that?” – I remember asking this to my mother (who was also my tutor) when I was in grade school if I really had to learn some lessons that I didn’t think were applicable in real life. My students often ask me the same thing today, and I sometimes feel that I am not in the best position to tell them what my mother did tell me before. I strongly believe that there are so many of life’s lessons that we learn not inside the classroom, but on the outside.
Students engaged in relevant learning don’t need to collect rewards for what they do because what they are actively learning about is meaningful. Often times, they are learning about interesting things in engrossing ways and sometimes, the subject matter they are learning about is on a topic that specifically interests them. Personally, I prefer to offer plenty of choice to my students in regards to their learning. When they are focused on learning what’s applicable, they don’t need to be bribed with extra points, test exemptions, or any other rewards because these will only hinder learning as their attitudes about learning depend on how the teacher perceives their behavior. Since teachers who use reward systems typically value student behavior that is quiet, passive, and/ or compliant, those particular students tend to enjoy learning at school more than students who don’t measure up as well in light of the reward system.
Teachers, let us not depend on worksheet-based activities. We should let students out and explore the possibilities. I believe that actual writing or discovering can reveal actual learning and thinking as opposed to filling blank on a worksheet. Let them do the moves, instead of us spoon feeding them the details. When students are engaging in primarily non-worksheet learning activities, then I believe they are far more likely to be engaging in genuine, relevant learning. (When I was starting my profession as an educator, I resorted to using worksheets more often than I wanted to or should have, and I still feel terrible about doing it.) Our classrooms may look messy during activities, but it doesn’t mean that we aren’t organized. Relevant learning sometimes mean giving the students some choice about where they work and which space accommodates their diverse learning activities and styles best – which explains why my classroom isn’t arranged with desks in perfectly lined rows or tables with perfectly spaced chai r s.
Obviously, relevant learning can occur in any classroom. My experience summed up in years has taught me that we shouldn’t box the students’learning inside the four corner of the classroom – we should give them more choices.
— oOo— The author is Teacher II at Dalan Baliti Elementary School, Macabebe West District