Part 1

Below are two different lesson designs for a reading class, each for a Grade 10 ESLC classroom on the topic of “The ways we learn”, within 75 minutes.

a.      Standardized Lesson Plan: Teacher-Centered

 The lesson starts with a review video showing how people learn in different ways. Then a teacher - centered lecture is given by showing students a PowerPoint of what reading strategies students need to use. A list of new vocabularies and grammar taken from the article as well are defined and well explained in bilingual language. Next students are given 20 minutes to read the required article quietly as to answer the questions on the worksheet. Last the teacher explains the answers with details and a similar article is given to students to read and write again for more practice. Students have to sit and read for another 20 minutes. At the end of the class worksheets will be collected for marking and grading. 

b.      Authentic Lesson Plan: Problem-Driven Project

 The teacher starts with a question: “Do you know what the ways that we learn are?” Students provide various answers by brainstorming for 5 minutes. Then they are placed in a couple of stations with each of 2-3 students provided with authentic materials including newspapers, magazine and brochures which help learners interact with the real world. Each station is given a sample mind map and a worksheet of 1 to 6 questions same for each station and 7 to 8 questions specific to the reading material they have. Students move around to discuss and seek help or share techniques that they are going to use for their mind map drawing. The teacher acts as a facilitator and provides help while students are working in their groups. At the end of the class the teacher will ask each group to present their product and exchange worksheet for peer evaluation. 

Part 2

Standardized Education

 In a typically standardized classroom, usually students sit in rows and work quietly by strictly following the teacher’s instruction. The teacher usually gives a lecture aiming for delivering knowledge. Students are expected to use the knowledge and skills that they receive from the teacher to do well in the various standardized tests organized by school, city and province. In a standardized system, everything has a standard and everyone has to follow the standard. Teachers are provided with a standardized curriculum, standardized objectives and outcomes, and standardized examinations. In such a system, people love to measure teaching and learning through “standards”. They believe they can measure “subjective interpretation of objective truth” (Davis et al. 2015, p. 34).

At most schools in China you will not be surprised to see a scene of thirty students sitting quietly in a classroom, with their eyes staring at the screen of a smart board, pretending to focus on teacher’s delivery of knowledge and skills. The teacher often talks for the entire period and still worries if he should teach more. From the scene it is clear that our class is still heavily based on a standardized model. I understand that nothing can be accomplished without norms or standards. Therefore I agree that Standardized curriculum provides school and teachers a norm to follow and the standardized testing system enforces a level of consistency or uniformity to certain practices or performance within the selected context. Both are useful tools to support some level of equity by ensuring all students have access to curriculum and receive consistent feedback of their academic achievement. However we should mind that the one-size-fits all curriculum might do harm to students who are being creative and special and the assembly line approach can't work for a classroom with diverse students. I also realize that the standardized testing gives students the power to understand how their effort has been rewarded and to indicate where to put their effort to continue to progress, but focusing on the product not the process hurts both teachers and students. This year, the biggest challenge for me in my ESL class is that I have to meet the required teaching outcome through Chinese administration’s criteria and I struggle to follow the Canadian administration’s expectation on making the classroom more meaningful while worrying if I should follow the assigned textbook and teach for various tests. When I spend most time and effort on making the classroom active and meaningful through various activities instead of emphasizing on test skills and knowledge, I worry about their final exam, and which is the only standard that I will be measured for my teaching. Standardized curriculum and standardized lesson plan are easy to follow but hard to engage students, and teachers and students being measured only by standard tests makes learning and teaching less meaningful.

Authentic Education

I didn’t realize that the way we taught might not suit the way that our students learnt, and I didn’t know we could teach the way they learnt. Until one day I read a quotation from Ignacio Estrad(2017): “If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.”(p. 147). Estrad’s (2017) motto aligns with authentic education’s philosophy because “authentic education begins with honoring the individual's unique history and proceeds with the nurturing of that individual's potentials” (Davis et al., 2015); they both realize that all students have unique natural strengths and needs, and both focus on more flexibility and choice in student learning.

