We’ve seen it before: blank stares after asking the class a question, confusion when proposing a new concept, and of course, that one kid- the one who’s certain he knows a lot more about the subject than you- raising his hand to undoubtedly ask “why are we doing this?”
Much of this, I’ve found in my personal experience, is a result of talking at students and not with them. Giving them information and no real context to situate it within. The best educational experiences I’ve had thus far have been due to collaboration and integration, concepts that Lane discusses in her chapter on “Interstitial Design Process.”
In this chapter, Lane identifies how “a socially collaborative approach to creative problem solving by doing and exploring” can encourage a classroom atmosphere that is more conducive to learning and real-world application. Such an approach would require considering how the students themselves are situated in the academic and socio-cultural context; in other words, to identify aspects of students ‘schematas’ and apply them to the curriculum.
For example, it appears my class is well acquainted with the popular show “The Office.” By rephrasing certain concepts in terms of scenes appearing in the show, or creating assignments-such as editing a memo for informal and unprofessional tone and verbiage- utilizing characters from the show I have found students seem to absorb content more easily.
Creating assignments that interact with multiple design concepts and forms is relatively easy to integrate into the business communication course load; however, collaboration proves to be a consistently difficult concept for many students to come to terms with. Perhaps the metaphorical framework of ‘business’ or ‘corporate’ evokes individualistic attitudes and a ‘everyone is out to get you’ ethos as most students express distaste or outright rejection at collaborating with classmates.
It would be beneficial, and would ultimately work to humanize the business field itself if collaboration was implemented more often in other courses besides rhetoric-based classes; it may reform the ideology of business as a cutthroat field into a more morally or ethically responsible one.
Aurora, I love how you refer to “The Office” to create a larger context for your students, I should probably do the same! I’m replying to your post because your first paragraph caught my attention, you have smart “blogging” skills that make a reader stay for the entire show. But that’s not the only reason I stayed– I like your ideas and I think they’re worth trying.
You make a good point when you say speaking “at” instead of “with”, and I personally sometimes find myself falling into that trap, thanks for pointing it out.
You rock.
-G
Nice work, Aurora. I really like how you situate your classroom with examples from “The Office” — which, for all that it is satirical (and hysterical), still speaks to the realities of the workplace. I agree with you: students have a hard time with collaboration. A process which should reduce the amount each individual has to do is instead seen as an additional workload. This may be due to previous experiences, or it may simply be, as you suggest, the result of a “dog-eat-dog” mentality in the business world.
Hi Aurora!
I love your hands-on collaboration approach! I agree we need to talk with students not at students. This also prepares them for the business world and collaboration and being globally-minded are increasingly important. As you say, creating an atmosphere of working together does prepare students for real-world application.
I like the approach you take using “The Office” to connect with your students! It’s a great way to engage students in the class discussion! This strategy really makes use of the multiple design concepts you talk about!