Essential Question 6

Essential Question 6: What are the challenges in shifting content from "what" to "where" and "how"?
When I first read this question, I began thinking about how we make information relevant for our students.  I thought the question was asking how I make my students understand the where and how specific information (what) can be used so that they have a better understanding of the information.  Upon reading chapters seven through nine of A New Culture of Learning, I found that I was mistaken.

According to Brown and Thomas (2011), what is the information we know.  It is easy to test whether or not students understand the what and therefore is particularly useful in school.

They go on to explain that where is when we put that what into context.  Since we live in the Information Age, the what has become less important than the where and that should be reflected in the way that students learn at school (Brown and Thomas, 2011, p. 95).

So that leads us to the how.  Brown and Thomas (2011, p. 96), describe the how as an act of imaginative play in which we make and remake context for given information.  They spend the remainder of the book providing examples of how students play in digital media environments and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games.

So now that we know what is meant by the what, where, and how, what are the challenges in changing our schools to fit into this new culture of learning?

Time
The first thing that always comes to mind is time.  As school teachers, we never have enough hours in the day!  A study about play-based learning conducted by Mary Beth Anderson Nugent stated that, "All the participants who mentioned a struggle with finding time attributed their difficulty to the need they feel to meet high academic requirements." (2017, p. 140)

Planning
Since play tends to be less structured it can be difficult to plan.  It also can be challenging to make sure that all the students are still understanding the intended standards. (Pyle et al., 2017).

 Motivation
There is a strong case for including both play and collaboration in our schools, but even as appealing as they sound to us motivation can still be an issue for students, especially at the high school level.  (Carnegie Mellon University, 2019).

Mindset
I've spoken about mindset being an important piece of all of this in the past.  If students are not willing to try things because they are afraid of failure (fixed mindset) then all of this is out the window because they will not play even when given the opportunity.

Prior Experiences
As with all teaching, students come to us with varying skills and experiences.  Even in play-based learning "the wide range of prior knowledge can make it increasingly difficult for teachers to design goals for their classroom that meet the needs of all students." (Anderson Nugent, 2017,  p.148)

Need for Direct Instruction
There are times when "direct instruction (still) plays a key instructional role" (Pyle et al., 2017). We cannot completely abandoned the old culture of learning because there are times that it is necessary for us to give instructions. One of my classmates, Jessica, posted about this recently as she is a dental hygiene instructor. While it is great to allow students time to explore on their own and learn from one another, it is necessary that she shares knowledge and skills with them in order for them to be successful.

I'm sure there are other challenges as well, but most of them can be overcome if we are willing to care less about "efficiency, outcomes, and answers" and care more about "experimentation, play and questions".  Brown and Thomas finished their book by stating only then "do we have the space that is truly open to the imagination.  And where imaginations play, learning happens."  (2011, p. 118).


Resources:
Anderson Nugent, M. B. (2017). Teachers experiences with integrating play-based learning into standards-driven curriculum: A phenomenological study(Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Liberty University. Retrieved June 29, 2019, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f272/0595ab61aa15ef00285c5f7e1d3672f26c5d.pdf

Brown, J. S., & Thomas, D. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change.

Carnegie Mellon University. (2019). What are the challenges of group work and how can I address them? - Eberly Center - Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/instructionalstrategies/groupprojects/challenges.html

Pyle, Angela|Poliszczuk, Daniel, & Erica. (2017, November 30). The Challenges of Promoting Literacy Integration within a Play-Based Learning Kindergarten Program: Teacher Perspectives and Implementation. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1173604

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