My deep understanding of authentic education comes from the vivid metaphor of seeing standardized education being a human-made canal and authentic education being a natural river (Davis et al., 2015). The metaphor indicates that authentic education seems to focus more on student’s internal development by realizing differences among them. Meanwhile, the illustration of “chair” concept (Davis et al., 2015, p. 74) for maintaining coherence connects personal history and the different interpretations of the “chair” reveals that “Every learner will construe their experience in their own way” (Davis et al., 2015); from these two perspectives, teachers should recognize students’ personal experience and interest, offer them choices to think critically and creatively, be flexible when students bring their own ideas to the classroom, as well as to foster an authentic way of learning. Authentic education also provides teachers a different perspective on instruction approach. It refreshes the thinking of how we learn, and therefore, how we teach (Doyle, Morrison, 2016). For example, in one of my reading class, I use authentic materials such as old receipts, tickets, and brochures to connect them with the real world, and they are taught to use related reading skills to solve real world problems, which helps to build a more meaningful learning environment and leads to more interactive engagement.

Integration of Standardized Education and Authentic Education

Davis et al., (2015) stated that “learning is not determined by teaching; however, learning is dependent on teaching” (p. 75). In the standard system, everything about learning is centralized and teaching emphasizes on knowledge and information delivering. I don’t mind to use the“one-size-fits-all” Standardized curriculum to guild my teaching practices through the entire term, which I think is very necessary and beneficial for some reason. My frustration stems from the standardized test, and which is the only evaluation tool to measure the teacher and the students. Authentic system, which focuses more on reorienting perception, “support learner agency and interest through more profound connections to the subject matter” (Davis et. al, 2015, p. 98), seems an effective solution to cope with the problems of disengagement and boredment among students in the classroom.

I am from a very standardized system, however the school I work at is a Chinese and Canadian double diploma striving international school with a purpose of equipping Chinese high school students for oversea studies. I have been seeking possibilities by balancing both and integrating both to make my teaching more smoothly and meaningful. Very often I have to switch from two very different systems because one promotes authentic learning while the other emphasizes more on standardized teaching. What I do is to take the positive from each system with a growth mindset and provide an authentic environment but with standard. From Chinese side, I am given a very clear teaching goal for teaching-to tech for IELTS test and I will be measured by the final outcome-how well students perform on the exam. From Canadian side, I have to make sure that my students are involved in various learning activities and my evaluation must be based on 70% of course work and only 30% from final exam. In order to meet both expectations, when I do lesson plans, I adjust my teaching content accordingly. For example, in each unit of the textbook I am given, I design two lectured grammar days and 1 vocabulary practice day. The purpose of doing this is to teach for the assigned grammar and vocabulary tests. In order to decrease disinterest and disengagement among students, I demonstrate my lessons through game-based activities. I use authentic materials and I create projects which connected to their life and two days they will be immerged in the real problem solving setting. My principle is to activate their learning process through authentic approaches and to meet the required outcome by following standardized curriculum guide and content theme.

Conclusion

The way we teach influences the way students learn. Standardized education requires every student to learn the exact same material and be tested on the exact same material, which though I don’t support, especially for teaching in a “global village” classroom, but its attempts to streamline efficient processes and to enforce consistency or uniformity through standards support some level of equity. Authentic education which honors student’s unique natural strengths and needs, can be an effective solution to disengagement and boredment. Everything has two sides. What I can do is to promote the advantages of both system and intentionally to avoid their disadvantages. Every human is born with an aggressive desire to know more (Davis et al., 2015, p. 99). Either standardized education or authentic education, the role of the teacher is to revive the passion for learning in our students (Doyle & Morrison, 2016).and to provide them a welcome and inspiring environment to grow their potentials” (Davis et al., 2015, p.94).

References

 Davis, B., Sumara, D., & Luce-Kapler, R. (2015). Engaging Minds: Cultures of Education and Practices of Teaching (3rd ed.). Routledge. Doyle, C. & Morrison, C. (2016). Teaching and Learning. Section 2.3: Teaching and Authentic Education.