Taking ownership and sparking intrinsic motivation.

The 2nd F2F Cohort 21 day was a great reminder that I am not in this alone, and the challenges I face are not unique to my school alone. There are some key issues that we face today as educators, and I was filled with gratitude to be surrounded by people who are passionately looking for solutions.

This fall, a challenge I noticed my students having was the transition between grade 10 and grade 11 math. The F2F session really got me thinking about the student experience.  I challenged myself to think about the student process from the perspective of the different ‘types’ of students in my class. There are the students who have done well in previous math courses and don’t seem to be struggling, there are the students who have done well previously but the MCR3U course provides a greater challenge than they anticipated, and then there are the students who struggled in grade 10 and continue to struggle in grade 11. In thinking about these levels of student (and everyone in between) I settled on the question (with some inspiration from previous years)

“How might we provide a personalized learning experience so students are in control of their learning as they transition between grade 10 to grade 11 math?”

I have to say a big thank you to whoever posted feedback, it gave me a lot to think about, and ideas for how I might change my approach from a teacher centered approach to a student centered approach. Some suggestions included students creating math portfolios, incorporating more self reflection,  a potential for summer module options to enhance skills.

All these suggestions got me thinking about what changes I could make in my classroom to support students being in the drivers seat of their learning, and unearthed more ‘how might we…’ questions

How might we make it more about the learning than the grade?

How might we help students better understand what they know and what they need to improve on?

How might we challenge students to be more self reflective about their learning?

As our F2F session came to a close I put together some action items, however when I came back to some of these items, I realized they still had me in the drivers seat of the student experience vs the student themselves.  However, something came up unintentionally with my grade 12’s and I am looking forward to seeing the outcome.

My grade 12 students WANT to be in the drivers seat of their education because university admissions are right around the corner. As such a number of them have been asking what additional ways can they show their understanding. So when they ask me, I reply back by asking them how they want to show me their understanding and give them the opportunity to create their own products.

I’m interested to see what I get back from them, and to perhaps test  this out with grade 11 students who are looking to engage with the material in different ways.

I will finish up this blog post with a new iteration of my question, How might we challenge senior students to take ownership and responsibility over their learning and spark a deeper sense of intrinsic motivation?