(Introduction)
Story of the QuestionMy inquiry question in my fall placement (“How can I provide students with opportunities to make their own choices that encourage them to demonstrate their creativity, strengths, and multiple intelligences?”), came to me quite easily because I quickly realized that many of my students had very strong personalities. I had a class full of characters. After being introduced to Gardner's (1983) theory of multiple intelligences, I knew that I wanted to focus on my students' different intelligences. Unfortunately, I felt that many of the characteristics that made these children unique were being stifled in the classroom rather than being celebrated (see "Current Beliefs Regarding the Question" story about my student, Billy) . I thought that providing my students with various forms of expression and introducing choice might enable them to showcase these intelligences in school. I was surprised to see that many of the students in my small groups selected forms of expression that were different than what I expected given what I observed about their multiple intelligence strengths. Ultimately, what was important to me was helping my students see that their strengths and uniqueness are things that should be valued and can be valued in a school setting.
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Knowledge of student strengths and personalities
Desire to provide students with opportunities to showcase their multiple intelligences
Give them choices
Expectation that they will make choices that showcase their intelligences
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Change in Inquiry Question ProcessTeacher-centered environment
Give them choices
Showcase their multiple intelligences?
Increased creativity?
Increased engagement?
Change in level of pride?
Effect on students?
Effect on teachers?
Effect on student work?
Effect on classroom environment?
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I really enjoyed reflecting on my initial question from Term III, but for the first half of my spring semester, I felt like I had to alter my inquiry focus. Unlike with my first graders, I did not get a strong sense of each of my new fourth grader's multiple intelligence strengths. There were very few opportunities for the one-on-one interactions that enabled me to build the meaningful relationships with my students that I cherished so much in my fall placement. In fact, I was struck by the fact that there was no small-group instruction at all in my new classroom.
I think one reason why it took me so long to get to know the students individually was because the class was structured in a way that placed the focus on the teacher rather than on the students. To provide a little more insight about the balance of control and power, both my classroom mentor and the students often refer to the class as Hudson University. (My classroom mentor's pseudonym last name is Hudson.) When issues arise during the day, she often "holds court" and acts as the "judge and jury". [ 1 ] When I first entered my spring placement, I also noticed that it was clearly a print-rich environment, which was wonderful, but most of the materials were either manufactured or created by the teacher. Since my classroom mentor is very proud of her room, I kept everything as it was for my two week takeover, but I also displayed some student work around the classroom. I wanted to move away from a teacher-centered model and towards a learner-centered model. I thought that it was important for the students to see their own work as valuable as well, just as I wanted my first graders to see that their personalities and uniqueness were valued. Even though I thought that I would have to change my question, my new context brought me back to the idea of incorporating more opportunities for student choice and student voice, but for slightly different reasons.
Whereas my initial inquiry question from the fall viewed student choice as a means to an anticipated end (students will make choices that will showcase their intelligences), I realized that placing more emphasis on student choice as something that I value and feel is important in and of itself would be more powerful and have broader implications for my teaching practice. I altered the way that I approached my inquiry question so that it had more of an open-ended outcome. Even though I switched the primary focus of my inquiry question from multiple intelligences to choice, I believe that there is a strong link between student choice and multiple intelligence theory.
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Inquiry Question (and other wonderings)
On a basic level, I want to explore what happens when teachers encourage student choice and how this can contribute to creating a more learner-centered classroom. Specifically, I am still interested in thinking about the question:
"How can providing students with opportunities to make their own choices enable them to showcase their creativity and multiple intelligences?"
As with many things, one question led to many more questions. My inquiry question raised additional questions such as,
"How does encouraging student choice affect students, teachers, student work, and the classroom environment?",
"What are different ways to incorporate student choice?" and "Is there such thing as the 'right' amount of student choice?"
"How can providing students with opportunities to make their own choices enable them to showcase their creativity and multiple intelligences?"
As with many things, one question led to many more questions. My inquiry question raised additional questions such as,
"How does encouraging student choice affect students, teachers, student work, and the classroom environment?",
"What are different ways to incorporate student choice?" and "Is there such thing as the 'right' amount of student choice?"
[ 1 ] I want to add that the class meetings/court sessions are, in my opinion, very effective for both my classroom mentor and the students. I am merely pointing out that she is the facilitator and the students are asked to present their sides of the story to her. The conversations follow a teacher --> student --> teacher --> different student --> teacher pattern.