Student as Teacher
Historic are the days of the teacher standing up front lecturing an hour a day, 5 days a week, 40 weeks a school year.
Engagement in the classroom cannot be gauged simply by visual evidence such as eye contact, body language, or participation. It can’t be seen as just some sort of visible evidence that can be objectively measured. While schools are slowly heading towards more student-centric education models, evidence still suggests that students are not recognizes as “partners” in the education system. In "Meaningful Student Engagement" Adam Fletcher writes, “Students do not inherently know how to be meaningfully involved in their schools.” (Fletcher) This reflects on the fact that students MUST be ENGAGED as teachers or co-constructors, not just expected to participate as such. |
Born out of this next statement by Adam Fletcher is the significance of “role reversal” (if such can be named in a co-constructive classroom) whereby the “student” takes on the teaching role and teachers the “teacher”. Fletcher writes, “Meaningful student involvement engages students as teachers as a way to strengthen students’ learning and teachers’ efficacy.” (Fletcher) Before moving forward, it must be made clear that Fletcher uses the term “involvement” synonymously with the term “engagement”. This idea is truly a co-constructivist model of education. The student is no longer asked to merely “participate” but instead is asked to “lead”. Taking this into account, I asked Frankie Rodriguez, a senior in my Social Science, class to teach me something.
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The evidence of engagement here is seen not only in the activity but in the results. Increases in, speaking in class, participation, positive body language, and seeking assistance before and after class for help, to name a few, were all results of this "student as teacher" event.
I may not have enough time to have all 93 of my students teach me something before or after school in the same way I did with Frankie, but I know that they all know things I don’t know. The key will be fleshing that out in class. |