As I discuss in my book
‘Pedagogy and Education for Life’, if
we are to influence the life of our classrooms, we need to be engaged with our
students and consciously monitor the day-to-day classroom life. But as well as
classroom life, we need to be aware of each student’s life outside the
classroom, for invariably this has an impact on life within school. My 12
th
Principle from my Christian Pedagogical Framework is framed by the question “how
aware am I of the life activities and behavior of my students outside the
classroom?” This starts with the playground, but also extends to the home and community
life of our students across their many external communities of practice. This might
seem a ‘bridge too far’, but if our students are demonstrating inappropriate, ‘interesting’
or unusual behavior in other contexts, how might this inform our understanding
of them within school.
Essentially, teachers need to be sensitive to any signs that
their life at home, or in varied wider contexts outside school, might create
additional challenges or opportunities. The latter is just as important, life
and learning might just be much more exciting and rewarding in the wider world than
in the school or classroom. The example of Chanda in Chapter 2 of my book
illustrates this perfectly. A student who wouldn’t write at school was a
prolific writer of music at home.
Understanding the student world outside school
How can we as teachers have any idea what occurs outside the
school for our students? This can be positive and negative. At times in our
schools there are children who at home or in the wider world, might face abuse,
poverty, fear and disadvantage. How can we tell such things? Understanding and
discerning the needs of our children involves observation and attention to the
whole of life of our students as much as we are able. Might some students come
to school hungry? If a child arrives at school in an untidy state, what might
this tell us? Or if they seem to lack basic resources for school should we be
concerned? Is their homework done, and so on? What is our relationship like
with their parents? Do we know them at all? Do we have any idea how supportive
or otherwise their families might be?
In a more positive frame, what passions and interests do our
students have outside school? Are there areas of life outside school that
demonstrate unusual gifts, special abilities, perhaps just different and more
positive behavior? How can we build on what we know about our children to
encourage them and form them? Do we listen to and observe them as they arrive
and leave, play and chat with friends in informal moments? What insights might
we gain in the diverse and multiple communities of practice they inhabit?
Using 'Open' Questions
One basic and practical way to learn more about our students
is to ask open questions that invite response and offer a window into their
‘hearts’ and minds. This will generally be done one-to-one or in small groups.
This type of close observation has been referred to by some as ‘kidwatching’ which
I refer to in chapter 9 of my book. An American colleague of mine coined the
phrase over 30 years ago. She discusses the practice in full in her book
‘
Kidwatching: Documenting Children’s Literacy Development’. As the name
suggests, the technique was designed to provide “…a framework for engaging in
systematic, yet very personalized, data collection”.
While she coined the phrase for a narrower
application to literacy, I have developed a much broader application in
relation to each child’s participation in school and community life. How might
we use such a technique in our schools? And what can we learn from using it?
For example, do we demonstrate a desire to come to a greater
understanding of why our students do or don’t engage in activities within the classroom
and school? My basic contention is that only by listening, observing and asking
the right questions, will we understand our students more fully, and be able to
assess their well-being and journeys towards faith. I’m constantly surprised by
how little teachers know about their students. Or, in some cases, how they
often offer inappropriate activities for their children, or fail to identify
when children are unwell, unhappy, under stress, withdrawn, and so on. I saw
this as a parent when observing other parents, but also constantly as a teacher.
At times teachers fail to see telling signs that students are withdrawn and
distant, stressed, frustrated or sad. This might be due to issues beyond the
classroom, or perhaps an inability to cope within the school.
Two real life examples
Let me share two real examples from my teaching. I have
changed the names and some details to ensure that there is no chance of
identifying individuals. The first was a 3rd grade boy (I’ll call
him Ralph) who I taught in a city school. He came to school tired, late, untidy
and smelling of cigarette smoke every day. He was withdrawn, always late in
finishing work at school, he rarely completed homework, and he struggled to
make friends. After some weeks and endless frustrations, I was to find out from
varied professional sources that the child lived in a two-room shed, that his
father was an alcoholic, chain smoker and occasional drug user. Life was
chaotic at home, sleep was difficult and study or homework at the dining room
table (the only space to work), impossible due to communal use, as well as the
scattering of empty bottles and full ashtrays.
The second student was an attractive and precocious girl in
Grade 5, who had no end of friends at school. But she struggled to complete
schoolwork due to her tendency to be easily distracted from any work activity.
This behavior continued for all of one term. She was referred to our school
counsellor. After a number of sessions, she discovered that the student’s
mother had left their family home during the school holidays and had not been
seen or heard of for 3 months. With her father working five days per week and
shift work at times overnight, and her older brother at university, she was
frequently left alone.
Understanding the lives of both children was essential for
understanding my challenges with both in the classroom. Kidwatching involves
paying close attention to the behavior of our students, and being prepared to
look more deeply for telltale signs of disrupted lives outside the classroom. And
perhaps ask that one more question that could elicit a personal response.
Attentiveness to student life - 'Kidwatching'
In chapter 6 of my book I suggest that we need an
attentiveness to the student life of the
classroom to create opportunities to observe their actions,
emotions, hopes, fears,
frustrations and joys. At its most basic level,
“kidwatching” requires teachers to use their eyes to observe student lives, and
their ears to listen to what students do and don’t say. Not in order to pry, judge,
or to indoctrinate, but to understand them. We need to demonstrate a desire to
come to a greater understanding of why our students do or do not engage in
activities within the classroom and school. In the case of Chanda, who I
discuss in chapter 2 of my book, what I did was not startling. First, I acted
on her noncompliance with the writing curriculum when I observed it. Second, I asked some questions. Finally, I took
the time to observe her more closely, and I made an effort to know her better. This
deliberate activity enabled me to learn about her avid writing at home and to
build upon and use this knowledge to make a difference to her as a student.
The view of pedagogy outlined in my book defines learning as
socially constituted within communities of practice, not simply classrooms and
schools. Learning takes place within the life of many communities in which
students and teachers participate. As teachers, we are doing much more than imparting
knowledge and skills, we are also forming young lives as we engage with them in
a rich life of apprenticeship, mentoring and discipleship. To quote Chapter 6 (p.86)
of my book:
Christian pedagogy,
will lead to an education that points towards Kingdom goals in the moment-to-moment
life of the classroom. It is not simply the delivery of doctrine and teaching
in chapel, Scripture classes and Bible studies, nor is it simply the
reinforcement of a specific worldview. Pedagogy will always reflect the attitudes
of the teacher, the purposes that drive classroom activities, discipline and
praise, rewards and punishment, as well as the words spoken and the knowledge
shared. This is an education that is implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, centered
on God’s purposes for his creatures, not simply the pursuit of the goals of the
world.
To embrace such a view of pedagogy and to implement it in
our classrooms, requires deep knowledge of our students. This is where ‘Kidwatching’
comes in.
