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THE INSTITUTE for Learning Centered Education NEWSLETTER

Edition # 9 January 31, 2000

TOPIC: Learner Centered Exemplars
This is a story about a day in which staff development modeled the strategies which teachers are being encouraged to use in the classroom. This staff development day turned teachers into independent learners - not passive recipients of knowledge.

This is also a story about a student project that required students to be independent learners. First, please allow me to set the stage:

Q. What is a Learner Centered Classroom, focused on standards?

A. It is a classroom in which students take responsibility for their own learning?

Q. What does it mean to say that “Students take responsibility for their own learning?”

These questions have been the focus of many of my recent workshops, particularly since our pilot project (Targeted grant) requires participating teachers to create a (model of) a learner centered classroom by June. To create it, they (and we) must define it.

Some people might say that when a teacher tells students to “Read chapter 11, and answer questions 1-5,” a student is taking responsibility for his/her own learning by working independently and completing the assignment.

Yet, that is not what many of us would consider to be “Taking responsibility.” There is a difference between taking responsibility for doing what the teacher says, and taking responsibility for one¹s own learning. Many assignments do not allow the student to take responsibility FOR LEARNING.

As you read these two examples of people taking responsibility for their own learning, consider the common characteristics:

1. There was an authentic task to engage the learner

2. The workshop presenters and/or teachers provided a structure for participants to work independently, and were available as resources.

3. The workshop leaders (in the first example) and the teacher (in the second example) provided an abundance of resources and were available to coach throughout the time the people were working.

4. Participants had options and opportunities

Example #1: Teachers who are involved in the River or Pilot Project were invited to spend a day at Brasher Falls (January 14) and they were allowed to work either in the computer lab or a nearby room. They had an authentic task to work on (their river project). They were given complete control of their time as long as they worked on something related to their project. Six experts on technology were available throughout the day, as were three experts on standards, and inter-active teaching strategies.

Six presentations of one hour each were offered throughout the day and all were optional. Three were on technology (Power point, Excel, Big Picture Kit) and two related to standards based teaching (cooperative learning, and inquiry based instruction).

If you had walked into the computer lab or the nearby room, at Brasher Falls at approximately 11 am, on January 14, you would have immediately recognized that the 25 participating teachers (representing 12 different school districts) were engaged in learner centered professional development:

You would have observed six teachers hard at work, independently, at a computer working on their River Project and learning the software they recently obtained.

You would have observed another five teachers collaborating in pairs, planning communications between students in different schools.

You would have observed five teachers participating in a one-hour cooperative learning workshop with facilitator Dona Cruickshank.

You would have observed another teacher being coached by Gerry Peters on how to design their River project so it will be standards focused.

You would have observed one of the technology experts, Mark Petersen, providing one-on-one instruction to another teacher on use of the Big Picture Kit.

The two rooms were alive with excitement, enthusiasm and learning. It truly reflected a community of learners.

Example #2: Brasher Falls High School Science teacher Mark Manske¹s class made a presentation on an analysis of the River - they had completed the analysis over a ten week period.

Their presentation was at the end of the staff development day for teachers, and their audience included several of the staff developers and participating teachers.

The students sat on the stage and accompanied a power point presentation they had prepared with brief commentary (about a minute of explanation from each student), using note cards.

The data that was cited in the presentation, and the graphs and charts in the Power Point presentation, were effective demonstrations of students addressing standards in technology, biology, Art, and ELA.

However, the proof that this was an example of students taking responsibility for their own learning came during the Question and Answer period. After all, the students had read from note cards. The statistics, while impressive, could have been gathered under the direction of the teacher (which would still make it worthwhile learning, but not as impressive as it turned out to be).

The first key question was : “What did you learn from this project?

More than half of the dozen students responded spontaneously, and their answers left no doubt they had internalized an understanding of what they had accomplished.

The second question was addressed to the teacher, Mr. Manske:

“How did students decide what statistics to gather, what factors of the water to analyze, and how to categorize it? What were your instructions to them?”

RESPONSE from MR. MANSKE:

“I told them I wanted them to make a study of the health of the river.
I said they would have ten weeks. I made available to them several books and web citations, which described alternative methods of analyzing the health of waterways. The students had to decide what statistics to gather, how to categorize, and how to present their findings.”

In effect, Mr. Manske required the students to take responsibility for their own learning by challenging them to design their own questions and then to answer them.”

He made the necessary resources available to them without providing a blueprint, and then he receded into the background and truly became a facilitator (a guide on the side).

Nice work, Mark!

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If
you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com.

Requests to be dropped from this list will also be honored.

