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Module 7 took a turn this week. We ventured into a territory that has controversy surrounding it. In our Models of Teaching text chapter 10 discusses “Role Playing”. This idea is a learner-centered instructional model, which focuses not so much on the actual material taught in a classroom, but on the student. Carl Rogers did research on this type of teaching method and in the conclusion of his article entitled Researching Person-Centered Issues in Education he states, ” the research evidence clearly indicates that when students’ feelings are responded to, when they are regarded as worthwhile human beings capable of self-direction, and when their teacher relates to them in a person-to-person manner, good things happen.”

The concept of learner-centered/multiple Intelligences/role-playing models is that they are “non direct” teaching models or “learner-centered”. This model is based on the needs, feelings, emotions, dreams, and interests of the student being more important in a classroom than the basic subject knowledge being taught. The idea behind this model is that when the student is understood and realized as a human being in a safe environment and given the option of self-direction then achievement in knowledge with follow. Here it is easy to see where this model becomes controversial. Questions that may arise might have to do with what the meaning of education is, and how this model is following in that path.

I was a camp counselor one summer on a beautiful lake in northern Washington. My mission every day was to keep my kids safe while we discovered the trees, the lake, the bugs, the Lord, and themselves. I had campers from ages four to eighteen, and not one of them showed interest in me or the lessons until I showed interest in them. In the beginning of each new week I got to know eight new kids, and once we bonded the world around them became an adventure where all they wanted to do was soak-up everything. It was not a struggle to keep them interested, because I focused on things they wanted to do. We would vote on what activities to do each morning, and I would barely have enough content on botany, zoology, and the Bible throughout the day to keep them satisfied. I realize that being able to recreate this summer, with the bonding that lead into education, would be a tough feat. But, I do believe that engaging in your students’ lives and getting to know them can lead to wonderful discovery on both sides of the desks.