Voices in Urban Education
Archives
Extending Learning
VUE Number 16, Summer 2007
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EXCERPT:
Focus for Learning
By Shirley Brice Heath
Shirley Brice Heath is a professor-at-large at the Watson Institute of International Studies at Brown University and teaches in the anthropology and education departments. > Author bio
Community organizations offer possibilities for young people to focus their learning by using language and communication as vehicles for developing understanding.
It would be difficult to find anyone who would not, with some reflection, agree that we all need and want to extend our learning. Schools expect learners to extend curricular knowledge and skills from classroom to daily life and future planning. Families hope the young will carry their learning beyond the achievements of past generations. Nearly everyone agrees that when young people go beyond direct instruction to apply and test their learning, they practice, experiment, confirm, and supplement skills and information. When Maria, an eager geometry student, starts a conversation with a team of surveyors on site in her local neighborhood, she grasps for the first time where geometry actually works in the “real” world. When the family doctor explains to Ehud’s family the allergies of his younger sibling, Ehud sees some of what he has learned in his science class come to life. Such occasions focus the processes and practices of learning.
But such occasions of attention to when, how, and where knowledge and skills matter cannot simply be made to happen. As teachers and parents, we cannot create beneficial accidents of discovery. In particular, when young people in middle and secondary school become disillusioned or ask, “What good is this kind of learning for me?” we want to shower these students with opportunities that will focus their attention on just what learning can and will do for them.
This article explores possibilities for such “showering.” We find these possibilities in community organizations that extend the learning of young people. They provide pathways, incentives, and apprenticeship opportunities, models of excellence, and career and further education options. Many center their activities in community service, enabling the young to engage directly in civic affairs. Others immerse young people in sciences and arts, often with an eye toward entrepreneurship and employment in marketing and advertising, environmental architecture, or arts performance and education.
All these community organizations need the oral and written skills of young people, and they offer plenty of opportunity for learners to advance in their understanding and uses of literacy. But these organizations also depend on the savvy of young people to bring together the visual, communicative, and performative with evolving technologies.
Language as a Vehicle of Learning
For several centuries, formal education has looked upon language as a subject of learning — not as a vehicle for learning. Community organizations that engage young people in multiple roles, such as that of artist, publicist, or community advocate, have to count on the language of the young to carry their work. Community organizations often have a mission to look beyond their own doors to develop communities economically; work with local populations to meet felt needs; and build family interest in local museums, parks, and community centers. In all this outreach work, community organizations depend on young people as resources who can speak and write as advocates and promoters. They rely on the skills of the young to persuade, deliberate, inform, and explain. Even the brief glimpses of two such organizations, portrayed in this section, will suggest how community organizations see language as their central vehicle of learning.
Archives
Extending Learning
VUE Number 16, Summer 2007
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
EXCERPT:
Focus for Learning
By Shirley Brice Heath
Shirley Brice Heath is a professor-at-large at the Watson Institute of International Studies at Brown University and teaches in the anthropology and education departments. > Author bio
Community organizations offer possibilities for young people to focus their learning by using language and communication as vehicles for developing understanding.
It would be difficult to find anyone who would not, with some reflection, agree that we all need and want to extend our learning. Schools expect learners to extend curricular knowledge and skills from classroom to daily life and future planning. Families hope the young will carry their learning beyond the achievements of past generations. Nearly everyone agrees that when young people go beyond direct instruction to apply and test their learning, they practice, experiment, confirm, and supplement skills and information. When Maria, an eager geometry student, starts a conversation with a team of surveyors on site in her local neighborhood, she grasps for the first time where geometry actually works in the “real” world. When the family doctor explains to Ehud’s family the allergies of his younger sibling, Ehud sees some of what he has learned in his science class come to life. Such occasions focus the processes and practices of learning.
But such occasions of attention to when, how, and where knowledge and skills matter cannot simply be made to happen. As teachers and parents, we cannot create beneficial accidents of discovery. In particular, when young people in middle and secondary school become disillusioned or ask, “What good is this kind of learning for me?” we want to shower these students with opportunities that will focus their attention on just what learning can and will do for them.
This article explores possibilities for such “showering.” We find these possibilities in community organizations that extend the learning of young people. They provide pathways, incentives, and apprenticeship opportunities, models of excellence, and career and further education options. Many center their activities in community service, enabling the young to engage directly in civic affairs. Others immerse young people in sciences and arts, often with an eye toward entrepreneurship and employment in marketing and advertising, environmental architecture, or arts performance and education.
All these community organizations need the oral and written skills of young people, and they offer plenty of opportunity for learners to advance in their understanding and uses of literacy. But these organizations also depend on the savvy of young people to bring together the visual, communicative, and performative with evolving technologies.
Language as a Vehicle of Learning
For several centuries, formal education has looked upon language as a subject of learning — not as a vehicle for learning. Community organizations that engage young people in multiple roles, such as that of artist, publicist, or community advocate, have to count on the language of the young to carry their work. Community organizations often have a mission to look beyond their own doors to develop communities economically; work with local populations to meet felt needs; and build family interest in local museums, parks, and community centers. In all this outreach work, community organizations depend on young people as resources who can speak and write as advocates and promoters. They rely on the skills of the young to persuade, deliberate, inform, and explain. Even the brief glimpses of two such organizations, portrayed in this section, will suggest how community organizations see language as their central vehicle of learning.
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