Teaching with a lot of control is easy. You have everything planned out just as you want them. You teach exactly what you want, do the activities you want, etc. Everything you do, you have planned for and though out. If you let the students have control, you have to plan for everything which is much harder. I think students are more willing to learn when they have some control in the situation.
The best example of this that I have seen is the rock band project. In one of the music education classes I took, we had a project to create a rock band. The class made a rubric together and agreed it was a fair way to grade and then we split up into groups. The only rule was to take a song and play it. We had a few weeks to pick the song and arrange it into something we could play. I learned ear training, chord progressions, notation, and most importantly, how to play drumset! It was difficult, but we all did it and had a blast! I learned so much and the teacher didn't have to do anything but be prepared for questions. Best project ever.
I agree that teaching with a lot of control is easy, but for students, learning with a lot of teacher control is not always easy. Therefore, I believe as teachers we have to be ready to not always be in control, which means that we have to be able to improvise and turn any situation into a situation from which our students can learn. I really like your example. I've heard of the project before and I'm looking forward to doing it next semester!
ReplyDelete