Learning Blog #5

“Guiding Question: Reflecting on your personal experiences and observations from your CSL placement, what is the role of inquiry and culturally responsive pedagogy in addressing the diversity of students in today’s classrooms?”

From my experience thus far in my CSL placement, it is clear that all learners come from unique educational and cultural backgrounds and have different ways of learning. Although the idea of adjusting pedagogy to suit the needs of the differing students in the classroom may seem daunting, it is necessary since it will significantly impact their learning.

When considering the spectrum of teaching styles (http://www.spectrumofteachingstyles.org/styles-quick-guide.php), you will notice that there are two categories- reproduction and production. The reproduction styles are considered the “classic” styles of teaching. Whereas the production styles can be more difficult to use and can lead to “organized chaos” in the classroom; as I will explain later, this is a GOOD thing!

Reproduction styles should not be discounted or discredited; they are still the best method of teaching certain things. However, in many cases, production styles allow for student inquiry and more in-depth learning than command, practice, reciprocal, self-check, and inclusion would. For example, if a student learns something through either the guided discovery, convergent discovery, or divergent discovery teaching styles they will achieve the satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment from figuring out the answer on their own. This leads to increased interest and willingness to learn. When moving into the production styles of teaching, it is more student-led and requires more from students. Take the last three teaching styles - learner-designed individual program, learner initiated, and self-teaching – all require the student to take the lead and have a serious interest in learning.

My question is: why don’t we see these methods being used more often? It could be the perceived difficulty of using them, the scariness of the “unknown” that using them will create, or even just the lack of knowledge of how to implement them in the classroom. When using the production styles, you are opening up the classroom to the students. This means two things, they feel responsible for their own learning and the teacher feels out of control. Teachers love being in control, so this can be difficult and even scary. I encourage educators to move past this fear and to embrace the chaos. Why? Going back to the first point, students feel in control of their learning, which breeds more interest in learning, thus improving student success.