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206128506, EDU6168, Portfolio, 4,495 Words
206128506, EDU6168, Portfolio, 4,495 Words
206128506, EDU6168, Portfolio, 4,495 Words
1. Introduction
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2. Lesson Plan
Class characteristics Many different nationalities, all fluent English speakers, no additional
needs.
Lesson stage Teacher Learners
Introduce and define haiku poems. Listen attentively.
Talk about 5-7-5 syllable structure.
Make short notes.
1. Introduction Explain how they are like snapshots of
nature or everyday activities that go Follow instructions.
(15 minutes, T-Ss, T-S) unnoticed.
Count syllables.
Write 3 examples, read them aloud and
explain them. Propose answers.
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Introduction: Students may lose focus while haiku Stage 1: Ask two students to read one poem
are read out. each.
Activity: Students may not remember the parts of Stage 2: Give hints and examples.
speech.
Assessment
No formal assessment. Opportunity to assess students’ existing understanding of grammar.
References
Cambridge International Examinations (2016) Cambridge pre-14 curricula and the National
Curriculum for England [Online] Cambridge Assessment International Education [Viewed 28
November 2020] Available from: https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/images/254430-
overview-of-cambridge-pre-14-curricula-and-the-national-curriculum-for-england.pdf
Department for Education (2014) The national curriculum in England. [Online] GOV.UK. [Viewed
28 November 2020] Available from:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/
attachment_data/file/381344/Master_final_national_curriculum_28_Nov.pdf
1. Introduction
My pedagogical focus situates itself within learner-centred education and its related
theories and practices. LCE is being increasingly accepted as a way of achieving quality,
inclusive and relevant education (Schweisfurth 2019), and this is reflected in education policy
around the world (Bremner 2020). It is not simply a methodology but a complex theory
encompassing many different elements, including attitudes and values rooted in
theoretical/ethical understandings. For example, we can note in Schweisfurth’s (2019, pp. 4-
5) seven principles of LCE, elements that pertain to pedagogical technique (dialogic teaching,
engaging teaching methods, formative assessment) but also student wellbeing and attitudes
(inclusive learning environment, mutual respect between students and teachers), policy and
curriculum (appropriate language of instruction, curriculum that students can relate to and
apply later in life, that encourages creative and critical thinking), and theoretical
understandings (constructivist ideas such as building upon students’ prior knowledge).
Therefore, Bremner (2020) has organised the elements of LCE into 6 categories based on his
review of the literature, as follows:
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4. Relevant skills
5. Power sharing
6. Formative assessment
Within my context, this is reflected in the Cambridge learner and teacher attributes –
confident, responsible, reflective, innovative and engaged – which form the school ethos of
all Cambridge International Schools and are illustrated by a number of case studies in the
‘Developing Cambridge Learner Attributes’ guide (Cambridge Assessment International
Education 2020, p. 4). It describes the need for education to prepare children for today’s
world by producing creative, reflective and independent thinkers who are not merely able to
repeat knowledge, but to apply, critically assess and expand it. The cognitive, emancipation
and preparation narratives behind LCE identified by Schweisfurth (2013) are clearly visible
within it: the idea that children learn best from meaningful, engaging and connected teaching
methods; the concept that knowledge frees students by giving them the power to question
society and transform it; and the awareness that today’s knowledge economy requires a more
advanced set of skills, respectively.
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shall focus on this obstacle because my context, an international school with an LCE-oriented
curriculum, did not present the other challenges. As for material infrastructure, it is true the
school often faced power cuts and teachers don’t usually use projectors, interactive boards, or
other technology, so I made sure my activity did not require these.
