Student engagement

In August 1998 I got a phone call from the principal saying, "We would like for you to come." I didn't have a clue where the school was, or who he was. So I said, "O.K. sure." He said, " Why don't you check our Web site and you'll see we do things a little bit differently." So I said, "O.K.," and I checked it and I said that I had to be there, because everything there inspired compassion and commitment to learning. And it was all that I wanted; as a teacher, I saw that it could offer me what I needed, so I took that position. My teaching changed quite significantly that year, because when I first began I had a teaching partner-when I say partner, she was just teaching another Grade 1 class-she was new to the school too and very, very traditional. She would leave relatively early and had a second job elsewhere. So, I didn't want to rock the boat too much, brand new, not really knowing--knowing what I sort of believed in the way kids my philosophy of children and learning and teaching. And I changed drastically. I went, "Why am I doing the calendar? And why am I doing the weather?" After looking at the curriculum and having conversations with other teachers and faculty from the nearby university, I became part of the professional development committee we had at the school-and taking a lot of this in and really questioning why am I doing what I'm doing.

So after Christmas and a lot of conversations with these people, I put out a proposal for release time to do some research on transformational leadership with Grade 1 students. So I had three hours a week that I could work on that. And that time was spent in conversation with three other teachers. As well, I began to do more student centered, more project-based work. So my kids did an investigation into the Middle Ages. And it was wonderful. They decided they wanted It all stemmed from the book "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table." And they decided they wanted to build a castle and so I said I'll get a cardboard box and the next thing we know our whole classroom was created into a three-dimensional castle with the working draw bridge and the round table. So our whole mathematics was done through that. Through the building of the castle. The kids did their research using the Internet, using books, using older students to help scribe some, to do a little bit of keyboarding for them. But for the most part, it was very much their work. And at the end of the year, they did an exhibition of their learning, and they created the script too. It was like a newsroom and they interviewed people as the Middle Age news. So someone would interview the falcon or who had to create something, so they actually created the falcon. Plus they all did a report written in Word. That was Grade 1, I took the same kids to Grade 2 and then got 11 more. So I had about 30 kids in Grade 2. And I brought with me just to show you quickly and when I was looking I was thinking what could I bring to show you, but I continue working in this frame where even more so the work they did was their work, it was very important that it was their work. In Grade 2 we did an investigation into Mars, heavily involved by robotics. For the celebration of learning after the end of term, I had them stand up in front of all their parents and the community to celebrate what they'd been learning. So for example, they wouldn't just say, "This is what we know" We had the students do a Power Point presentation. We decided as a class what was important that parents needed to know, community needed to know about their work. They had tremendous pride in the work they did and were able to hold sustained conversations around this stuff. For seven-year olds, it was I didn't really it was when people would come in and observe and be a part of it, other educators from other places. I had a lot of people in my room last year.

Authentic learning

La vignette suivante présente une expérience de coconstruction de connaissances vécue par des élèves de 14-15 ans d'une école de la région de Québec. Il s'agit plus particulièrement d'une classe branchée en réseau dans laquelle l'approche par projets est bien ancrée au quotidien de l'enseignante et des apprenants. Dans le cadre de ce projet, le Knowledge Forum® a été utilisé comme outil pour supporter le processus d'échafaudage d'un savoir collectif.

Lorsque l'enseignante a amorcé la planification de ce projet sur l'exploitation forestière au Québec et au Canada, un de ses soucis a été de soumettre à ses élèves une activité ancrée à un problème du monde réel. Divisés en six groupes (représentants de l'état, industriels, ingénieurs, environnementalistes, amérindiens et pleinairistes) qui représentent les utilisateurs et les défenseurs de la forêt, les élèves disposaient d'une quinzaine de jours pour se préparer à un débat au cours duquel ils devaient faire valoir leur position quant à la préservation de la forêt. Il va sans dire que les nombreux enjeux qui sont à la base de cette problématique en faisaient une situation complexe.

Les six groupes en présence devaient, dans un premier temps, cerner la position qu'ils avaient à défendre quant à la préversation de la forêt afin d'être cohérents avec les aspirations qui sont associées à ces groupes dans la réalité.

Qui est notre groupe?
Que désire-t-il?
Qu'est-ce qui le motive à accomplir cela?
Que met-il en oeuvre pour parvenir à ce but?

Voilà quelques exemples de questions que l'on retrouvait en filigrane des notes qui ont été écrites sur le Knowledge Forum® lors de cette étape. Pour y répondre, les élèves se sont servis de ce qu'ils connaissaient à propos du groupe qu'ils représentaient et ils ont fait appel à des sources externes pour enrichir leur travail. Par exemple, des sites Internet ont été consultés et des experts ont été contactés par courriel. Certains élèves en ont discuté avec leurs parents, comme en témoigne l'extrait suivant :

" [Exprimer une opinion] Pour enrichir mes connaissances, j'ai discuté de la profession d'ingénieur avec ma parenté, plus précisément, mon père. Notre discussion s'est terminée sur la note suivante : l'ingénieur forestier est la personne la plus apte à intégrer les besoins et les contraintes rattachées à la conservation et à l'utilisation des forêts. "

Cet exemple démontre comment la démarche de résolution de problème dans laquelle ont plongé les élèves pouvait faire appel aux connaissances de leurs collègues et à d'autres ressources pouvant les aider à élaborer leur propre représentation du groupe auquel ils appartenaient. Il va sans dire que cette façon de procéder marque une nette différence d'avec les méthodes plus conventionnelles de transmission du savoir où l'élève doit répéter ce qui lui a été enseigné.

Dans un second temps, chaque groupe devait élaborer des arguments expliquant les causes et les conséquences de l'exploitation de la forêt en ne perdant jamais de vue les intérêts qu'il défendait. Ici aussi, l'aspect collaboratif de la tâche a favorisé le développement d'un savoir plus complet et mieux réfléchi. L'argument apporté par un était complété, enrichi, remis en question par un autre, ce qui a amené les élèves à porter un regard plus en profondeur sur la position du groupe qu'ils incarnaient.

Par la suite, toutes les équipes étaient invitées à confronter quelques-uns de leurs arguments à l'intérieur d'une perspective commune afin de les soumettre à la critique. Il s'agissait en quelque sorte d'un pré-débat permettant aux équipes d'ajuster leur tir en vue du débat final. Cette mise en commun sur le Knowledge Forum® a aussi permis aux équipes de prendre conscience que le point de vue défendu par les autres équipes était tout aussi justifiable que le leur.

Tout au long du travail de construction sur le Knowledge Forum®, on a pu constater la diversité des contributions des élèves dans les notes qu'ils ont soumises. Une vingtaine de comportements sociocognitifs ont été recensés, à savoir : questionner, manifester un désaccord, expliquer, compléter l'idée d'un collègue, nuancer, douter, formuler une hypothèse, argumenter, proposer une idée, exprimer une opinion, etc. Ces comportements dénotent non seulement le contexte de résolution de problème auquel ont participé les apprenants, mais leur rôle beaucoup plus actif, car la majorité de ces comportements sont habituellement ceux de l'enseignant plutôt que ceux de l'élève.

Quant à l'implication de l'enseignante, celle-ci a été bien différente du rôle de pourvoyeur d'informations que l'on connaît habituellement dans une classe du secondaire où l'enseignement magistral prédomine. Elle s'est davantage préoccupé de la dimension métacognitive qui chapeautait cette activité, c'est-à-dire qu'elle a permis aux élèves de prendre du recul par rapport à leurs contributions afin de les amener à développer une capacité autocritique. Elle les a aussi questionnés de sorte à pousser plus loin leur réflexion par rapport aux arguments qu'ils ont développés. Bien entendu, à l'occasion, elle a apporté certaines explications à propos de concepts que semblaient mal saisir les élèves. Enfin, il ne faudrait pas négliger ses apports socioaffectifs qui ont permis aux élèves d'être encouragés et motivés tout au long de leur travail.

Le projet s'est terminé par la tenue du débat dans une salle spécialement aménagée à cette fin. Pour donner un cachet encore plus authentique à l'activité, l'enseignant avait contacté des spécialistes de l'exploitation forestière afin qu'ils soient présents pour compléter et nuancer, au besoin, les commentaires des élèves. L'expérience a tellement plu aux apprenants qu'ils ont demandé à leur enseignante de prolonger le débat lors du cours suivant.

