Learner Centered Approach

Shifting our thinking to a learner centered approach....I really like this.  As a person who works with children in a school, the four principles that we talked about make sense and lead to successful student outcomes.  The only part that I worry about is selling parents on this.  I see a lot of learned helplessness in students everyday, some hang out until we are in fully in the classroom and some are unpacking backpacks and putting shoes on everyday.  I do keep in mind that we are taking care of someones babe, I take pride in having the parent and student trust that I will treat them as is they were my own. 

Parents want the best for their child but are still in protector mode as they enter the school, every move we make as staff members is critiqued and judged by this group.  Sometimes when we push the students to expand their learning boundaries the parents are the ones that end up freaking out or stepping in and completing the task for their child.  This was really prominent at parent teacher interviews a few weeks ago.  The thing that made this years interview process different was that it was student lead,  we had groups of 5 or 6 parents come in with their child and complete centers that were set up so the parents could see how their child actually processed the classroom work.  We (myself and the teacher) didn't want to just hand the parents a stack of papers saying this is what your child can or can't do.  Our thinking behind this was that students shouldn't be judged on one paper from one class.  Who knows how that student was feeling or thinking that day!  Plus having the students come in and show their parents gave them ownership of their work.  Some surprises that we found were that some parents still wanted to do the work at the center for the students even after they were prompted a few times to let their child show them.  Parents were also reminded that we weren't looking for perfection.  Perhaps some parents thought their child should be further along, maybe they were in a hurry to get somewhere, embarrassed by where they thought their child should be at or having a bit of anxiety that always seems to hanging around these formal processes.
 

I also wonder if our culture has something to do with the difference in how we let our children explore and learn.  If we wait for them to discover/learn will they be behind?  What will others think about an unconventional way of learning?  I wonder how much discovery learning and Montessori learning are combined and how we could bring that into the everyday classroom a bit more.