Misconceptions around LCE could be one of the main reasons for its implementation
failures. One misunderstanding is that LCE is so literally learner-centred that teachers
become passive bystanders, letting students explore and decide what and how they want to
learn. This could lead to students feeling ‘abandoned’, left to do all the work while the
teacher makes no effort. It could also manifest as the teacher presenting games to entertain
the class, having students teach themselves, or assuming group work is simply allotting
students to teams. These issues have been explained in detail by Gordon (2009), who points
out the dangers of misapplying constructivist teaching, and illustrates the rewards of well-
applied practice with case-studies. He asserts that it is not about disempowering teachers or
obliterating their role in the learning process – rather, ‘a constructivist classroom is one in
which there is a balance between teacher‐ and student‐directed learning and requires teachers
to take an active role in the learning process, including formal teaching’ (Gordon 2009, p.
739). Teachers are indispensable guides and facilitators and indeed, activators of the learning
process (Hattie 2009, cited in Di Biase 2019, p. 569). In fact, as Vygotsky (whose ideas
influenced LCE), explains, there is only so much a child can learn alone – but with help from
more knowledgeable others, children can go beyond their capabilities. This takes place in the
well-known zone of proximal development (ZPD) (Hedges and Cullen 2011). A good
example of what really goes on in LCE is that of Forest Schools, which are known for
allowing children to play and discover their natural surroundings, and somehow learn though
this hands-on experience. In fact, pedagogues (what teachers are called in Forest Schools) are
carefully designing activities, teaching children about the flora and fauna, and transmitting
new skills – in short, doing much more than meets the eye (O’Brien and Murray 2007).
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centred methods. This is something Schweisfurth (2019, p. 2) addresses in her UNICEF think
piece:
Part of the problem with LCE is that it is often polarised against teacher-centred or
rote learning. In reality, many good teachers draw on a range of methods in their
pedagogical practice, which are suited to the cultural and resource contexts in which
they work.
Besides, the idea of a balanced approach that integrates both learner and teacher-centred
methods is another option that could reassure teachers and contexts new to LCE. Di Biase
(2019) summarises the various theorists in support of such a distributed model and
demonstrates its effectiveness in the Maldives through the ‘Gradual Release of
Responsibilities’ (GROR) model, where it was still in place two years later and had been
adopted across the atoll, according to the principal of the school (Di Biase 2019, p. 577). I
had not, unfortunately, seen her work before attempting my lesson activity, but realised that
the model reflected what I was unconsciously trying to achieve. The GROR model (Fisher
and Frey 2008, cited in Di Biase 2019, p. 571), is in essence a three-phase design that can be
summarised through the phrase: ‘I do, we do, you do’. ‘I do’ indicates the teacher-centred
phase, with tasks such as designing the lesson and giving clear instructions and guidance.
‘We do’ is the collaboration of students and teacher, where students are working but take help
from the teacher. This then allows the ‘I do’ phase to take place, where students create work
unaided. This model takes into account different shapes and stages of learning – the first
being taking information, the second applying it while making and correcting mistakes, and
the third being able to synthesise and present what has been learned with confidence. I see it a
logical way of gaining knowledge and skills, one that children naturally apply in play – they
attentively read or listen to the rules of a game, then participate in it, and are finally able to
explain the game to someone else. Similarly, the first part of my lesson consisted of giving
information, examples and background for the activity, and the second was a demonstration,
in which the students participated and were able to experience the processes behind creating a
haiku. I then wanted to encourage students to create their own haiku, but did not have
sufficient time, nor the classroom teacher’s permission to give ‘homework’. Interestingly,
two students spontaneously composed their haiku in the last few minutes of the lesson,
without asking me. Thus, such distributed models can be useful to transitioning and/or
inexperienced teachers such as myself, for whom LCE in its pure form seems inaccessible.
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Further, Vygotsky (1986) was clear that ‘... direct teaching of concepts is impossible
and fruitless’ (p. 150). Instead, Vygotsky supported that learning should be authentic;
that is, it should be relevant to the daily life and practices of children in communities
or cultures.
