Reflection #2:
Place-based learning: perspectives on different audiences.
When you look through the lens of a kaleidoscope, what do you see? Those beautiful images of patterns that keep changing as you focus the lens on different objects, bring a sense of magic to mind, doesn’t it? That is what I see, when I look through the lens of place-based education: so many opportunities, beautiful places and ideas to explore…
Place-based education has quite an important strength as it can adapt to a specific place due to its unique features (Smith, 2002). Thus, a variety of audiences would have an opinion and hopefully a growth mindset about this type of education.
With the current theme of sustainability for Inquiry in mind, I am reminded of the mountains around our school property in the south of Auckland. Questions come to mind such as ‘What is the historical significance? Who lived here?’ I believe that my students and their whanau - local audiences, - and myself can answer this when place-based education is implemented. With online-research, video-recording, photos and voice-recording, place-based learning will come alive. Image annotation is another digital tool that can be used (Zimmerman & Land, 2014). Students use these digital tools to collaborate, to problem-solve and to construct knowledge as per the 21st century skills (Larson & Miller, 2011) to gain knowledge about their place.
Henderson (2017) writes for example about a student whose engagement in learning and his social behaviour had undergone a positive change due to his involvement in his community after the damaging impact of an earthquake. He connected science-related incident to a community-based involvement (Zimmerman & Land, 2014).
Our school staff as a local audience should reflect on the following questions (Penetito, 2009): do all Pakeha New Zealanders know anything about their heritage, where they live, the impact they have on that environment and on each other? What do we know about our own students, the community we serve and its local landscape features? Penetito (2009) clarifies that this is not called indigenous education because pepeha in Maori terms would ask questions such as “How do I fit into this place, and what is this place?”. Rather, place-based education is about us making a connection to a specific place and to the community.
What can place-based education look like in New Zealand within a national audience? Penetito (2009) wants to see that this curriculum becomes compulsory, as nothing about the rich, local history had been shared through teaching when he went to school many years ago, due to negative relationships between families and teachers.
I wonder how the Ministry of Education and teachers in New Zealand perceive place-based learning. Townsend (2012) describes how a school in the Bay of Plenty had made use of a rock-climbing feature at Moturiki Island. This island also gives students the opportunity to study its marine life, history and cultural aspects, how the land is being used as well as its protection and maintenance (Townsend, 2012). The studies these students have undertaken covered national as well as global issues. Thus, place-based education is definitely appealing to schools in New Zealand especially to Maori students (Townsend, 2012) when suitable activities are chosen.
A school in the South Whidbey School District in Washington has been growing their own food for years with the help of local businesses and the community and have shared valuable lessons from this experience (Getting Smart, 2017). This doesn’t only promote exercise and healthy eating habits, but also creates and instils positive attitude towards work. Also, a teacher-training program had been launched in Finland in order to make sure teachers inform students about the sustainability of their community (Sarivaara & Uusiautti, 2018). It seems that place-based learning is an equally attractive and valuable learning concept overseas.
Place-based education should be inclusive in order to make a global impact of change (Ferguson et al., 2019). Thus, I have to commit to new ways of teaching, but how flexible am I? We therefore have to plan for collaborative learning through the means of digital learning (Zimmerman & Land, 2014). Also, am I allowed to control time, space and the syllabus? (Harasymchuk, 2015).
Penetito (2009) explains it so uniquely by saying that the way we inhabit a place, will show how much it is worth to us, our connections to it, and our intentions for it. What is your connection to the place you inhabit?
References:
Eason, C. (2003). Landcare Research Discovery: Researchers fish for answers on urban stream pollution. Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd. Newsletter Issue 8.
Ferguson, R., Coughlan, T., Egelandsdal, K., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Hillaire, G., ... & Misiejuk, K. (2019). Innovating pedagogy 2019: Open university innovation report 7.
Getting Smart (2017). Quick start guide to implementing place-based education. Retrieved from https://www.gettingsmart.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Quick-Start-Guide-to-Implementing-Place-Based-Education.pdf
Harasymchuk, B. (2015). Place-based education & critical pedagogies of place: teachers challenging the neocolonizing processes of the New Zealand and Canadian schooling systems. Retrieved from https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/10662
Henderson, C. (2017). The case for place-based learning amid our mental health crisis. Retrieved from https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/95577601/the-case-for-placebased-learning-amid-our-mental-health-crisis#comments
Larson, L. C. & Miller, T. N. (2011). 21st CENTURY SKILLS: Prepare Students for THE FUTURE. Kappa Delta Pi Record. Vol. 47 Issue 3.
Penetito, W. (2009). Place-based education: Catering for curriculum, culture and community. New Zealand Annual Review of Education, 18(2008), 5-29.
Sarivaara, E., & Uusiautti, S. (2018). Transformational elements for learning outdoors in Finland: A review of research literature. International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 7(3), 73-84.
Smith, G. (2002). Place-Based Education: Learning to Be Where We Are. The Phi Delta Kappan, 83(8), 584-594. Retrieved April 12, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/20440205
Zimmerman, H. T., & Land, S. M. (2014). Facilitating place-based learning in outdoor informal environments with mobile computers. TechTrends, 58(1), 77-83.
