Enc o ur a g e A cade mic Suc ce s s
13
There’s yet another form of resistance to a student-centered approach that requires some teacher diplomacy. Students who’ve gotten in the habit of taking the path of least resistance may not initially welcome an invitation to think, research, and write about topics of their choice. These students may prefer the status quo of the teacher doing the hard work of generating ideas and designing projects. Author James Moffett (1994) warns that secondary students especially may:
In my work with students, I have seen this proven true over and over again. A student who was so worried about not receiving conventional grades that he requested a meeting with me to argue for them ended up writing eloquently at the end of the year about how much he had learned. Once he realized how much influence he had over what he would learn, he used this freedom well, exploring research and writing about the idea of time and what it means to us as human beings. Although he started out thinking student centered was just another word for more work, less reward, the integration of his individual interests with course requirements made the work joyful and the reward intrinsic. Another student entered my class so frustrated with academic writing conventions, her first essay was nearly incoherent. First, I convinced her I would not give up on her and, second, that she was trying to write poetry and prose simultaneously. The power and clarity of her work in both genres was astonishing once she was able to separate them. She discovered in herself both a capacity for critical thinking and a genius for original poetry. If you don’t let students off the hook by making your own ideas the focus of the class, they are capable of remarkable intersections between what already matters to them and what they are ready and willing to explore. Planning ahead increases the likelihood that students will discover plenty of intersections between their current interests and new ideas and information. The chart in figure 1.1 (page 14) shows how a fifth-grade teacher might anticipate and prevent resistance to a science unit on ecosystems.
Interaction Among Students A teacher-directed approach tends to rely primarily on whole-group instruction the teacher presents or directs. Traditional school classrooms are designed and equipped for this approach. A classroom with thirty desk-chair units arranged in neat rows, all facing the teacher’s desk at the front of the room, does not lend itself to a student-centered approach. But the teacher’s desk can be in a corner and the rows of desk-chair units
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Resent and resist being asked to do things differently. . . . But if while understanding the reluctance to have the game changed on them midway, you hold a steady course toward their personal responsibility and deep involvement with their own learning, you will see resurrections as gratifying as anything a teacher can experience. (p. 71)