A good illustration of this is a multi-modal literacy project that took place in the Hymba
Yumba Community Hub, an Independent Indigenous school in Australia, which was themed
around Indigenous culture, values and stories. Year 6/7 students retold an Indigenous story,
using their own artwork as illustrations, and using iPads to record their narration and
photograph the scenes depicted. The year 4/5 students wrote and recorded poems about the
first contact between Indigenous peoples and white colonial invaders, which they brought to
life through self-illustrated ‘gamis’ (short, animated videos). Interviews with the students
indicated the experience to be personally meaningful to them: ‘This story is important to me
because it is part of my culture’ ~ Joshua, 12 years old (Mills et al. 2015). The authors noted
that students ‘demonstrated an awareness, appreciation and deep respect and pride in their
culture and heritage’ (p.18). This shows that there need not be a contradiction between
cultural context and LCE.
Furthermore, LCE methods can in fact echo traditional Indigenous modes of teaching,
such as teaching through hands-on experience, storytelling, and engaging with nature (just
like Forest Schools). In fact, Indigenous education can be profoundly learner-centred, as
Robbie Mathew (1999, para. 9), an Eeyou Elder in a Canadian Bush school says: ‘the Eeyou
believe that even children have something to teach or share with elders. In many instances, I
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become the student and they the teachers.’ Abah, Mashebel and Denuga (2015) also explain
the common ground between African Indigenous knowledge systems and Western
approaches, which, they argue, can be appropriately integrated with each other to ‘strengthen
the quality of educational experiences for Indigenous students’ (section 3, para 2). These
Western approaches are LCE principles, for which they provide a concise, nuanced and
developed overview (section 3, para. 3). Furthermore, many of the views and methods of
Indigenous knowledge systems they specify are in keeping with LCE (table 1): critical
thinking, a holistic view of knowledge, learning from experience, learning that is practical
(for use in daily life). In my context, India, Wolfenden (2019) identifies a tradition of child-
centredness beginning 2,500 years ago with Charaka, a Hindu scholar who advocated play-
based learning. This is also supported by Smail (2013), who identifies Gandhi, Aurobindo
and Vivekananda as key-thinkers influencing this school of thought in India (p. 615). Most
significantly, Brinkmann (2018, p. 25) concludes after her research on teacher beliefs in
India, that:
The paper has argued that LCE as an ideal and its underlying beliefs are not
necessarily a Western imposition on Indian education. Its ideals can be found
historically among several Indian social reformers and philosophers, and more
importantly in the Constitutional values adopted by India as a nation. However, the
dominant ideology that shapes many Indian teachers’ beliefs is in opposition to the
beliefs underlying LCE. Part of the reason for the limited success of LCE reforms in
India and possibly other countries may be their failure to engage with teachers’
existing beliefs.
The point of these examples is not primarily to argue that learner-centredness existed
in Indigenous contexts before colonialism and globalisation, but that it can serve the interests
and purposes of Indigenous children, and children in any cultural context, if it is applied with
creativity and sensitivity. The principles of LCE allow an application flexible enough for
teachers to use the cultural and material resources at their disposal to provide learning that is
profoundly rooted in the realities of children’s contexts (Schweisfurth 2019). This, of course
requires a great deal of autonomy and creative application on the teacher’s part (and the
freedom to do so), for they cannot rely on ready-made activities – they must invent their own
unique adaptations that are specifically designed for their context. Once they are exposed to
the possibilities of LCE, either by witnessing it in their own or other’s practice, they gain the
will to adopt it, and from then on can gradually transform their practice. This is confirmed by
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Brinkman (2018), who explains that for LCE to be successfully applied in the Global South,
teachers must internalise the core principles and values of LCE, instead of being fed
formulaic ‘pre-packaged materials’ to mindlessly replicate (p. 22). Rather, she argues:
Instead of imposing a fixed, ‘Western’ model of what LCE is supposed to look like in
practice – which will fail to take root if not supported by teachers’ underlying beliefs
– it may be more fruitful to focus on engaging with teachers’ existing beliefs and
promoting culturally relevant learning-centred beliefs. This could enable teachers
themselves to decide what learning-centred practices work best within their contexts
that align with learning-centred beliefs. (p. 25)
For such a paradigm shift to take place, she says they must ‘experience such beliefs
themselves’ (italics in original) and ‘yet, even a workshop on teaching primary mathematics
can begin to shift beliefs if teachers experience something radically different from what they
experience in society.’ (p. 25) Indeed, the shift to LCE can be successful, even in different
cultural contexts, if the change is gradual and begins with small, visible, practical
implementations, so as to engender transformation in teachers’ beliefs and pre-conceived
notions. This was seen for example in India, with the TESS-India OER (open educational
resources) project (Wolfenden 2019), in Sub-Saharan Africa and Kenya with the TESSA
OER programme (Stutchbury, Dickie and Wambugu 2019), and in the Maldives, with the
GROR model mentioned earlier (Di Biase 2019).
