I believe the phrase: Good learning engages students in "playful" activities, using symbolic tools to develop and internalize meaningful thought. In the CTE classrooms this is how we do what we do. As my first Administrator told me in my interview 24 years ago."Wayne, we teach the world of work and Cosmetology is your tool to do that". I still believe this today as I did 24 years ago.
When designing a lesson, my first thought is "How does this transfer to the business world?" It maybe useful in the Cosmetology industry, but how can they use this in other businesses as well? It maybe a practical skill, such as: haircut, color technique, perm or Updo. They learn to take on the challenge of a new task; frustration, peer coaching and overcoming an obstacle. In theory most of the subjects will transfer to Cosmetology as well as the business world: Infection Control, Resume` writing, Job interviewing skills, Public speaking and Entrepreneurship.
I can only speak about education from the CTE perspective, because that's my world. I find it amusing that the "experts" keep talking about; Active play, authentic learning, making learning visible and modeling, coaching and fading. I've taught in the private sector as well as in a high school, and this is how they want us to teach their learners. I know that every ten years or so there's this "new idea" and it seems to talk about student engagement, teaching for future jobs...... We in CTE know all to well the importance of education and engaging our learner for the future, because that's what we do! We teach the world of work, and our vocation is how we motivate our learners.
Here's a quick video about the Skills gap from Mike Rowe, I hope that you enjoy.
I'm on the other end of the spectrum with my students (most are severely disabled), but work on the same principle. Your kids are getting ready to be professionals. They need soft skills that they can apply to a variety of positions, as well as job-specific skills. Since my students are lower functioning, we've been planning for them to age-out earlier and earlier in their educational careers. A non-verbal 6th grader will probably not be speaking in full sentences when he/she ages out at 21. But what CAN he/she do, and what can we start building on now to prepare for the future?
ReplyDeleteOnce, again, thanks for the video. It helps put into perspective that we require a whole societal shift (federal, big business, concerned individuals, etc) in order to push education towards creating future ready learners. What CTE does is extremely important: you're helping to fill that 6.6 million job gap or you're giving students skills they may use elsewhere. The push to attend a 4 year college post-high school is very real, and it's stressing/depressing/destroying the most imaginative students, who get caught up in the rat race to make the A and yet aren't resilient or good communicators. Something needs to change.
ReplyDeleteWayne,
ReplyDeleteI love this post. It revealed more about you that I didn't know!
You looked at your practice holistically and really found how Vygotsky's theories are applied in what you do! In fact, it seems that kinesthetic "play" is much more prevalent in the way your learner's learn. Not only that, but I imagine CTE teaching style is extremely collaborative and supports an environment where teachers can be more of a mentor. That way, they would be able to use the "fading" practice.