How to Make High School Look More Like Kindergarten
One of the greatest innovations in education was the concept of playful preschool education or kindergarten, developed by Friedrich Froebel in the 19th century. For centuries, we adopted a play-based exploration model in the early years, a model that gradually shifted in the early years towards a more classroom-based approach where the teacher provides information and students demonstrate that they have understood the information. For some it works, but for others it dulls. School becomes something to be endured, not to enjoy it.
But what if learning in high school, elementary or even high school, has n’t turned into an exercise in rote memorization, regurgitation of facts, or testing and metrics? This is the premise of a new book by Mitchell Resnick, a LEGO Papert professor of learning research at the MIT Media Lab, Kindergarten Throughout Life: Developing Creativity Through Projects, Passion, Peers and Play .
The Lifelong Kindergarten philosophy stems from the project method, a school of thought in which learners learn better by creating independent, meaningful projects, rather than passive learning. In accordance with this philosophy, students solve “purposeful problems” and learn organically on the go – mathematics, building things; grammar from reading and writing stories; science from real experiments. Reznik believes that education from early childhood should be project-based, playful and community-oriented. I talked to him about how to make high school (and even adult) more like a kindergarten.
Four P
Projects , passion , peers and games are essential elements of a kindergarten for life. “Giving students more opportunities to pursue their hobbies in collaboration with their peers and in a playful way” is a way to keep children interested and involved in their own education, Reznik says. He describes a class tasked with solving a problem they faced in their lives: a girl wanted to protect her diary from her brother’s prying eyes, so she attached a touch sensor to her diary and developed a mechanism to press a button on her camera and take pictures of any potential spies. …
Subject matter naturally manifests itself in the development of a project: for students interested in design, such as sewing, architecture or programming, mathematics inevitably becomes part of the lesson; a child creating an interactive book report needs to place characters on the screen at different distances so that he or she learns about perspective drawing and mathematical scale.
Reznik emphasizes that collaboration (peers) and play are critical elements of learning: in his online community, moderators and other learners provide consistent, encouraging feedback (and the community’s rules of respect and courtesy are respected).
Create an environment for risky projects
Students should be able to experiment with their sometimes failing projects and then be able to take a step back and evaluate their work. He describes it as “alternating cycles of immersion and reflection,” in which projects or experiments that have not been successful are explored and discussed with the community. “Encourage experimentation by celebrating failed experiments as well as successful ones,” he writes. He also notes that the tone of the community discussion is important here: “Students need to know not to be ridiculed when something goes wrong,” he says, and this is where teachers and parents can step in to soften behavior and comments. … …
Break down barriers
The current high school model provides short lessons in subjects – 50-minute periods of English, history, and so on. “Right now, there are separate pillars for mathematics, science, social science, language,” says Reznik. “Significant projects go beyond borders. They also break down barriers between the school and the outside community. Make meaningful connections with the community. Invite the community – there is a lot of knowledge and experience in the community. ”
For example, assign your students a problem: how can you solve a problem in your area? If students can rely on the advice and guidance of local people, their projects will become richer and more meaningful. “And break down the barriers between ages,” says Reznik, “high school students will learn a lot by sharing and teaching. Younger children benefit from having more mentors and teachers. ”
Start small
Reznik acknowledges that even the most dedicated parent or teacher cannot independently destroy the “isolated pillars” of the structure of a typical school day. But if you are actively involved in curriculum development at your school, he suggests using the example of Google, which used to let its employees work 20% of their time on projects that were of personal value to them. If you can change the structure of students’ working hours so that, for example, 20% of their time is devoted to projects and not traditional study time, this is a step in the right direction.
Reznik notes that some teachers may find this flexible and quick-witted model unfamiliar and even threatening, “but for others it can be refreshing and liberating. [This teaching method] is not easy, but important. “
Adopting a project-based approach for middle and high school is challenging – it doesn’t match our current competitive, achievement-oriented and assessment-driven view of education. After all, if you lose a lot, how will Harvard know that you are the best student in your class? Reznik suggests that his philosophy, shared by several project-based high schools in the United States , may herald a dramatic change in the curriculum of American high schools. “This challenges the current understanding of what children need to know and when.”