By Jay Briar
When I walk into a classroom, I often ask the students, “What are you doing?” Whether the current activity involves reading a book, painting a picture, or solving a problem, they almost always give me a great answer. Students consistently know “what” they are learning. But to understand whether the students are making sense of their learning, I follow up with, “Why are you doing that?” It may seem like a simple question, but you might be surprised how many students struggle to explain the rationale for their own learning. And teachers can even have difficulty articulating the “why” behind their lessons because curriculum and instruction can easily become an endless series of tasks to complete rather than a purposeful and intentional student experience.
As a classroom teacher, I often felt comfortable with my routine and assumed my lessons were effective. Fortunately, I worked in a school developing a concept-based curriculum that asked teachers and students to tackle the “big ideas” and thoughtfully weave in essential skills and critical content. By focusing on big ideas, we motivated students and gave them a reason to learn. Instead of teaching the facts of how a bill becomes a law, we asked big questions about democracy and self-governance and ultimately engaged in a mock Congress for which students were highly motivated to learn about important issues, identify and analyze sources, consider multiple perspectives, and hone public speaking skills. Along the way, they learned how a bill becomes a law, but in an experiential and project-based manner where the learning sticks. Years later, I still hear from those students because they have a lasting connection to our work.
This learning outcome is not easy and is most often apparent in schools and classrooms where the adults take the children seriously. When children see themselves as active participants in their learning, they also take responsibility for their progress. In student-centered classrooms, teachers provide meaningful work, give students choices, and develop a sense of buy-in. Rather than dismissing loosely related questions that attempt to dig deeper, these teachers lean into the “why” questions and follow the child’s thinking to see where it takes them. While we cannot always accommodate each child’s ideas, simply being seen and heard can transform a passive child into an active learner.
For this type of engaged and project-based learning to be meaningful for students and accomplish the variety of learning goals we have for our students, teachers must be incredibly intentional in their planning. That requires a professional culture where useful and specific training is provided to teachers, who are also provided time to prepare and collaborate with colleagues. We often rely on external experts to train our teachers. And while there is value in outside resources, we have to leverage our internal talents to foster constant self-reflection and professional development through peer-to-peer interactions. After all, no one understands the specific group of students a teacher works with better than another master teacher in the same building who can be empowered to mentor.
It also means that we have to trust teachers and give them the flexibility they need each day to meet the wide range of interests and talents present in their classrooms. Research continues to show that children today often need a very different style of teaching and level of engagement from teachers than we have seen or expected in the past. While the world outside the classroom is increasingly personalized, education often remains a one-size-fits-all approach. If we want teachers to find new and creative ways to engage students, we have to give them the space to take risks, knowing that sometimes it can take years of trial and error to fully hone a unit of study. While we often embrace a “no risk, no reward” philosophy in business, we are often more cautious when thinking about our children. In practice, however, the rewards of intentional and experiential teaching and learning far outweigh the risks of a lesson that occasionally does not meet the mark.
Parents have several ways of finding and supporting intentional teaching. If you are working within your current school, ask teachers and administrators questions that allow them to share their philosophy, how they are approaching a particular lesson, and what ways they are trying to innovate in their classrooms. Let them know when your child comes home and talks about big ideas they learned in class so that they see support for meaningful and lasting instruction. If you are exploring different schools, ask questions about the teaching style and look for experiential or project-based learning examples. If you can visit classes, look for self-directed students taking ownership of their learning. See if the questions they are grappling with are fixed or open-ended. And if you get to interact with children, try asking them what they are doing AND why they are doing it!
Jay Briar is the Head of Whitby School in Greenwich which serves students from preschool through middle school. He was previously the Head of Powhatan School in Virginia and has taught history, English and math.
