Hence it is far better to co-opt this behavioural tendency than to fight it in the name of imposing content. As noted by Goleman-17, the best way to enhance performance — for both productivity and creativity — is to promote buy-in via consultation and the alignment of individual and organizational goals. But then, what do the students want and how can their interests align with the educators?
Starting with the students as players, there is a genuine need and desire to develop ownership of their learning and become self-directed, in which case they need an environment that is conducive to exploration and experimentation via the provision of stimuli and sufficient time and space (see Elkind-11). Furthermore, as noted by Csikszentmihalyi-6, what actually makes any learning activity stimulating is that it involves skill in a symbolic domain with rules - a goal, a way of obtaining feedback at the level of one’s skills, and autonomy over their thoughts.
Applied to the curriculum, less is more. One can scaffold for the ownership of learning by gradually moving toward less provision of backgrounding and reading guidance/selection, while also seeking to connect material to what the students are already passionate about (see Guthrie, Wigfield & Perencevich-18; Silvia-25; Babbage-1).
That said however, one must keep in mind the role of variety. One reasonable critique of current emphasis of relevance in schools; is that it can limit the scope of curriculum to contemporary discourse and society (see Morgan-20). Indeed, the values underpinning which news is reported in the media — impact, proximity, prominence, timeliness, conflict, currency and oddity (see White-27) — serve to sell newspapers, being what people want to read, but tend to exclude as much as they include.
If the educator is to develop creative students then the curriculum should serve to expand their interests beyond what they already know. After all, insight actually tends to occur where an individual is both informed and flexible (see Runco-22), and the types of people who develop original ideas are those with both a mastery of their subject and ongoing exposure to concepts from unrelated; fields of study (see Simonton-26).
What this means in terms of pedagogy is that a significant part of learning to think develops from the social interaction that develops in response to content. As noted by Billig-4, much of our reasoning skills develop as the internalization of socialized argumentation and, according to Schugurensky-24, the development of deep thinking skills depends on an environment that allows for open discussion of contrary points of view.
Article comments
1 - Anon
This may totally be besides the point, but the paper assumes that an ideal of encouraged learning exists whereas there are situations that learning is deliberately stunted by that hegemony who hold the capital on said information to keep it within a select few of those who can afford it while the rest rot. It also assumes that learners who learn outside the system around aren't hunted down and killed.
2 - Belle 2
Jonathan,
Very interesting!! I agree with your ideas and I try to encourage my student's love for learning, but I feel as though I'm losing my edge. Which resource do you recommend over all the others? I need practical suggestions to enhance my classroom. How do you suggest implementing your ideas in the current educational climate which has all the focus on standarized testing? My usual teaching assignment is three different subjects, six classes, 40 minute periods and 150 students!!
3 - Jonathan Scanlan
Hi Belle,
In regard to implementing this within classrooms, I'd suggest simply playing the system and testing it at this stage. See what works for you.
In my own experience however, sometimes this can work too well, and it is very easy to fall into the trap of trying to regulate the classroom noise and energy when the students seem to be doing all the work for you.
Another problem is that this can also be incredibly resource intensive. Building activities on a full schedule is problematic because it will often overwork you.
Now, I have yet to test this properly but one way I am planning to cut down the workload, and increase autonomy, is to hand students a simplified version of my syllabus documents at the start of a unit and then have them brainstorm and plan the work ahead - leaving me to edit and refine.
Essentially OpenSourcing their education, and including them in the planning process will - I expect - give you better indication of what students will find intrinsically interesting and promote a sense of ownership over the materials.
4 - Belle 2
Thanks for the advice. I'm excited to give it a try. Summer is such a great time for me to read and plan for the next year, can you recommend one great book to help get me started?
5 - Jonathan Scanlan
Best book among all those linked above, is FLOW. It's entirely about engagement and life satisfaction.
So far as education in particular, it is unfortunately the case that no one is writing about the incorporation of play in the middle and senior curriculum. I've actually had to resort to primary education texts.