Believe Your Students are Co-Creators!

    Last week marked a pivotal moment within my classroom. Both I and my students partook in the co-creative process in Thursday's recitation. During this moment, as my students and I furthered each other's understandings of the world, I was (as hooks says) "developing sharper understandings of how to share knowledge and what to do in my participatory role with students" (p. 152). This moment in time showed me how being vulnerable and submitting to the idea that I too, need my students' help sometimes - and that's okay. #HeartworkisHardwork when traditional notions of pedagogy tell us teachers should always have the answers when in reality, and we decide to let our barriers down, having students aid in the process of collective ideation. 

    This past week's 2020 PowerPoint was jam-packed with definitions. Some definitions we had already gone over in "big lecture" as I call it, and others I was excited to talk about. We were discussing the listening process. Upon discussing barriers to effective listening, we came across a few terms that have very similar meanings - I believe it was selective listening and closeminded that sparked the initial conversation. A student raised their hand and asked, "How do we differentiate between selective listening and closemindedness?" For a moment, a pang of panic shot to my chest. Do I know the answer? I only studied these briefly with the definitions... "Well," I responded, "That's a great question. Personally, I'm thinking that closemindedness connotes a disagreement of opinion" and really, that's all I had to add. In fact, it seemed these terms were very similar (selective listening being the act of only hearing what one wants to hear, closemindedness being choosing not to listen altogether). Then another hand raised, one of my other students gave their input on how to differentiate between the two. Another student added an example. Following that, I produced an example on the board. A few moments later, I realized we were coming together as learners and creators and together, transforming the plane of learning we currently existed on. We were all speaking our own knowledge, and at the same time learning new things, into existence. I was so proud. This process continued on to the next slide, as we discussed a few more terms that were only different from technicality. 

    Another thing I realized, is that there is a stark difference between lack of teacher competence and collective knowledge creation. In order for the co-creation process to occur, the teacher must have the base knowledge to add or begin the conversation. IIn this sense, the teacher acts as a guide, helping the students navigate themselves through the learning process. At this moment, I realized it was not that I didn't have knowledge about this topic, but instead I had limited perspective. I needed my students to give their own input in order for everyone (different learners) within the classroom to fully grasp the differences here. Had this moment been a true threat to my competence, I would've felt deeper fear. While for a moment I had a pang of anxiety, I knew I was somewhat versed in these terms. Had I not known any answer at all, this could've been a total flop of a learning experience likely leaving all parties frustrated or annoyed.

    This goes to show, we have to have faith that our students have valuable things to add to the classroom. Should we believe the teacher is the primary, and only, source of knowledge we leave out the possibility that our students' gifts can produce great things? At this point we know if we believe our students to be zombies, they certainly will be. If we believe our students to be intelligent co-creators in the learning process, they certainly will be.