Engaging Adolescent Learners: International Perspectives on Curriculum, Pedagogy and Practice

195 Pages·2018·2.14 MB·English

by  Brandy Yee

Engaging Adolescent Learners
Brandy Yee • Anne Sliwka
Matti Rautiainen
Engaging Adolescent
Learners
International Perspectives on
Curriculum, Pedagogy and Practice
Brandy Yee Anne Sliwka
Calgary Board of Education, Universität Heidelberg
University of Calgary Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Calgary, AB, Canada
Matti Rautiainen
University of Jyväskylä
Jyväskylä, Finland
ISBN 978-3-319-52601-0 ISBN 978-3-319-52602-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52602-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018953169
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
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This book is dedicated to all those teachers, students and instructional
leaders whose words and work have provided us with images of practice
that will positively impact the ways in which we engage adolescents in
their learning.
This book is also dedicated to that person each of us has in our lives who will
not only read our chapters, but who, more importantly, inspires us to be
brave enough to share our words with the world…WGY, thank you for
being my person…xo
Contents
1 Why Comparative Research on the Middle Years? 1
2 S etting the Stage 21
3 Multicultural and Multifaceted Canada 71
4 G ermany: A System Undergoing Change 115
5 Finland: Towards the Future School 139
6 Ecologies of Practice 161
vii
List of Figures
Fig. 3.1 (a, b, c) Whys, hows and whats on rocks 89
Fig. 5.1 Big Picture of Teacher Education at the Department of Teacher
Education at the University of Jyväskylä 152
ix
1
Why Comparative Research
on the Middle Years?
Is it okay if I tell you that most days I feel like I don’t even know who this
person is who is staring back at me in the mirror. Sometimes I am happy,
sometimes I am sad, and then mad and just bored, all in like the same hour.
My body aches and all these things are happening to it that I feel embarrassed
to ask my family and friends about. And then I have to be in class and try to
hold all these emotions together and also get my mind focused on learning.
Every day feels like a struggle.
(Yee, Student Interview, December 2014)
Anyone who has recently stepped into a middle years’ classroom knows
all too well the truth of this portrait—the lived experience of learners in
our schools today. Early adolescents are truly a unique group of learners,
like none other a teacher might experience—a group that will at one
moment test a teacher’s mettle and the very next bring so much elation
and reward that a teacher might even question how they could ever think
of working with another age group. This is the appeal and the true curios-
ity behind the early adolescent learner and is the heart of what we will
present to you in this book.
While many arguments can be found to support either the early years
(kindergarten through grade 4) or the high school years (grades 10
© The Author(s) 2018 1
B. Yee et al., Engaging Adolescent Learners,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52602-7_1
2 B. Yee et al.
through 12) as being of crucial importance in a child’s growth and devel-
opment, it is the middle years that have often gone unnoticed. Much
brain-based research has been devoted to understanding the tremendous
changes early adolescents experience; yet, connecting that research to
school-based practices for these learners has remained elusive. Decisions
about middle level learning environments and programming for these
learners are often based on budgets and capital plans as opposed to what
will best support them through what can be a very tumultuous time.
This is not a group of slightly more complex primary students. Nor is it a
group of immature high schoolers. These [middle-years learners] are
unique. Intellectually, the tools they need for figuring out academics and
life are not all in the toolbox yet. This makes decision making, impulsivity
control, moral/abstract reasoning, “reading” the situation, planning,
understanding consequences of words and actions, and other executive
functions intermittent at best. They are fiercely independent, yet paradoxi-
cally, they crave social connection. They move from concrete to abstract
thinking, sounding like adults when talking about some topics, and young
children when discussing others. They crave competence, self-definition,
creativity, vividness in learning, emotionally control/power over their lives,
physical activity, positive social interactions with adults and peers, struc-
ture and clear limits, and meaningful participation in school/community.
Most of all, they want to belong. (Wormeli 2012, para. 9–14)
Truly understanding the unique developmental needs of early adolescent
learners and how the multifaceted developmental changes they undergo
during this period impact their experience in school is often overlooked
while educators with good intentions engage in “strategic guesswork”
attempting to create effective and appropriate learning environments and
opportunities for adolescent students. We cannot deny the very real stages
of physical, emotional and social development and transition occurring
for these learners; however, we need not perpetuate myths that associate
early adolescence with distress, difficulty or suffering. If school systems
attend to how these changes impact teaching and learning, middle level
learning environments can achieve their potential in becoming remarkable
places of learning, responsive to the unique learning needs of early
adolescents.
Why Comparative Research on the Middle Years? 3
With much attention worldwide currently focused on the early years
of learning along with supporting students as they work towards high
school completion, it is the early adolescent learner, age 10–14, and the
middle years of learning that are often overlooked as large education sys-
tems endeavour to bolster student achievement. An abundance of current
research highlights a concerning decline of student engagement in and
connectedness with their learning, beginning at age 10 (Association for
Middle Level Education 2010; Balfanz 2009; Centre for Collaborative
Education 2003; Manitoba Education 2008; McCreary Centre Society
2009; National Association of Secondary School Principals 2006; OISE
2008; Rumble and Aspland 2009; Steinberg 2014; Willms et al. 2009;
Wormeli 2011). Still, a significant imbalance exists in the amount of
time, money and human resources education systems have invested in
the middle years of learning as compared to learners on either end of the
developmental continuum.
According to one study, Young People in Canada: Their Health and
Well-Being, early adolescents’ behaviours and self-perceptions are closely
related to their quality of life in school (Klinger et al. 2011). This study
found that by Grade 8, only 21 per cent of girls and 16 per cent of boys
reported “liking school a lot” (p. 52). Furthermore, 52 per cent of girls
and 54 per cent of boys described their “teachers [as being] interested in
them,” and only 72 per cent of girls and 70 per cent of boys believed that
“most of their teachers were friendly” (p. 54). Similarly, a study sponsored
by the McCreary Centre Society (2009) in British Columbia examined
adolescents’ perceptions of school and feeling connected to school and
their learning throughout the adolescent developmental period. This
multifaceted study generated troubling findings that characterized early
adolescent learners as lacking any meaningful connection to school across
all grades. Results showed a sharp drop in student connectedness to their
learning from 23 per cent in Grade 7 to 7 per cent in Grade 10, with a
slight rise to 12 per cent in Grade 12. Longitudinal research studies from
both New Zealand and Australia indicate that it “works” for schools to
develop a middle years approach. Outcomes are better, student engage-
ment with their learning is greater, teacher satisfaction is higher and
resources within and across schools are better utilized (O’Sullivan 2005).
Haigh (2004) writes, “Studies have overwhelmingly concluded that