Engage students as citizens.
A translated excerpt of this article was used for the National Teachers Exam of France in 2016. That translation, by Magali De Block, appears below.
To engage students as citizens, educators must design school experiences so students see themselves as having power to change the world.
If that sounds grandiose, consider that one place “the world” begins for us is school. Despite the popular distinction between “school” and “the real world,” school is the world kids know for a significant percentage of their waking hours as they grow up.
If they come to understand that their views and actions can make a difference at school, they will be much likelier to believe they can make a difference in the larger community as adults. Here are 9 ways to start:
CLASSROOM LEVEL
1. Respect students’ input about teaching. Click if you a.) need convincing (WHY); or b.) would like a quick method (HOW) for gathering student data.
2. Debate less, dialogue more. Move beyond artificial debates with “winners” and “losers” (points scored, face lost). Instead, support discussions in which students learn to help each other think through matters of genuine and mutual interest. Yes, this is a tall order: facilitating a meaningful discussion is one of the most rewarding things a teacher can do–but it’s also one of the most difficult to master. Explicit coaching is necessary to develop this capacity.
3. Develop critical literacy strategies. Put simply, critical literacy pushes beyond mastery of decoding and comprehension to develop students’ ability to engage a range of texts (from science textbooks to poems to pop-up Internet ads) and ask critical questions about authorship, implicit assumptions, and consequences. Professor Sandretto's poster (below) provides an eloquent visual argument. To hear more from Susan Sandretto of the University of Otago (New Zealand), click here.
4. Solicit student viewpoints across the curriculum. Students can practice skills relating to civil discourse in every subject area, from pros/cons of vitamin supplements in Physical Education to differing strategies for solving a proof in Geometry Honors.
5. Let students co-create learning experiences. Many teachers ask students to give oral presentations, but comparatively few seek out students’ input in developing essential questions for exploration or designing labs or planning units. Education philosopher and champion of democracy John Dewey wrote, “There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than its failure to secure the active co-operation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in his studying” (Experience and education (1938). New York: Touchstone).
SCHOOL LEVEL
1. Ask students to participate on school committees. If you have a committee for an issue where student voice could valuably inform discussion (e.g., academic integrity, stress, homework, mission statement), invite students to join as panel-presenters or members.
2. Model civic dialogue. Beginning shortly after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, I co-moderated a forum for political discussion open to the entire community of the public high school where I was teaching. Here we practiced civic dialogue: non-threatening, respectful conversations about topics that are difficult to talk about. We stressed listening, reason-giving, and taking others’ views seriously. In addition to discussions of war and peace, we took up topics along the gamut of same-sex marriage, racism, the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, grade reporting, elitism, and the observation of Columbus Day.
3. Make public art. Many schools honor student expression via formal outlets like literary magazines, fall dramas and spring art shows, but also important are informal coffeehouses and other spaces for students to make and exhibit their own ideas about the world. Here's a favorite example from when I led an alternative education program: we teamed up with a humanities course to build public questions around how and what we see. An especially effective aspect of this project was how easily all members of the school community could include their views (and eyes).
4. Let students lead. Especially given our increasingly digital world, students have a great stake in relevant preparation with respect to technology and innovative thinking. In the alternative education setting I used to direct, teachers identified a team of students to pilot our 1:1 laptop initiative. These students met our expectations that they set and solve problems, and gradually lean in toward their leadership potential as they helped us plan how to scale up from 8 participants to 91.
