To review TLRP’s principles on engagement, relationships and informal learning
Aim
To review TLRP’s principles on engagement, relationships and informal learning.
Evidence and reflection
This group of principles concern how teaching makes connections with the learner. Emphasising the construction of meaning, they acknowledge personal and social influences on children and young people in schools and beyond – as realised through both formal and informal learning processes. Once again, these are enduring issues – they are forever with us.
However, such principles imply wide-ranging awareness on the part of teachers, and speak to recognition of the ‘participation metaphor’ of learning as well as that of ‘acquisition’. How far do you feel that the role of the teacher can, or should, embrace such issues? Traditionally, the formal teacher role has been defined narrowly – though many teachers have stepped beyond this, sometimes routinely. How though, do you see the role today, and in the future?
Discuss the issues with colleagues. How can teaching and learning in school contribute to and draw on the learning which takes place beyond school? How can we, as teachers, make better connections with the frameworks of meaning and relationship which are of particular importance to the children and young people in our classrooms?
Extension
An excellent development of this activity would be to explore the issues directly through discussion with selected pupils or even with parents or other stakeholders in the community. How do learners’ lives, as a whole, relate to experiences in and benefits from schooling?
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