A Place for Dialogue
I really enjoyed reading this article as it helped articulate for me the general state of our school, especially in the 6-8 grades. People often ask us “ what do you do that makes your school so successful?” and we mumble things about time with kids and relationship and so on, intuitively knowing its key but not always being as clear as we would like in our explanation.,,. But this article really encapsulates WHAT WE DO AND HOW WE TEACH our kids.
As I was reading, I imagined what might happen if all teachers (everywhere) employed VTS practices in their classrooms from an early age. Engaging in VTS dialogue would immediately establish a more “dialogical” relationship and Im willing to bet would naturally extend beyond the context of a VTS lesson. Imagine as the students continued on from grade to grade, the kind of students they would be.
I realize this sort of teaching is difficult for all the reasons Zander talks about. However, from personal experience, it seems to be, a critical piece of the puzzle for all education, not just art.
Zander points out that “teachers should aim to share their ideas rather than impose their own thinking on students” . I agree. Further, I wonder if in addition to being a facilitator in VTS, if a teacher could facilitate and also have their own interpretations with in the class. What if, an image is discovered and the teacher deliberately finds out nothing about the image and then participates in the conversation while also acting as facilitator?
I do believe in order for that to work, the key is to have that existing dialogical relationship with the students. They must already be accustomed to not looking to the teacher for the “right” answer. None the less... its got me thinking again.......
Going back to what Zander says, “How can we presume to teach students if we do not hold them responsible for becoming active participants in constructing their own understandings, and how can we be responsive teachers if we are not willing to become the learners ourselves.”
My big idea lesson, I have every intention of working right along side my students, creating my own personal mythology book. I usually do participate in the projects with them, acting as a fellow artist/learner. It is one of my joys of being an artist. It also makes a space for deep dialogue.
I definitely thought of you and your teaching context when I read and selected this article for the course. Zander says, "Dialogue is not just a matter of asking the right questions or understanding a teaching strategy, but a matter of creating an environment in which the teaching relationship becomes one of open-ended discovery." That seems to encapsulate what you and your colleagues do at your school.
ReplyDeleteTeacher as co-investigator would be quite doable in your teaching environment, and I believe you are right on when you say, " I do believe in order for that to work, the key is to have that existing dialogical relationship with the students. They must already be accustomed to not looking to the teacher for the “right” answer." Clearly, you understand that it would NOT work in a traditional didactic classroom. I'm sure students would hold back and let the teacher do all the work. Perhaps you'd like to "give it a go" with your students and report back to all of us on how it went?
I wonder if I could get a research grant to come observe you??