- How does learning occur at All Saints’?
- What is important to you?
- How is that reflected in what you see?
- What if learning took place differently at All Saints’?
These were questions posed to a cohort of our 9th graders before they studied and reflected upon their learning environment. The questions were posed by Grant Lichtman. Grant was on campus last week as a visiting scholar for the Tad Bird Honors College. Over the past year, Grant spent time traveling across the country visiting with schools to learn about what is working and also to identify the growth edges. His researched has been compiled in a book which will be published in the coming months. Leaders in education are looking forward to reading about his findings and asking whether or not they have applicability to our own school communities.
After the students spent time reflecting on the above questions, they then developed “What if…” questions to help identify where there could be potential for further development. Here were some of the questions developed by our students as a result of this exercise.
- What if the role of teachers was different?
- What if the student spoke more in class than the teacher? What if students led the discussions?
- What if we used the computers and the internet more in classes?
- What if we could learn with other schools–work with other schools and other students that look at things differently?
- What if we weren’t afraid to make mistakes?
In the coming weeks, I plan to share some of the video from this exercise with our faculty. Watching the students wrestle with these questions has prompted me to reflect upon my own teaching practice and that of our school. I think it is important that we also include student voices in the discussion.
To learn more about Grant’s work (and to see his reflections from his visit to All Saints’), please take a moment and read his blog: