Restoring Meaning to Teaching
Thinking of Children as Learners
Karen Gallas, a first grade teacher, researcher, and author, watches children, collects their artwork, notes, and doodles, and records their conversations. She shares her insights as stories of children. She tells of a homeless child, an immigrant child, and a typical "bad boy." The vignette used in this section illustrates her view of a child as a learner.
"As we begin our weekly science talks, I am somewhat apprehensive about how the open-ended structure of the talks will work with Michael [the "bad boy"] as a participant. He still has great trouble censoring the words that come out of his mouth. The question under consideration for our first science talk is, How did animals begin? As the discussion begins, the children are extremely settled. Early on in the talk Michael gets up on his knees, and Anita [the aide] and I make eye contact. I know we are both wondering what that movement signals." (1994, p. 62)
A common tension for teachers is balancing the needs of the group with needs of the individual child. Gallas has chosen an instructional strategy that she believes is best for the group. She has some concern, however, about the reactions of Michael and so pays close attention to him.
"As I watch, it becomes clear that his erect posture mirrors an intellectual excitement that he can barely contain. Michael speaks frequently in the talk, maintaining an earnest and wide-eyed attitude. He shows an unusual interest in adopting parts of other children's thoughts, expanding them, and is effusive in his praise of others." (Gallas, 1994, p. 69)
Michael found the question interesting and was drawn into the learning situation as a learner. We generally think of the children in our classrooms as students. Schools create a picture of a "good student" based on exemplars of behavior, obedience, respect, and performance, but they do not tend to create a similar picture of a learner. We all remember a child who was a wonderful learner but not a very successful student. To know a child as a learner, we must talk with her, observe her, see what she understands, and examine how she understands. Focusing on learning involves finding out what your kids know, how they think, how they learn, what's important in their lives, and what experiences and stories they bring to school.
A second grade teacher learned to really listen to her students and draw out their ideas and understandings by using a problem- centered curriculum approach, small group collaboration, and large group discussions. She learned, for example, to "suspend her own adult knowledge about mathematics and to realize that children have their own way of thinking about mathematics" (Wood, Cobb, & Yackel, 1995, p. 417). She was amazed to find that her students' thinking was far more sophisticated than she had imagined. She said, "I never knew second graders knew so much about math" (p. 417). Gallas says that when we take the time to listen carefully to their stories, we gain insights into children's thinking and learning.
By looking carefully at the stories of bad boys, I have been able to change my response to their actions. My response has moved from a purely visceral, defensive reaction toward a child who threatens my ability to control a class, to one of examining what that child is telling me about his needs as a learner and his view of the world. (Gallas, 1994, p. 70)
As we search for the history and logic that underlie "problematic" behaviors by looking "for the story the learner would tell if he could," we learn a great deal about the child as a learner (Greenleaf, Hull, & Reilly, 1994, p. 526). How do his background, experiences, and knowledge come into play in the classroom? How do classroom activities look from his point-of-view? As we learn about and from our students by facilitating more open-ended classroom discussions, for example, we can make better decisions about what is important and meaningful for them to learn.
Next Page: Deciding What Your Students Need to Learn
