Design-oriented Pedagogy – anExample of Child-driven Education

Lahti 30.8.2012

Jorma EnkenbergProfessor (Emeritus)University of Eastern Finlandjeeberg@gmail.com@jormaenkenberg

The two main decisions in educating of our children

Working on childrenYour experiences, concerns, hopes, fears, desires, interests count nothing. What count is what we are interested in, what we care about, and what we have decided you to learn (Holt)

or

Working with childrenEducation demands you to write script of your own life with the help of people who love and care about you (Gatto).

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...we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher's task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child. (Maria Montessori)

And on the other hand…

55%

39%

35%

31%

21%

19%

16%

14%

12%

9%

9%

8%

5%

6%

3%

1%

In groupsBy doing practical thingsWith friendsBy using computers Alone

From friends

With your parentsBy practising

By copying

By thinking for yourself

OtherFrom others

From teachers

By seeing things done

In silence

At a museum or library

Base: All pupils (2,417) Source: Ipsos MORI

Most preferred ways to learn

New Millennium LearnersInitial findings on the effects of digital technologies on school-age learners (OECD/CERI International Conference “Learning in the 21st Century: Research, Innovation and Policy”, 2008)

Common classroom activitiesLahti 30.8.2012

52%

29%

25%

22%

22%

17%

16%

16%

10%

10%

9%

8%

7%

7%

4%

3%

Copy from the board or a book

Listen to a teacher talking for a long time

Have a class discussion

Take notes while my teacher talks

Work in small groups to solve a problem

Have a drink of water when I need it

Work on a computer

Listen to background music

Have some activities that allow me to move around

Create pictures or maps to help me remember

Have a change of activity to help focus

Spend time thinking quietly on my own

Talk about my work with a teacher

Learn things that relate to the real world

Teach my classmates about something

Have people from outside to help me learn

Learn outside in my school’s grounds

33%

Learning as a system

Learning is always situated in a certain culturally-specific system

Home, playgroup, kindergarten, primary school, home learning, secondary school, high school, college and university, interest

group, library, museum, reading circle e.g.

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Learning as activity system

Goal/desire

Object

Result

Tools Actor(s)

Context

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Home – an example of natural learning system

A child is naturally a researcher and experimenter and aims to construct meanings about the objects in the world by collecting information through interactions.

Most of the learning is not a consequence from teaching but it results from continuous and breathing-like acting – participating in daily activities.

Our brains are programmed for learning , they learn from our mistakes and form a self-correcting system.

(Meighen,2003) 9

In shared/child-driven learning activities are based on learners’ needs and interests as well ason their goals, framed and supported by teachers.

It is constructivist, continuous and reciprocal in the community of teachers, other learners, parents and other adults.

It supports optimally interactions between the learners and objects for learning as well as negotiations of meaning.

Shared/child-driven learning

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Design-oriented pedagogy (DOP)

Conception of learning

Self-learning Participating in community

Context for learning

Personal tools

Social media

Mediating tools Instructional model

A child as a designer

A child as a researcher

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Anchoring learning process to children’ ideas, thinking, conceptions and interpretations about the phenomena in question (epistemological principle)

Driven questions and whole tasks engage to learn (instructional principle)

Emphasis on conceptual objects and artifacts, that represent the phenomena in question/objects for action utilizing physical and cognitive tools (ontological principle)

Enhancing becoming to know and learning by collaborative work and designing (learning principle))

Using children’ own tools and technologies in collecting information and communication (technological principle)

Teacher affords learning resources, guides and support the actions (principle of teacher’s agency)

.

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Design principles in DOP

An example of design-oriented pedagogy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVKeTflC5Qg

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http://www.thinglink.com/scene/297017606022365185#

tlsite

Interesting empirical questionsDesign-oriented pedagogy and development of conceptual and theoretical thinking?

Pedagogy and engagement to learning?

Acceptance of the pedagogy in different, international educational cultures?

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LEARNING OBJECT

As learning objects we mean digital representations about real phenomenon and tools for constructing meaning about it. Representations refer directly or indirectly to existing objects and context where the objects is situated.  

Representations allow perceiving the object from different perspectives. Physical and cognitive tools enhance the negotiation of meaning about them.  

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Joensuu 25.9.2011 19

Only the flexible, human, personal and democratic learning system will educate people, who do not hurt themselves or each others, do not spoil our environment and who try to build our cultures in the framework of sustainable values, collaboration and fairness.

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More

Enkenberg, J. (2010). A framework for the future teaching and learning environments. Paper presented in Julis 2010 meeting, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu.

Liljeström, A., Enkenberg, J. & Pöllänen, S. (2012). Making learning whole: an instructional approach for mediating the practices of authentic science inquiries. Cultural Studies of Science Education.(DOI) 10.1007/s11422-012-9416-0

Liljeström, A., Vartiainen, H.& Enkenberg, J. (in preparation) Social networking of action and knowing in design-oriented learning.

Meighan, R. (2003). Learning Systems: the good, the bad and the ugly.... In Learning Cooperative Quarterly. Vol.1, No.2. 9-11.

Vartiainen, H. & Enkenberg, J. (2011). Enlargement of Educational Innovation: An Instructional Model of the Case Forest Pedagogy. Proceedings of the 4th International Network-Based Education 2011 Conference The Social Media in the Middle of Nowhere. University of Lapland Publications in Education 25.

Vartiainen, H.; Liljeström, A. & Enkenberg, J. (accepted for puplication).Introducing a design-oriented pedagogy to educate learners to meet the future needs. Journal of Universal Computer Science.

http://www.skogsstyrelsen.se/Projektwebbar/Case-Forest/

Parikka-Nihti, M. (2011) Pieniä puroja. Lasten Keskus