Working Toward Student Self-Direction and Personal Efficacy as Educational Goals - 2 views
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Gaby Richard-Harrington on 23 Mar 11I think that this is worth listening to. It gives a really different reason for conferences.
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she observes student-led parent/student conferences.
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In traditional classrooms the teacher is seen as the information giver; knowledge flows only one way from teacher to student. In contrast, the methods used in a collaborative classroom emphasize shared knowledge and decision making.
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Teachers may have a great deal of difficulty learning how to share control of instruction with students.
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helping students make their own decisions will conflict with some teachers' learned experiences as well as their feelings about being in charge.
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Similarly, students who are used to relying on teachers to give them so much structure, direction and information will have to learn to start asking themselves
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Some psychologists point out that fostering self-determination and personal efficacy can conflict with our goals for collaborative work (Sigel) unless we find ways to mold both goals into our instructional programs
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self-direction can refer not only to the individual but to a group, a class of students, that decides upon goals, designs strategies and collaboratively evaluates progress on a group basis. As Vygotsky (1978) notes,
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learning to think occurs within a social context; group speech gradually becomes internalized as personal self-talk about confronting life's difficult, complex situations.
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Some critics (Apple, 1979) suggest that schools help students reproduce knowledge of a dominant social, economic class, and not engage in producing for their own knowledge.
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Further, many parents are concerned that a reorientation toward student self-direction and personal efficacy will diminish the influence of home and school and inadequately prepare students for the work force.