Place-based learning: perspectives on different audiences.
When you look through the lens of a kaleidoscope, what do you see? Those beautiful images of patterns that keep changing as you focus the lens on different objects, bring a sense of magic to mind, doesn’t it? That is what I see, when I look through the lens of place-based education: so many opportunities, beautiful places and ideas to explore…
Place-based education has quite an important strength as it can adapt to a specific place due to its unique features (Smith, 2002). Thus, a variety of audiences would have an opinion and hopefully a growth mindset about this type of education.
With the current theme of sustainability for Inquiry in mind, I am reminded of the mountains around our school property in the south of Auckland. Questions come to mind such as ‘What is the historical significance? Who lived here?’ I believe that my students and their whanau - local audiences, - and myself can answer this when place-based education is implemented. With online-research, video-recording, photos and voice-recording, place-based learning will come alive. Image annotation is another digital tool that can be used (Zimmerman & Land, 2014). Students use these digital tools to collaborate, to problem-solve and to construct knowledge as per the 21st century skills (Larson & Miller, 2011) to gain knowledge about their place.
Henderson (2017) writes for example about a student whose engagement in learning and his social behaviour had undergone a positive change due to his involvement in his community after the damaging impact of an earthquake. He connected science-related incident to a community-based involvement (Zimmerman & Land, 2014).
Our school staff as a local audience should reflect on the following questions (Penetito, 2009): do all Pakeha New Zealanders know anything about their heritage, where they live, the impact they have on that environment and on each other? What do we know about our own students, the community we serve and its local landscape features? Penetito (2009) clarifies that this is not called indigenous education because pepeha in Maori terms would ask questions such as “How do I fit into this place, and what is this place?”. Rather, place-based education is about us making a connection to a specific place and to the community.
What can place-based education look like in New Zealand within a national audience? Penetito (2009) wants to see that this curriculum becomes compulsory, as nothing about the rich, local history had been shared through teaching when he went to school many years ago, due to negative relationships between families and teachers.
I wonder how the Ministry of Education and teachers in New Zealand perceive place-based learning. Townsend (2012) describes how a school in the Bay of Plenty had made use of a rock-climbing feature at Moturiki Island. This island also gives students the opportunity to study its marine life, history and cultural aspects, how the land is being used as well as its protection and maintenance (Townsend, 2012). The studies these students have undertaken covered national as well as global issues. Thus, place-based education is definitely appealing to schools in New Zealand especially to Maori students (Townsend, 2012) when suitable activities are chosen.
A school in the South Whidbey School District in Washington has been growing their own food for years with the help of local businesses and the community and have shared valuable lessons from this experience (Getting Smart, 2017). This doesn’t only promote exercise and healthy eating habits, but also creates and instils positive attitude towards work. Also, a teacher-training program had been launched in Finland in order to make sure teachers inform students about the sustainability of their community (Sarivaara & Uusiautti, 2018). It seems that place-based learning is an equally attractive and valuable learning concept overseas.
Place-based education should be inclusive in order to make a global impact of change (Ferguson et al., 2019). Thus, I have to commit to new ways of teaching, but how flexible am I? We therefore have to plan for collaborative learning through the means of digital learning (Zimmerman & Land, 2014). Also, am I allowed to control time, space and the syllabus? (Harasymchuk, 2015).
Penetito (2009) explains it so uniquely by saying that the way we inhabit a place, will show how much it is worth to us, our connections to it, and our intentions for it. What is your connection to the place you inhabit?
References:
Eason, C. (2003). Landcare Research Discovery: Researchers fish for answers on urban stream pollution. Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd. Newsletter Issue 8.
Ferguson, R., Coughlan, T., Egelandsdal, K., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Hillaire, G., ... & Misiejuk, K. (2019). Innovating pedagogy 2019: Open university innovation report 7.
Getting Smart (2017). Quick start guide to implementing place-based education. Retrieved from https://www.gettingsmart.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Quick-Start-Guide-to-Implementing-Place-Based-Education.pdf
Harasymchuk, B. (2015). Place-based education & critical pedagogies of place: teachers challenging the neocolonizing processes of the New Zealand and Canadian schooling systems. Retrieved from https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/10662
Henderson, C. (2017). The case for place-based learning amid our mental health crisis. Retrieved from https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/95577601/the-case-for-placebased-learning-amid-our-mental-health-crisis#comments
Larson, L. C. & Miller, T. N. (2011). 21st CENTURY SKILLS: Prepare Students for THE FUTURE. Kappa Delta Pi Record. Vol. 47 Issue 3.
Penetito, W. (2009). Place-based education: Catering for curriculum, culture and community. New Zealand Annual Review of Education, 18(2008), 5-29.
Sarivaara, E., & Uusiautti, S. (2018). Transformational elements for learning outdoors in Finland: A review of research literature. International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 7(3), 73-84.
Smith, G. (2002). Place-Based Education: Learning to Be Where We Are. The Phi Delta Kappan, 83(8), 584-594. Retrieved April 12, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/20440205
Zimmerman, H. T., & Land, S. M. (2014). Facilitating place-based learning in outdoor informal environments with mobile computers. TechTrends, 58(1), 77-83.
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