From School Choice to Student Voice - development of teaching programmes based on student interests

School Administrator, May, 2001 by Paul E. Heckman, Viki L. Montera

Teachers were most amazed by the fact that students already knew the three points that the textbook wanted them to emphasize and for which the teachers had developed plans to present during the week--that plants require soil, water and sun to grow. But students knew those points and more. Students knew that the seedpods of plants with which they were familiar smelled like the plant it was going to develop into, assuming it had sun, water and soil.

Teachers now had to confront a more confirmed theory that students do have prior knowledge and that this conflicted with their long-held view that these students knew little. They also had to address the fact that spending time on the points in the text no longer was necessary. This idea about the relevance and importance of prior knowledge is now strongly embedded in the literature about human learning and cognition, according to the National Research Council.

Rather than focusing on what the text had decided was important for children to learn at that age level, perhaps there were other ideas the children wanted to further explore, thus expanding the knowledge they had. Instead of offering them a McDonald's burger (the textbook information), which is made for a mass market with common interests, perhaps we would further children's knowledge by offering them the opportunity to use what they already know and create their own unique burger.

However, merely focusing on students' prior knowledge is not enough. In a niche market, we then search further for what the customer wants. In this case, the teachers sought what the children wanted to know about plants. The children of one classroom voiced an interest in vegetables. You can imagine what might be the typical classroom scenario. The teacher, excited that she has tapped into a student interest, selects vegetables from the grocery store and brings them to the classroom. He or she then may have children engage in a naming and categorizing activity. This would all be done in the name of providing basic knowledge to students about vegetables. The naming would signal to the teacher that the students had learned and knew about vegetables.

The teacher whose children were interested in vegetables took the idea of student interest beyond only discussing vegetables. She took the children on what she called a "mini-field trip" in the school neighborhood. She used the context in which children likely learned about vegetables--their neighborhood. There she and the students explored what they saw and what they knew about vegetables and plants.

The teacher was stunned by her discovery. Here is what she wrote about this experience: "I was amazed at how much learning could happen from a vacant lot and children's interpretations of this lot, which represented the real world to them. Everything they said was in relation to their prior knowledge. I was amazed at all the higher-order thinking skills kicking in during the experience. A worksheet couldn't have shown me as much."

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