[Complete article: http://www.lupinworks.com/article/MSIP.html]
During the Fall of 1996, Superintendents of all the school divisions represented in MSIP were contacted to see if they would be willing to allow one or two teachers from their division to use an educational leave to study the concept of student voice. Some divisions agreed to sponsor one or two teachers; others indicated that teachers would be able to attend but would need to make financial arrangements through their school. MSIP then approached schools. At the end of November, fifteen teachers (representing fourteen schools) met with Dr. Judith Newman for a day-long session. These teachers went on to engage in research and further discussion.
THE CONFERENCE: LISTENING TO THE VOICES
A condition of MSIP sponsorship of this Student Voice Project had been, from the outset, a sharing with other teachers. A March date existed for a MSIP teacher conference; the intention was to involve the student voice participants. At the January meeting the participants were reminded of this requirement. Teachers knew they would not have definitive data to share by March. They were willing to consider the possibility of engaging other teachers in conversation about the issues and process they were exploring.
The Student Voice Project teachers were asked to be facilitators for a Teachers’ Conference: Listening to the Voices. At the February meeting they became involved in planning the conference. The group decided the conference should be a working meeting. After a good deal of deliberation the teachers decided to engage the conference participants in a process similar to the one they had themselves experienced. After a brief introduction to issues about student voice the participants would meet in small groups to discuss their own engagement as learners–the factors that invite them in and those that lead them to reject a learning situation.
The morning discussion produced the following observations:
What engages ME as a learner? |
What shuts ME down? |
| when I feel I have something to contribute | when I feel I have nothing to contribute |
| time to explore ideas | not enough time to explore; too rigid deadlines |
| situations where there is an expectation of creativity, where I’m allowed to “fail” |
when I’m expected to replicate teacher’s ideas and opinions |
flexibility:
|
too rigidly laid out a “curriculum”; when there’s only one “right” way of doing something; an “omniscient” instructor |
| hands on learning | memorizing “from the book” |
| an instructor who really listens to me, who is helpful and offers questions and suggestions that let me find my own way | an instructor who isn’t interested in me and / or my opinions; who sends strong verbal cues that I’m not good enough |
| encouragement | ridicule |
| shared interests opportunities to work at my own level connections with previous experience time for relationship building challenges that seem reachable |
when I feel
|
During the afternoon, the Student Voice Project teachers facilitated small group discussions which explored “So What?” The point of these conversations was to help the participants strategize ways of changing their teaching to invite more student engagement. The outcome of the discussion was a realization that listening to students offers clues about what is interfering with their learning and how teachers and administrators might change that.
“What do we mean by student voice?”
In small groups and later in a large group forum the teachers identified factors which would foster in students a greater investment in learning:
- providing students opportunities to participate in decision-making
- making room for student input into content decisions
- providing time for in-depth study
- allowing student input into evaluation
- offering choices of how to demonstrate learning
- flexibility of content, consequences, timing, working relationships
- valuing more than the “facts”
IN CONCLUSION
Although this was a brief learning experience (one full day and four afternoon meetings), the participating teachers in the Student Voice Project made significant inroads into understanding student resistance and alienation. As the excerpts from the teachers’ inquiries (in the full article – link above) reveal they became more sensitive to what their students are saying both directly and indirectly and have a clearer idea how to make use of this feedback to make their teaching more responsive.
What is clear, however, is this kind of change does not come easily or quickly. The building of a comfortable community among the teachers, the establishment of trust, is necessary before teachers can begin to examine their teaching critically.
On Learning 