Friday, November 5, 2010

What's the Big Idea?





In revisiting Dr. Unger's Big Ideas – on Ethical Decision Making for Education Leaders, I re-examined Big Idea #1: Ethical Decision Making happens at ALL levels of the system.  The diagram above is used to explain the ripple effect of decision-making throughout the educational system.

Understandably, the classroom is the centerpiece for ethical consideration.  But the diagram is incomplete.  Classroom is too broad of a term, and excludes the important players, teacher and student.  It is my idea that  ethical student-centered experiences are the crux and catalyst for all ethical decision-making leadership in education.

 


Once educational leaders, in the classroom and in the boardroom, understand how to tap into and cultivate uniqueness and direct free-thinking, they will have captured the ethical essence of the educational experience.  Student-centered themes can then be considered on a cross-dimensional, professional and global scale.  This theory will be discussed further in the post concerning my Design and Stance For Change.

However, first defining an ethical student-centered experience is key.  To explore the idea further I will refer to John Dewey's Experience and Education (1938).  A staunch believer in democratic values, Dewey perceived the classroom as a mirror of society, and education as means to further basic human rights.

"How many students, for example, were rendered callous to ideas and how many lost impetus to learn because of the way in which learning was experienced by them?” (Dewey, 1997, p. 37).  

Restricting choice in learning is restricting personal growth.  The classroom must reflect the needs of the learner, not the teacher, the administration, or global pressures.  Only when the student is center, learning is ethical.  For more information on ethics and John Dewey's Experience and Education review John Dewey's Experience and Education-Book Report/Power Point Presentation (Alberghini, Kreiter, & Lyons, 2010, slides 9-15).

Hansen and Stephens (2000), in their review of new millennium themes in teaching and learning, noted that the ethics in learner-centered education is evident in the fundamental relationship between learner and teacher.  "Teaching needs to rediscover its moral base; doing so will enable students and teachers alike to do their job of developing minds with courage and integrity." (p. 42).

Preparing the student for the test and the world are critical for individual success, and mandatory for moral standards.

White (2007) quantitatively studied the relationship between student-centered (he refers it as "person-centered") teaching and positive student outcomes in a variety of areas including, cognitive and behavioral affects.  Through thorough meta-analysis, he found many positive correlations between improvements in IQ scores, decreases in disruptive behaviors, and an increase in student self-esteem.  

Ethically, subjectively and objectively, students need the freedom to exchange ideas, collaborate, question, and discover information that is familiar and comfortable to them.  The teacher, in their mastery of knowledge and technique, must facilitate and, according to educational psychologist Lev Vygotsky, "scaffold" the learner, by providing non-intrusive intervention to encourage [them] to carry out the parts of the tasks that are within their capacity." (The Mozart of Psychology, May 2005).  

These student-centered ideas should be the focus of the educational process and decision-making.  Leaders need to recognize and/or revisit this critical idea in order for students to be justly escorted into successful endeavors.

Find and review all references in the Online Resources or Articles and Research pages of this blog.



































1 comment:

  1. Paul,
    I really enjoyed your blog! As you indicated John Dewey has contributed to the concept of student centered learning. In his book, The School and Society, he pointed out that, “If our education is to have any meaning for life, it must pass through an equally complete transformation.” Considering this statement was published in 1902, it is a powerful statement about the need for educational leadership to continuously self-assess as it attempts to serve students appropriately.

    He believed as we still do, in the introduction of active occupation, where education provides purpose and meaning to students, as opposed to “symbolic teaching. He also identified the need for change in the moral school atmosphere that included the relation of pupils to teachers as well as discipline. Most relevant to what Dewey identified, aligning with what you identified in your blog is that today’s schools need to emphasize active learning, student expression, and self-directed learning. Educational leaders today need to identify the relationship between school and the larger life of our global society in order to necessitate changes in the methods of educational practice that will enable students to adapt to ever changing social needs.
    Thank-you for inviting me to share your blog.
    Michele Sherwin

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