Release of agency

Consider the following interaction between a student and a teacher in one of the classrooms that we have been observing. To set the stage, the students were working in groups at the computers on projects in science and social science. The teacher was moving from group to group, assessing progress and offering suggestions on what resources to access. One of the students was working on a project on the physical geography of Europe and the teacher suggested that he prepare a map showing the major mountain ranges. Their interaction unfolded as follows:

Student: Where can I get a picture of that?
Teacher: Well, start with your atlas, and we d-, we do have an atlas on- on disk but um, it may not show what you want it to show.
Student: C- can we add the mountains, like put the mountains like (on it?).
Teacher: There's a good idea. I bet there's a way to do that.
Student: Does anybody know here in class?
Teacher: Well why don't you start working on the problem, and if I find anyone who can help you with it I'll send them to you. OK?

There are a number of interesting aspects of this interaction from an activity systems perspective. First, both the student and teacher are aware of the productive potential of the technology for realizing the presentation of the mountain ranges. Second, and more importantly, the student takes the initiative for most of the interaction and this is facilitated by the teacher, indicating an acknowledged sharing and division of responsibility for academic work. Third, both teacher and student acknowledge that the expertise for realizing the presentation is probably spread across the classroom, which indicates the communication norm of the classroom that both knowledge and lack of knowledge will be expressed and shared.

These types of academic activities, which involved a more active and independent role for students, marked the beginning of a major transition in teachers' perspectives on teaching and learning, one that we labeled with the phrase, 'release of agency'. With respect to teaching, release of agency is the psychological decision that accompanies (indeed, allows) a teacher to make the well-documented change in roles from a didactic instructor to a coach who facilitates student academic inquiry (Means & Olson, 1994; see also references in Grégoire et al, 1996, Observation 11). An important consequence of this decision is that the teacher relinquishes the role of sole expert in all (or many) matters in the classroom. As one of our teachers put it:

I find that they're learning from each other a little more than I used to think. I used to think it all came from the teacher. I'd stand up there at the front and entertain them. That's fading out a bit.

The concern with control over student computer activities important for teachers because it is a manifestation of a larger issue--namely, making sure that the instructional activities of the classroom cover the curriculum that is prescribed for the grade level. In traditional pedagogy, the teacher deals with this issue by taking on control of the presentation and scheduling of curriculum content, as seen in the use of didactic teaching and of seatwork exercises. Of course, the fact that the curriculum is presented by the teacher does not mean that it is taken up by the students. There are always differences between the curriculum as intended, the curriculum as enacted, and the curriculum as experienced (for a review, see Doyle, 1992); and in classrooms such as these where students have access to significantly enhanced means of production these differences become highly salient.

Collaborative knowledge building

This vignette took place at a secondary school serving a mostly immigrant population in greater Toronto. The teacher, Sue Wilkins, is an experienced teacher of English literature. From the beginning, Wilkins was interested in bringing students' voices into the experience of literature. She felt that her students did not relate to the canonical curriculum and/or did not fit with their pre-existing knowledge. Wilkins wanted to engage her students in reading and exploring a range of works written by authors coming from a variety of cultures and backgrounds. She believed that in depth exploration would meet the curricular requirements. As she stated in a Knowledge Forum® note in a database with other teachers:

As far as the rigid curriculum, I think that the teachers are making the curriculum seem rigid and not the documents. For example in English, many many of the expectations of the curriculum are met just by engaging with the projects. I used an interactive website from the net and then asked them questions and had them respond in Knowledge Forum®. This is the new curriculum. Technology and using it to think should be more of a focus in the new curriculum.

We as teachers must break down our own barriers to technology. I really don't think it is the students who need much work with the models of learning, it's the teachers. So how do we do this? I think, that's the interesting part.

The Independent Studies Unit (ISU) is a required piece of the curriculum in which a student writes his/herISU aboutone book or author and the teacher evaluates daily logs of work and final the reportWilkins commented that it is often the teacher who brings in books from which students select. The student ISU becomes the teacher's ISU. Wilkins wanted the ISU to become a student knowledge building exercise.

Wilkins introduced the idea and experience of knowledge building by posing the question of "Why do you think we should study multicultural literature in high school?" Wilkins also mentioned "Oprah's Book Club" as an example of how knowledge building could be used for the ISU. Wilkins and her students brought the two ideas together: Why study multiculturalism and how discussion groups might work . Class discussions allowed students to discuss and self select into five different discussion groups: African American Writers, Magic Realism, Monsters, Oprah's Book Club, and Potpourri of Novels. Students were asked to bring in novels for a next class and they did. In a knowledge building classroom then students integrate their individual interests by selecting their own books to investigate and work collaboratively with other students to understand the perspective of the genre. A more specific look at one group, Magic Realism, will show collaborative and individual knowledge building.