Copyright (c) 2000, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

TOPIC: DESCRIPTORS of a LEARNER CENTERED CLASS

When 30 pilot teachers from a dozen schools around the State met for a week this summer, in Potsdam, their task was to create a one year plan for designing their classrooms into learner centered environments that focus on standards. Their initial task was to answer the question "What is a Learner Centered Classroom Environment? What does it look like?"
The 30 pilot teachers designed their own rubric for defining a learner Centered Environment. Listed below are the areas addressed in the rubric for A Learner Centered Classroom environment. If you want the full page "Descriptors of a Learner Centered Class" which includes a one paragraph amplification of each of the following criteria, please request it and I will mail or fax it right out (your choice). Here is the list:
1. Classroom appearance

2. Learner behaviors

3. Teacher as member of a community of learners

4. Learning is integrated

5. High quality of work

6. Opportunities for reflection

7. Collaboration and teamwork

8. Technology

Announcing the 8th Constructivist “Design Conference on Teaching and Learning,” one of the most unique gatherings in the World. The conference is challenging and fun-filled. You have to experience it to believe it- , which is what Constructivism, is all about. Find out why we have a booklet filled with quotes from past participants who continue to return.

The summer of 2000 conference will be July 31 - August 4, on the campus of St. Lawrence University. Participants at past conferences have come from as near as Northern New York and as far away as New Zealand. The conference generates a community of learners - from students and parents to teachers, administrators, university professors, board of education members, and staff developers.

Students publish a daily conference newsletter and are available to offer feedback as you develop your strategies to improve student learning. (Now there¹s a unique idea - actually asking students how they think students would react to an idea to improve student learning!)

What¹s in it for YOU?

The conference has two focuses:

FIRST FOCUS: You come with a team to work on a task that is meaningful to you. Your team selects the task - it can be curriculum writing, alignment of curriculum and assessments to standards, planning a new approach such as block scheduling or multi age grouping, developing a plan to address school violence or a plan to increase parental involvement. You can choose any task that is meaningful to you and your team.

As an administrator you may want to send a team (or, better yet, bring a team) to create or modify a CDEP, AIS, APPR, or to prepare for ELA, Math or Social Studies assessments. Your Professional Development Plan will be completed by July 1 - perhaps you want to bring a team to design implementation strategies.

SECOND FOCUS:

You will experience a learner centered environment as a participant and this will help you identify strategies you can use throughout the year for involving students as active learners.

There are no long lectures. Each morning you may choose to attend one 45-minute presentation from among a number of offerings. Or, you may be a presenter. By 10 am, you will be at work with your team, in an environment where you are surrounded by resources including a Technology Solutions Center.

An expert facilitator will be with your team for the entire week - ready to assist, but prepared to stay out of your way.

Resource people consisting of researchers, content experts, members of the state education department, university professors, parents, teachers and students are available to you, within an arm¹s wave of your station.

CONSTRUCTIVIST teaching strategies and sensitivity to issues of DIVERSITY are highlighted throughout the week.

A Thursday night banquet (August 3) offers the opportunity for all of us to spoof the conference planners in a manner that maintains the spotlight on the twin issues of Constructivism and diversity.

Coordinated by Champlain Valley Educational Services, conference costs may be BOCES aidable. Sponsors include North Country Effective Schools Consortium, St. Lawrence University, St. Lawrence Valley Teachers Learning Center, and the Institute for Learning Centered Education.

For further information, and a brochure, contact either Debbie West at Champlain Valley Educational Services (dwest@cves.org), Bill Donahue of the Effective Schools Consortium (wmdon@northnet.org) or Don Mesibov of the Institute for Learning Centered Education (dmesibov@twcny.rr.com).

Why is it so easy to say, “Teachers should be facilitators of learning,” yet so hard to do, in practice?

Perhaps because we are raised in a society where the sage on the stage wins the applause.

Yet, the Johnson Brothers cite research indicating that if students are actively engaged in cooperative activities in a classroom, and enjoying success, parents credit the teacher and the principal even though the teacher is the guide on the side and the principal may not even be someone they’ve met.

Do we really mean it when we say, “We should be coaches - guides on the side” rather than “sages on the stage?”

The sage on the stage is center stage most of the time. The guide on the side has times when she needs to wait, idly, idly, idly, until she is needed.

Can you handle not being in control, being dependent on someone else’s actions to determine what you do next and when you do it?

Finally, can you recognize that, as guide on the side, while you are standing idly, idly, idly, you should not be idle. You should be observing and determining when it is appropriate to intervene as a coach. If you determine the timing is not right to intervene, you will remain idle. But in determining to remain idle, you are practicing a skill as valuable as moving to center stage.

Joe Torre’s skill as manager of the Yankees is evident, not only when he walks to the mound to remove the pitcher. His skill is equally evident the many times he sits idly in the dugout because he has determined he should not remove the pitcher. Often, he gives the appearance of doing nothing. Actually, he is observing and waiting for the moments when he has to intervene. Some days the interventions are needed infrequently. On these days, he must decide if he can really handle being a guide on the side.

“A Good Facilitator finds ways to let people know what he has to offer, without making them feel obligated to utilize him.”