As one of the older students in my Post-Degree program, I am sure I had a very different experience from most of my classmates with learning English Language Arts in High School, and that the difference is even bigger when compared to the curriculum currently taught in BC High Schools:
In stark contrast to today’s emphasis on multiliteracy and student-centred learning, my education in ELA was almost entirely through the conventional didactic approach, with less emphasis on:
Additionally, we simply took English 10, 11, and 12, with no trace of the specialization offered now:
So, what did we do in our traditional, didactic English classes?
Our classes were a blend of grammar, vocabulary, and writing technique mixed with literary analysis. For English, our mark was usually heavily weighted toward essays over any other format of evaluation. We did occasionally do presentations and group projects, but they were few and far between.
Overall, it seems that the past few decades have seen a shift away from heavy reliance on behavioural learning and toward other approaches:
Cognitive:
“Respond to text in personal, creative, and critical ways”
Student-centred approach
“Transform ideas and information to create original texts”
“Express an opinion and support it with credible evidence”
Social Constructivist Learning Theory
Emphasis on Social and collaborative learning
“Recognize and appreciate how different features, forms, and genres of texts reflect different purposes, audiences, and messages”
“Exchange ideas and viewpoints to build shared understanding and extend thinking”
“Texts are socially, culturally, and historically constructed.”
Overall, I am fairly impressed with the direction that ELA education has taken since my experience of it in the 1990s. Incorporating the internet and increasingly advanced computer technology that students will have available to them in their post-secondary education, career and/or daily lives seems like an obvious and essential choice.
In terms of approaches and techniques associated with different theories of learning, I do believe in retaining some elements of a more traditional, didactic and behavioural approach:
- Focus on grammar, structure and proper word usage: not only does this have the potential to lead to clarity and professionalism in future communication, it also lays the groundwork for a richer internal intellectual experience, as any thoughts we have beyond basic urges and emotions are constructed with the language we know well.
- Focus on observable evidence of learning: Our responsibility as educators is not just to teach in the hopes that our students will learn, but also to evaluate and monitor their learning progress so we can adapt how we are teaching them on an ongoing basis. Being able to execute specific, observable and measurable behaviors like spelling words correctly and writing coherent paragraphs are key indicators that a student has made enough progress to move on to more complicated and advanced content.
However, I am also excited to incorporate into my teaching some of the cognitive and social constructionist elements that had little to no presence in my own high school English education:
- Greater emphasis on creativity and personal response to text: this will allow students to adapt to a society and economy that is changing far more rapidly now than it was when I was their age.
- Greater emphasis on indigenous perspectives: this is not only essential for accommodating, honouring and de-marginalizing indigenous students, it also helps non-indigenous students become better citizens and appreciate the historical context that made Canada what it is today.
- Understanding the historical and social context of both texts and their audiences: This will allow students to have a broader understanding of the impact that texts have on the world, and to perform better on any educational or career path related to the social sciences.
Now is an exciting time to be a teacher, with a convergence of technology and theory the likes of which the profession has never seen before. I look forward to making the most of all we have to choose from!