Pour encourager l’engagement citoyen chez nos élèves
Document 3b : Pour encourager l’engagement citoyen chez les élèves, les enseignants doivent concevoir des expériences éducatives qui permettent aux élèves de se représenter comme capables de changer le monde. Si ces mots peuvent paraître pompeux, considérons que ce monde en question commence dans notre établissement scolaire. Malgré la distinction courante entre «école» et «monde réel», l’école est le monde que les enfants côtoient le plus en grandissant. S’ils se rendent compte que leurs opinions et leurs actions peuvent avoir une certaine influence à l’école, ils croiront d’autant plus facilement qu’ils peuvent avoir une influence sur leur plus vaste entourage quand ils seront adultes. […] Favorisez plutôt les discussions dans lesquelles les élèves apprennent à s’entraider grâce à de vraies questions d’intérêt commun. Oui, il s’agit bien là d’une exigence de haut vol : favoriser la mise en œuvre d’une conversation lourde de sens est une des choses les plus valorisantes pour un enseignant, mais c’est aussi l’une des plus difficiles à maîtriser.
as translated by magali de block for the 2016 Certificat d’aptitude au professorat de l’enseignement du second degré [national teachers exam of france]
Pour encourager l’engagement citoyen chez les eleves, les enseignants doivent concevoir des experiences educatives qui permettent aux eleves de se representer comme capables de changer le monde.
Si ces mots peuvent paraître grandiloquants, considerons que ce monde en question commence dans notre etablissement scolaire. Malgre la distinctioncourante entre « ecole » et « monde reel », l’ecole est le monde que les enfants côtoient le plus en grandissant.
S’ils se rendent compte que leurs opinions et leurs actions peuvent avoir une certaine influence a l’ecole, ils croiront d’autant plus facilement qu’ils peuvent avoir une influence sur leur plus vaste entourage quand ils seront adultes.
Voici 9 pistes pour aborder la question :
1. Respectez leurs contributions au cours.
2. Debattez moins, dialoguez plus. Depassez les debats articiels qui aboutissent a avoir des «vainqueurs» et des «perdants» (points comptes = perte d’estime). Favorisez/Soutenez plutot les discussions dans lesquelles les eleves apprennent a s’entraider grace a de vraies questions d’interet commun. Oui, il s’agitbien la d’une exigence de haut vol : favoriser la mise en œuvre d’une conversation lourde de sens est une des choses les plus valorisantes pour un enseignant, mais c’est aussi une des plus difficiles a maitriser. Une formation specifique est necessaire pour developper cette capacite.
3. Developpez des strategies d’analyse litteraire. En quelques mots, critical literacy aide a approfondir et aller au-dela de la maitrise du decodage et de la comprehension pour developper la capacite des eleves a se confronter a une grande variete de textes (des manuels scolaires scientifiques aux poemes, en passant par des pop-ups publicitaires sur Internet), et a se poser des questions d’ordre critique sur l’autorite des textes, sur des raisonnements integrant l’implicite et de leurs consequences.
4. Sollicitez le point de vue des eleves concernant les programmes scolaires. Les eleves peuvent mettre en pratique des capacites liees au discours civique dans chaque matiere, des « pours et contres » des complements vitaminés en cours d’EPS aux differentes strategies mises en œuvre pour faire une demonstration geometrique en niveau le plus eleve de lycee.
5. Permettre aux eleves de co-créer des experiences d’apprentissage. Beaucoup d’enseignants demandent aux eleves de faire des presentations orales mais comparativement peu recherchent la contribution des eleves dans le developpement de questions essentielles a explorer, ou dans la composition d’ateliers et la plannification d’unites d’apprentissage. John Dewey, philosophe en sciences de l’education ecrit a ce propos : « Il n’y a aucun interet, je pense, dans la philosophie de l’education progressive qui ne soit plus sain que l’accent mis sur l’importance de la participation de l’apprenant dans la construction des buts /objectifs qui dirigent ses activites dans le processus d’apprentissage, tout comme il n’y a de plus grand defaut dans l’education traditionnelle que son echec a securiser la cooperation active de l’eleve dans la construction des objectifs a mettre en œuvre dans son travail. » [1]
[1] Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Touchstone.
Peter Horn, Ed. D. est chercheur en sciences de l’education et auteur d’une these de doctorat intitulee : « Missing voices on teacher quality: How students describe outstanding teaching ».
