Teacher in Development

I love reading Wesley Fryer. A post of his from yesterday has just landed in my bloglines account. The title alone is enough to fizz my mind: Messy Learning and Public Education.

The post itself…rocks.

Authentic vs. Fake Learning.

What is authentic learning? What does it look like? Have you seen it before? Have you experienced it before?  Is it represented by a number or a grade? Has it happened if you finish a course book or pass a test?

Is there space for messiness in our classrooms and schools?

According to Wes, learning should be messy, and that means:

"Messy learning involves students taking initiative and working in an environment where unexpected, constructive learning events can happen– in fact, they are encouraged. Authentic, messy learning recognizes that real learning is the product of dynamical, even chaotic interactions, rather than false perceptions and constructions of linearity and predictability." (Messy Learning and Public Education, 2006) 

I wonder if messy learning means, if you’re a teacher, to plan and prepare, and be immersed in your subject area - to literally simmer in it, so that when the mess happens you can go with the flow and speak into those situations? 

Are those "messy moments" what many refer to as teachable moments? 

I don’t think it means letting go of the "must knows." I don’t think it means floating aimlessly down the curriculum stream.  Wes calls it "constructive." Planned, and allowed for chaos that results in deep impact. Learning that sticks.

Fake learning is the kind we see most. The kind that says: I got 90% on this. I learned it. I got 50% on this - I totally didn’t learn this. I suck. It says: "I finished my course book, I’m now an intermediate III language learner." 

Today I have a beef. What if you’re asked to purposefully engage in fake? A human resource department  has told us that a few of our groups have been at the whole English game long enough. Time to close down the group and let someone else play in the kiddie pool. Problem: We’re half the way through the course.

My direction: Plough through. Don’t pause. Don’t deviate. Skip what may be skipped so you can cover the other half of the course by the end of May.

This ticks me off to no end. It’s fakeness.  It’s dishonest. It shuts off any chance for messiness because you’re too busy with the "learning" to really LEARN.

Language learning is totally MESSY. Borrowing from Wes a little: If it’s the AUTHENTIC KIND, it’s not package wrapped inside a nice course book. It’s not predictable. It’s not sequential, and it’s totally hard to organize.

We promise to churn out proficient English speakers, and I believe we genuinely attempt to do so.

But caving into the numbers driven demands of HR is a bitter waste; a complete and total disservice to our students and our passionate teachers.