3. Conclusion
In conclusion, learner-centred pedagogy is more than just technique – it is a worldview, a set
of values, a way of thinking. This makes it more challenging to apply in the classroom than
simply transplanting a teaching method, such as group-work, into a new context. It possesses
both external and internal components, which must both be present for long-term
transformation of teaching practice to take place. Thus, for teachers to make the transition, it
is useful to use a hybrid of both teacher-centred and learner-centred methods, as confidence
gradually builds and teachers begin to understand the underlying principles of LCE and
imagine new ways of applying them within their local contexts.
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4. Reflective Conclusion
As I began to reflect on my teaching activity, I realised how limited my understanding
of LCE was, and how the activity was only a weak attempt at it. Brinkmann’s (2018) article
made me ask myself what beliefs I was bringing to the classroom. Gordon (2009) made me
question, ‘Am I just presenting a game to entertain the students? Or am I really fostering in-
depth learning?’
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presentation of haiku
consisted mainly of
examples followed by
comprehension
questions such as
‘What colour was the
grass?’.
Such an analysis helped me to understand what I would change next time: to make
this a more effective, meaningful learner-centred activity, I could for example, ask students to
illustrate and make haiku poems about endangered animals, which they could then present in
an art exhibition open to the public.
5. Blog
Sociodramatic play – A dramatic improvement for teaching?
Image 1
What are your happiest childhood memories? Learning to ride a bicycle, going to the
beach, playing in the park? Did they take place in the context of play?
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Although my memory is blurry and blotchy, there are some moments that stand out as
intensely epic. Times when I thought to myself ‘Gosh, I’m having so much fun, I really don’t
want this to end.’
Interestingly, these magical moments were all linked to imaginary role-play scenarios
and narratives. It wasn’t sports, board-games, puzzles, drawing, cooking, or reading.
Although I did enjoy these things, I never felt more alive than when I was enacting a complex
character in a fantasy world.
- Aged 7, outdoors, just my dad and I. Inspired from a story we had read, we
were spearing rotting banana trees (monsters) with sticks. I recall especially enjoying the
seriousness with which my father took his role, saying things like, ‘Oh, look, there’s another
monster! Watch out!’
- Aged 9-12, on the phone, with my best friend of the same age. We invented
new names for ourselves, wrote elaborate character descriptions, and then spoke on the phone
in these impersonations. We also began inventing a language and fantasy world, supported by
drawings of maps, illustrations, emails, and a joint ‘book’ we began writing. The stories were
somewhat original, but they drew heavily from books and comics we had read.
The reason I give these details is not to bore you to death – but to show that this was a
long-term theme that not only formed my best memories, but ultimately had direct, visible
benefits for my writing skills, collaboration skills, and creative thinking. While quite simple
at first, our narratives grew in originality – and this was thanks to the other participants, who
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enriched and scaffolded the learning process. Forged in meaningful interactions, our writing
was not a chore like homework – it was fun with hidden benefits. It was learning that would
not go away – learning that truly made us into capable adults.
