Engaging Place
Engaging place means to teach content through the lens of the place where you are. Whether you are in a city or a rural setting, this learning goal aims at giving students a sense of place, by allowing them to understand and take ownership of what they interact with from day to day (Kudryavtsev et al., 2012).
Teaching strategies that facilitate engaging place include:
The Conceptual Change Model (CCM) engages place because understanding is rooted in personal experience, which is in turn rooted in learners’ places. In order to understand learners’ conceptions of the world, educators must address their students’ attachment to place.
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Concept mapping facilitates the engagement place because...
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Culturally Relevant Pedagogy holds education as an integral part of community, as it places an emphasis on diverse cultures and students' experiences to make socially active citizens (Gorski 1999). With culture being valued, connection to place grows.
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Using design thinking in education inherently utilizes principles of place-based education. Design thinking requires empathy from students in order to address challenges (Brown & Wyatt, 2007). In order to create this connection, teachers must choose to address at least one of the three essential elements of place: culture, economy, and ecology. The goal of this is to “overcome the disjuncture between school and children's lives” (Smith, 2002). Design thinking relies on engaging place in order to give the challenge addressed an appropriate context and a project that is significant to students.
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Inquiry allows students to engage place by enabling them to ask and answer questions about the place they are in. Students can also learn more details or acquire factual knowledge about scientific concepts that apply to their place. Inquiry encourages engagement outside the classroom by providing different opportunities in both observation as well as hypotheses (Kudryavtsev et al., 2012).
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Because project-based learning is deeply rooted in solving real-life problems, place is often a driver of defining project topics. Students work on issues that they can relate to and that are relevant to their local communities.
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References
Brown, T., & Wyatt, J. (2010). Design thinking for social innovation. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 30-35.
Gorski, P. (1999). A Brief History of Multicultural Edu- cation. Retrieved from http://www.edchange.org/multicul- tural/papers/edchange_history.html
Kudryavtsev, A., Krasny, M.E., & Stedman, R.C. (2012, April 18). The Impact of Environmental Education on Sense of Place among Urban Youth. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/ES11-00318.1/full
Smith, G.A. (2002). Place-based education: Learning to be where we are. Phi Delta Kappan 83(8), 584-594.
Gorski, P. (1999). A Brief History of Multicultural Edu- cation. Retrieved from http://www.edchange.org/multicul- tural/papers/edchange_history.html
Kudryavtsev, A., Krasny, M.E., & Stedman, R.C. (2012, April 18). The Impact of Environmental Education on Sense of Place among Urban Youth. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/ES11-00318.1/full
Smith, G.A. (2002). Place-based education: Learning to be where we are. Phi Delta Kappan 83(8), 584-594.