Student Engagement
I was reminded of the following by something JJ wrote about student engagement.
It's worth remembering that most of our students, usually, are still in their first year of college. Many of them are First Generation students. They have little or no experience (first- or second-hand) of university life. They do have 12+ years of "schooling"-- with, that is, education being done to them. It is compulsory, and mostly boring and pointless.
Perhaps unfortunately, part of our task in teaching first-year students is simply acculturating them to university life, intellectual life and the habits and expectations that come with it. One way to do this, and (I think) to engage them in that process, is to make Education itself the subject of critical inquiry. There are a lot of ways to do this, in small scale activities and discussions, as the basis of one or more specific writing projects, or even as the larger theme of a course.
One of the videos I've often used as the basis for a class discussion is this one. It's a little old, at this point, but, it seems to me, still very relevant.
As the basis of Writing Project about Education, I supplement the videos with a variety of readings (sometimes included Freire's Banking Concept). I can be really interesting to give students readings about, say, the jobless rate for college grads, or student loan debt, and ask them to think about those things. Sometimes, this can provoke them into thinking critically about their own motivation and engagement. Of course, I also want them to think critically about institutional structures and systemic oppression, but my opening into that is one that they can all relate to, to one degree or another, since they've all experienced the U.S. educational system in some way (though some of them will have experienced the privileged side of that, at a university like ours, those students are relatively few, and most of those will have either been exempted from FYW or gone straight into the Honors equivalent, ENG 114).
It's worth remembering that most of our students, usually, are still in their first year of college. Many of them are First Generation students. They have little or no experience (first- or second-hand) of university life. They do have 12+ years of "schooling"-- with, that is, education being done to them. It is compulsory, and mostly boring and pointless.
Perhaps unfortunately, part of our task in teaching first-year students is simply acculturating them to university life, intellectual life and the habits and expectations that come with it. One way to do this, and (I think) to engage them in that process, is to make Education itself the subject of critical inquiry. There are a lot of ways to do this, in small scale activities and discussions, as the basis of one or more specific writing projects, or even as the larger theme of a course.
One of the videos I've often used as the basis for a class discussion is this one. It's a little old, at this point, but, it seems to me, still very relevant.
Sometimes I show this at the end of one class period (to give them time to think about it), and then again at the beginning of the next class before discussing. Another fave is this one from Sir Ken Robinson:
Hello Mike,
ReplyDeleteThese two videos are really good resources for our students to think critically. These type of videos/ topics stimulate them to think about these concepts and somehow create some space for them and get them engaged in the discussion. This time is a great transition for them from High School to University. Providing them relevant topics to talk about is a great way to encourage them to take part in discussion. And you are right, they can easily relate to these concepts to their own life experiences. I would like to buy this idea for my next year teaching.
Thank you!
Thank you for this post. It really sums up a lot of ideas that I would like to incorporate into discussions in my own classrooms (whether in-person or digital).
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that a lot of students consider learning to be boring––something that I neither agree with or want to support. I don’t want my students to leave my class thinking that it was a boring waste of time, or that education itself is only a means to an end (as in, a job and some money, but only theoretically). In many ways (and I see it in many of my students now), the only reason young adults are getting educated is because they are pressured by their parents to do so or because it is what society tells them is the right thing to do. (Which can cause a lack of motivation in their classes.)
In many ways, I would like to talk about education: Why it exists, why we feel like we need it (or don’t), and even the possibility that some people shouldn’t even be getting a college degree in the first place. Of course, I wouldn’t want them to believe this is because I think they are dumb. Everyone is smart in their own way even though as a society we value college education above the rest. The other issue in all this is that it seems almost counter-intuitive or defeatist to talk about the failings of the education system, to bring up the possibility that there are other options. It’s almost this weird circle: We would be there, talking in the classroom of a higher education institution, talking about how it’s ineffective––that it may not actually leave them with anything other than a large debt and a stopover from the struggle they are going to have to endure to actually find a job (let alone one they can be happy in).
I really loved the two videos you shared and think that I will show them at some point in my classes. It didn’t surprise me at all that the first video was created by an introductory anthropology course. In my own intro to anthropology class as an undergrad, our professor talked a good bit about education and how systematic oppression and power/privilege are bound up within that. She often talked about how sometimes the most important part of education was not necessarily the education itself, but about using this system to gain access to power. In the society we live in, if you are not “educated,” then those who are in power will always have an automatic way to oppress you (not to say that there aren’t other ways). However, she would always emphasize that some people cannot become educated, not because they aren’t capable or already smart, but because they are systematically shut out of the educational system itself (on multiple levels and in multiple ways). Ball State dropping the SAT requirement for admission is perhaps part of a way to combat this, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other parts of the system that are forcing people out. I could go on…
To switch gears ever so slightly: I firmly believe that education is about acculturation (and that doesn’t always mean a good thing). However, I had not considered the impact we as first year composition instructors have in acculturating our students to UNIVERSITY LIFE/CULTURE. In a lot of ways I think it’s our job to show them what they should expect for the next four years of their life. In some ways I think it’s even permissible to tell them that they can opt-out of this culture if they find it doesn’t suit them. However, what I think would be more useful is to ask them: “If you don’t like this culture, then how can we change it and what could be the potential impacts of that? What are your alternatives to being acculturated into (perhaps I could say) the expectations of a United States adult? Maybe it’s really THAT culture you take issue with? How, even, might you be treated by those in power if you decide not to get this ‘official education’? How are privilege and power and oppression all bound up with this?”