Sabrina Köhler
Overview
My 9th grade high school class occasionally had problems with motivation and learning, were often rude to each other, and my teacher colleagues complained about loud noise levels and bad classwork results.
The class had not yet come into contact with Experience-Oriented Learning. Having been their grade teacher for a year, we had established a solid relationship and the pupils were willing to engage with the experiment I describe in this case study.
Topic
Recognizing mutual goals and interests and creating opportunities to support each other as a team to more easily achieve better goals.
Staging
a. Preparation
The previously prepared Scoop was lying under a cover on the floor in the middle of a circle of chairs. Three index cards and a permanent marker pen were at hand. Each of the students were given three pieces of paper on which they were to write down bullet-point answers to the following questions:
1. What is my goal here in the school, what do I want to achieve?
2. What is stopping me from doing so?
3. When I am standing on the stage on graduation day holding my graduation certificate and looking back on the past 12 months, what will have had to happen for me to say it was a good year?
b. Performance
The students answered the questions and briefly presented them to the group. It soon became clear that they primarily wanted to get good grades and feel safe and comfortable in the class. They used these findings to formulate common goals. The students recognized that, generally speaking, they all wanted the same things.
We collected the examples of the difficulties they were encountering on their journey to achieving their common goals. As expected, this included the high level of disruption, problems with the learning materials, and unfriendly behavior toward each other.
The common goals of “I want to get good grades” and “I want to feel comfortable in class” were written on two large sheets of paper and placed in the middle. All of the students were able to identify with at least one of the goals.
The students named a number of problems with reaching their goals. The most common issues (see above) were written on the index cards and also placed on the floor in the middle. A tennis ball was placed on each of the cards. Then the cover was removed to reveal the Scoop.
“What you can see is the tool that will help you solve your problems.” With these words, I instructed the students to move the problems that were in their way into a trash can, which was also placed in the middle.
“You now have the chance to solve your problems together. When doing so, it is important for no-one to touch the ball with their hands. This tool acts as a catalyzer that reveals and reinforces the strengths of your group and you can only use this to move the balls to the garbage can.
Transfer to the real World
| Elements in the learning project | Elements in the real world |
|---|---|
| Tennis balls on the index cards | Issues in the class; obstacles they encounter on their journey to achieving their common goal |
| Scoop | Aids for solving problems; catalyzer of the strengths of the group |
| Strings | Links between the individual students |
After all, no one can solve difficulties in a group on their own, otherwise you would have done it long ago. Experience shows that this can only be done together.”
Reflection
After the three main issues in the class had been removed, the students sat down and reflected on the following questions:
1. What did you experience?
2. What helped solve problems? Why did it work? What worked well?
3. What could work even better?
After the students had expressed their opinions and the most important statements had been collated on the flip chart, they were then asked to consider how the qualities that the group demonstrated in the problem-solving process, i.e. those that they already possessed, could be changed in their daily school lives and how they could change those things that didn’t work so well.
Later on, a number of class counsel lessons were held to work on the results. The task was for the students to develop suggestions and proposals for possible approaches before the next lesson. Here are some of the approaches they developed:
• Forming learning teams.
• Nominating experts who provide extra help on specific subjects as well as agreeing, for example, that anyone can ask an expert for help.
• Class counsel lessons to define a code of conduct/communication.
• Development of a culture of praise (resolving issue of mutually negative communication)
• Practicing conflict resolution techniques in order to communicate without resorting to aggression.
Conclusion
The students were not previously aware that they all had the same goals and generally all faced the same difficulties. In addition – and most crucially – the experience as a group was successful and reciprocally effective. Their experiences in the activity ignited the spark that motivated them to try to work together and to support each other in tackling the difficulties they faced in the real world.