Yahoo, I am the first to answer. :-)
I believe in collaboration of the community. I am a firm believer we learn from others, not always the text book or even our instructor. I can't tell you the number of times where I finally understood a process and the explanation came from a study buddy, not the instructor. I feel by collaborating you can help students see the real world application of a process they are learning about in class. In addition, maybe by collaborating the outside person can explain to the student how to understand the process better. I can still remember a local physician coming in and speaking to my second grade class. He brought a handmade doll. The dolls chest opened up and there inside was the major organs including the heart. Up to that point I had not comprehended the human heart was not a heart shape. But I distinctly remember him showing a heart shape organ. He went on to explain how it was really a different shape in real life. I had finally made the connection! I know this story is a bit goofy, but it is an example of how collaboration works.
One challenge with collaboration is the guest/outside person might not know how much the students really know. It is annoying at any age to have someone talk "above" and about a process the student is not familiar with.
As with any situation, when bringing the real world in, there are potential risks. The first that comes to my mind is saftey. All students need to be safe and so the outside person must be someone who would keep the students safe. In addition, a person who encourages a student to press forward is also a plus. I had a professor in dance that told a close friend of mine "if you really want to dance professionally, leave school and move to New York." Although the advice is true, I don't want my students dropping out of high school to persue work. Just something to keep in mind.
I totally agree with you in your belief about learning from others. I myself learn more when I teach another person!
ReplyDeleteIt's great when you're studying in a group, and you are actually helping your classmates study. It's a great review for me!
I also agree with the safety issue. But I think that within the professional world, the people would be trustworthy and not... well, sketchy (hopefully).
I think that group work is something that should be incorporated into all classes simply because students tend to do a great job of explaining things to each other. I know that some of my friends were able to help me better understand certain things I was struggling with simply because they had struggled with similar issues at some point too.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think that outside collaboration is something to be used, but only carefully. As you said, bringing in somebody who is going to encourage students to drop out is not effective. When I was in high school we had an anti-drug program where a speaker came to talk to us about his experiences and how he had changed his ways and been rehabilitated. Instead of telling us things that would scare students away from drugs, he spent the better part of his presentation telling all these crazy stories about the parties he had attended and the wild things he had done! We left his presentation talking about what a cool life he must have had! I can say without a doubt that this was not the goal of the administrators who got him to come speak to us.
Basically, I think that outside collaboration is another resource at the teachers disposal. It can be useful, but it becomes a hindrance to learning when used unwisely or too much.
I agree with Lynn that “It is annoying at any age to have someone talk "above" and about a process the student is not familiar with.” I believe that no one should look down at another person. You never know what kind of person that student is. You will know that s/he does not understand the content material very well. However the student could be very good at other content material or something outside of school and being “street smart”. Sure thing the teacher thinks of herself as someone who is above the student and who is teaching the student the content material. However, better relationship could be made when the teacher is also willing to learn something from the student: it could be the attitude toward learning or schooling that the student has. I believe teachers also learn from students who motivate and brighten their daily lives.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that everyone has different perspective and point of view in the same situation. When students are collaborating, there should be something that they learn from each other. There could be a student who is extremely organized in the group, who could inspire another student who is not as organized as that student. There is always a group member who is very creative. Someone who is not creative could learn from that student. There are different ways that teachers teach the same topic. Students could learn and comprehend differently even from the same lecture. Sometimes, teaching between students would be more helpful since most students are in same age and they use the same language, which would enable them to understand easier than listening to the teacher who is using all the professional terms.
Outside collaboration will give the good and bad impact on students. Some students are mentally mature enough to filter out what they agree upon and what they don’t. However, some students don’t have that much knowledge and absorbs whatever material that teacher presents. Outside collaboration could be helpful in that students get out of their routine and learn from people outside of their classrooms. However if careful consideration is not taken, same situation as “SweetDisplayName” has indicated could happen. Also, if the outside collaboration is overdone, then the teacher loses the “color” of that classroom.
Great point about the overdone item. If the outside person is "cooler" than the teacher how are the students going to respect the teacher. A great situation here is when the students trust the teacher and thank him or her for bringing in the outside perspective. How do you find this balance?
ReplyDeleteWow, I'd never thought about what could happen if the outside person is "cooler" than me, Nicole. That came out more concieted than I intended. How would you regain control of your class after that? Hopefully, if you quick enough on your feet you can make a connection to something your speaker did say and draw them back to the topic at hand.
ReplyDeleteI feel like if there is outside collaboration done in the classroom, hopefully the teacher has had enough communication with the "cool" person that the "cool person" knows what is expected of them. Outside collaboration is supposed to help the teacher, and I truly hope no teacher would put themselves in a situation where they let someone "cooler" take control of the classroom and encourage the students to not respect the teacher.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has made really good comments. The first thing I thought of when it was mentioned about talking "over" someone was that it could be an issue if the expert is not used to talking to children. It might be helpful to make sure all of the information is covered in at least a basic sense so that the students will be comfortable when the expert goes into more detail. It might be more trouble to have the expert come in at the beginning of the unit unless they direct the visit towards students' level of understanding and attention.
ReplyDelete