Self directed learning

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”

John Dewey

Earlier this week I was camping at White’s Bay, a magical spot on the coast less than 30 minutes from Blenheim. Although the peak of the holiday period was over, there were still a number of families camping there with the beach providing a safe place for the kids to swim, play, explore and interact under the watchful eyes of their parents.

After a morning swim I took the time to stroll along the beach and take in what some of these kids were doing. In the image above you can see what the beach looks like – before the kids arrived. If you’re observant enough you’ll also notice the tell-tale signs in the sand of water from a small creek winding its way across the sand into the ocean.

It was around that spot that I stood and watched a fascinating learning experience unfold before me. Two groups of children, mostly boys, aged (I’m estimating) between 7-12, were busy digging in the sand, some with shovels and others with pieces of driftwood or their hands. Observing for a while I saw what was happening. At two different spots after the creek emerged from the reeds behind the beach groups of children were hard at work trying to alter the course of the water. One group appeared intent on creating a small dam and creating a pond behind it, and another creating a deeper channel to expedite the flow of water directly to the sea.

I paused and chatted with each group, hearing their stories of how they got started on the idea, what they’d tried already, what had worked and what hadn’t and what they were planning to do next. All the time the groups continued to work on their projects, aware that the water they were trying to ‘tame’ wasn’t going to wait while they held a conversation with a passing member of the public.

After some time there I continued my walk to the other end of the beach, then returned the way I’d come. On my way back I paused again to observe the progress being made. By now the labyrinth of channels had become quite sophisticated. Aided by the addition of small rocks and large pieces of driftwood the dam was doing its thing, while the deeper channel was being worked on to address the issue of the collapsing walls where the faster flowing water now caused erosion of the sides.

What was even more interesting was that these two groups were now working together to address an entirely new challenge – how to create a channel that would re-route the water from the pond behind the dam into the large channel that the others had created some 10 metres away and so create a continuous flow. I hadn’t seen what had precipitated that collaboration, but by the time I had arrived the teams were working seamlessly on this new task, with ideas being contributed by young and old, and everyone getting on with the task they felt was theirs.

I sat at the beach for some time after, watching the experience evolve as if guided by some ‘invisible’ agreement among all of these young people – with no sign of adult intervention at all (apart from this elderly gentleman stopping to ask a lot of questions 🙂 … which got me thinking again about the experience of learning that we provide for our students at school. Right before my eyes I was seeing the manifestation of the characteristics of learners and learning that so many schools aspire to in their graduate profiles, but so often are neglected or ignored when the pressure goes on to address fundamental issues of literacy and numeracy, or to focus on specific details of ‘content knowledge’ to provide a focus for narrowly defined assessments. Not that theres merit in considering these things – but not at the expense of taking the joy out of learning in such authentic and motivational ways.

Here are just some of the things I observed and reflected on while watching these children:

• They were working to a plan – and they owned that plan. The plan wasn’t particularly detailed, nor was it aligned with a specific area of the curriculum. Their plan emerged from their inbuilt curiosity and the desire to discover what might happen if…? As such their plan was constantly being modified and re-focused. Further, they were all capable of articulating what the plan was when a casual observer such as myself took the opportunity to ask them!
   
• There was a culture of experimentation. While the plan was agreed on in a basic sense, the detail of how they’d execute it was left to a process of experimentation, where risk taking, learning from failure and trailing multiple approaches were simply a part of how the activity rolled. Nothing was a ‘failure’ – everything was something that helped inform the next step that was taken.
   
• The participants knew what success would look like. Each of these children had a clear idea of what they were striving to achieve, and therefore what success would look like. In their conversation with me they were able to articulate why some approaches had worked and others hadn’t, how they’d modified their approach at times and some of the ‘big ideas’ about the movement of water they’d learned along the way. They didn’t need an external person or assessment task to tell them if they’d been successful or not.
   
• They weren’t about to give up! In fact, one of these groups had been working on their ideas the previous day and had come back with a refreshed view of how to tackle things as they thought about it overnight. Without the constraints of time they were able to take the time required to work on their challenge – demonstrating high levels of perseverance and tenacity in the process.
   
• The activity was highly collaborative. No-one was excluded in this task. If you turned up and were prepared to assist you quickly found a way you could contribute. Those who’d been working on it a little longer emerged as leaders in small ways, helping guide what others should do through direct instruction or through suggestion as the need determined. Many of the ideas that were put forward were quickly discussed and decided on – often with the addition of new ideas that emerged through this process of negotiation. Overall, there was a role for everyone and anyone who wanted to participate.
   
• There was a lot of reflection going on. Throughout the entire process the thing that intrigued me the most was the level of conversation going on among the kids. It was a sort of articulated reflection in a very real sense. When someone saw an opportunity to do something differently, there would be comments made about what had worked in the past and why this might or might not work in the future. As new ideas were being trialed there was an explicit articulation of the thought processes – often with questions being asked among members of the group, seeking affirmation or confirmation of whether something was a good idea. The reflection wasn’t being left as something to do once the task was over – it was an authentic and highly integrated part of the task itself.

Now I’m not so naive as to think that every aspect of what we do in schools could be designed and constructed in this way. There is, arguably, always going to be a need for developing some of the foundational skills that these children were calling upon quite naturally in this environment. Plus there’s loads of scope for an excellent teacher, through crafted questioning, to promote event deeper levels of learning to be realised from such a task.

My pondering here is simply this. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, as we start a new school year, we could do so with a renewed sense of commitment to ensuring all of our learners are able to experience the kinds of delight and joy in learning that these kids on the beach were? Before we become ensnared by the imposed requirements to address the basics more rigorously and of ensuring we address specific areas of content knowledge, let’s ensure we leave room in our design of learning for our learners to experience joy in what they do, and delight in the achievements they make – however big or small.

Oh that more of what happens in our classrooms and schools could resemble what I observed on the beach this week.

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