I was fascinated, naturally, when I read Vygotsky praise this kind of learning and
even coin a term for it: ‘sociodramatic play’. This sparked in me the idea that as teachers, we
can make learning more emotionally engaging in the early years through imaginative
scenarios, and in later years, through meaningful community-service-inspired projects. Thus,
instead of teaching skills such as collaboration or ICT-literacy in an isolated manner, students
automatically use all these ‘without thinking’, in projects that mean a lot to them. Some
brilliant examples of how this can work are visible in this study by Portier, Friedrich and
Peterson (early years) and in this school project in Sri Lanka (p. 88). So, are we ready to get
our swords and capes out?
6. References
Abah, J. Mashebel, P., and Denugal, D. D., (2015) Prospect of Integrating African Indigenous
Knowledge Systems into the Teaching of Sciences in Africa. American Journal of
Educational Research [online]. 3 (6), 668-673. [Viewed 28 November 2020] Available from:
doi: 10.12691/education-3-6-1
Brinkmann, S., (2018). Teachers’ beliefs and educational reform in India: from ‘learner-
centred’ to ‘learning-centred’ education. Comparative Education [online] 55 (1), 9-29.
[Viewed 28 November 2020] Available from: doi: 10.1080/03050068.2018.1541661
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Gordon, M., (2009) The misuses and effective uses of constructivist teaching. Teachers and
Teaching [online]. 15 (6), 737-746. [Viewed 28 November 2020] Available from: doi:
10.1080/13540600903357058
Hedges, H., and Cullen, J., (2011) Participatory learning theories: a framework for early
childhood pedagogy. Early Child Development and Care [online]. 182 (7), 921-940. [Viewed
28 November 2020] Available from: doi: 10.1080/03004430.2011.597504
Image 1 [no date] Children playing make-believe [digital image]. [Viewed 28 November
2020]. Available from: https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/kids/half-term-top-13/
Matthew, R., (1999) Educating Today's Youth in Indigenous Ecological Knowledge: New
Paths for Traditional Ways [online]. Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International
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http://www.unescoapceiu.org/bbs/files/doc/2002/esd/TLSF/theme_c/mod11/
uncom11t05s01.htm
Mendenhall M., Dryden-Peterson, S., Bartlett, L., Ndirangu, C., Imonje, R., Gakunga, D.,
Gichuhi, L., Nyagah, G., Okoth, U., & Tangelder, M. (2015) Quality Education for Refugees
in Kenya: Pedagogy in Urban Nairobi and Kakuma Refugee Camp Settings. Journal on
Education in Emergencies [online]. 1 (1), p.92 [Viewed 28 November 2020] Available from:
doi:10.17609/N8D08K
Mills, K. A., Davis-Warra, J., Sewell, M., & Anderson, M. (2015) Indigenous ways with
literacies: transgenerational, multimodal, placed, and collective. Language and education
[online]. 30 (1), 1-21 [Viewed 28 November 2020] Available from: doi:
10.1080/09500782.2015.1069836
O’Brien, L., Murray, R. (2007) Forest School and its impacts on young children: Case studies
in Britain. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening [online]. 6 (4), 249-265. [Viewed 28
November 2020] Available from: doi: 10.1016/j.ufug.2007.03.006
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Smail, A., (2013). Rediscovering the teacher within Indian child-centred pedagogy:
implications for the global Child-Centred Approach. Compare: A Journal of Comparative
and International Education [online]. 44 (4), 613-633 [Viewed 28 November 2020]
Available from: doi: 10.1080/03057925.2013.817225
Stutchbury, K., Dickie, J., and Wambugu, P., (2019) Teacher education in Sub-Saharan
Africa and in one school in Kenya Macro challenges and micro changes. In: Safford, K., and
Chamberlain, L. (eds.) Learning and Teaching around the World - Comparative and
International Studies in Primary Education, Abingdon, Routledge/The Open University. pp.
163-171.
Tabulawa, R., (2010) International Aid Agencies, Learner-centred Pedagogy and Political
Democratisation: A critique. Comparative Education [online]. 39 (1) 7-26 [Viewed 28
November 2020] Available from: doi: 10.1080/03050060302559
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