Empowering Students to have a Voice in
Their Educational Development & Environment
My philosophy about learning / teaching involves a reciprocal model of communication between the learner and the facilitator. My most valuable learning experiences have come to me as a direct result of empowering students to teach me better ways to help teach them by soliciting their educational input. This concept would only serve to enrich any educational culture. Learners are our most valuable assets in the educational process, but are often excluded from having input into their learning experiences, preferences and environment.
According to Tom Northrup’s Article Titled Sharing Power, A CEO’s Most Effective Management Style, “When educational facilitators include student perspectives in the planning processes of their own learning cultures often their creative minds become kindled with inspirational ideas and solutions. Learners become enthusiastically engaged and motivated in learning when they feel passionately invested in their ideas. From my experience most student aspire to be successful learners.
When given a forum to participate in educational processes, e.g., program development, policy planning, classroom design, learning preferences, discipline alternatives, school improvement committees, everyone in the learning community benefits. Students facilitate learning opportunities for their teachers and vice versa. Thus the circle of reciprocal, lifelong learning begins to evolve while replicating a model that fosters positive collaborative learning.