Wilkins initial question to students in the database in their Magic Realism View was straightforward "What you are thinking as you read through these stories. How do they connect? Is this genre specific to South America?" The five students in this group began with descriptions of the books they were reading such as the following note written by Ashley:

Like Water for Chocolate has a style of writing that is quite new to me. The book started with a sentence that really shook me. "To the table or to bed, You must come when you are bid." As I read on it became apparent that the story pretty much revolves around it. In this story, the power of traditions and culture is clearly displayed. Tita, the youngest daughter is suppressed by her mother as well as by Pedro, the man she loves. The thing that interested me the most was how the story is built around a cookbook. In an environment where she could not express herself in any other way, Tita poured her heart and soul into her cooking, creating fascinating meals that had magical effects on others.

Ashley's summary gave rise to 27 responses from other students. Many of these were questions that raised the depth of analysis from the content of the book to ideas about religion, magic realism, and explanations about causality.

o I need to understand is this book about sex and food or sensuality? Does it take a symbolic stance on religion, perhaps the seven deadly sins?

As well as analyzing these broader issues stimulated by Ashley's notes about her book, students began to question and to do research on the history and causes of magic realism.

o Magic realism is chiefly a Latin American narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction. Although this strategy is known in the literature of many cultures in many ages, the term magic realism is a relatively recent designation, first applied in the 1940s by Cuban novelist Aljero Carpentier, who recognized this characteristic in much Latin American literature. Some Scholars have posited that magic realism in a natural outcome of postcolonial writing, which must make sense of at least two separate realities-- the reality of the conquerors as well as that of the conquered. Prominent among the Latin-American magic realists are the Colombian Gabriel Carcia Marquez, the Brazilian Jorge Amado, the Argentinie's Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar, and the Chilean Isabel Allende.
(Britannica Encyclopedia Online under magic realism)

In total, these 5 students wrote 62 notes in the database on their ISU topics.

Wilkins made few comments in the database. Those that she did make encouraged students to provide references for their information so that others could use them or questioned misconceptions in the work. For example, one student did thought that magic realism and religion were unconnected. Wilkins encouraged that student to do more research on this issue in South America. Wilkins' model shows two things: first the database isn't optimally suited for a teacher-student exchange; and second, students were interested in their work and did not need much moderation.

Wilkins commented on the ISU process in the teachers' database

Putting our knowledge together: Regarding our experiences with the secondary classroom is definitely the way to go. I have so much to share regarding my experiences with High School students. Their contributions to KF never cease to amaze me. My experience with the OAC ISU was revolutionary. I really couldn't give another traditional ISU to these students again. This year they broke themselves into discussion groups. One group was Oprah's group, another women from various cultures etc. Each group had their own view for discussion. They responded and interacted at such a high level.

These were "mark hungry" OAC's. Seriously, marks are always an issue but we broke through the barrier. We opened up the issue of evaluation, discussed it as a view. Mary (researcher) came to the class and talked about Grad students who posed their thesis on KF; my students were fascinated and wanted to give it a go. Their work was amazing. Now the issue of time is a factor. The ISU component at OAC is only 20%. I think that if you truly worked with this project, you would probably want to raise the % to 30. The amount of work that really goes into it, on the part of the students is amazing. Relating back to standardized tests, I'm not sure exactly how much this would help them, but their final papers were excellent. The students said that it was so easy to put their papers together after working on the project. Isn't this what we want to accomplish in education?

These vignettes of teaching and learning in networked classrooms capture what may happen when the teacher engages students, presents authentic problems to be solved, releases student agency and foster collaborative knowledge building. The classroom operates as a community of learners (see Brown, 1997): at times the teacher becomes a learner; at other times, students become researchers or have something of value to teach to others. Role shifting (the teacher-as-learner, the learner-as-teacher) may occur in face-to-face interaction as in on-line social interaction. Though symmetric relationships (as an emerging norm) may be observed in some occasions, the teacher's role is intense (pre-action, inter-action, post-action). The classroom needs organization, students need conceptual tools and formative as well as sommative assessment. The networked computer (a most versatile tool) is used for information search, for representation of a student's understanding or idea, for communication with local community members or experts, etc.