Have you ever considered how giving students choice and agency over their learning could lead to greater outcomes? Giving kids choices is a bit of a hot topic in the parenting world these days. Things like, “Do you want to walk up the stairs or climb up the stairs? Do you want me to brush your teeth or would you like to brush your teeth?”
But in terms of education, we’re going to think about this a little bit more deeply and go over some of the research that backs this up. Giving students choices doesn’t just mean that it’s better for parents and teachers, it actually means that learning is enhanced for students. Let’s dive in!
many schools lack the element of choice
Let’s start by considering a traditional school day and how it is dictated for students. Most days in a traditional school, whether that’s kindergarten or 12th grade, often looks something like this:
- 9-9:30 Math
- 9:30-10 Reading or Phonics
- 10-10:30 is PE
- 10:30-11 Specials or Elective class
- And so on
It’s a series of short time increments that are decided upon by the school and the teacher and the student generally doesn’t have a lot of say in it. As students progress into middle and high school, they do have a little bit more decision making ability when they get to sign up for a certain elective class, for example.
So the schedule is one way where students are not given much choice but the lack of choice also happens within the classroom as well. Do you ever remember having assignments where the teacher told you what book would be read, how many paragraphs your essay on the book needed to have, and exactly how the poster you made needed to look? Now that doesn’t happen in every class but I think it happens a lot more than you might realize. Worksheets that are to be filled out one specific way, an exact number of math problems that every child needs to complete, the science project topic that the class does, etc.
Why Should Students Be Given Choices?
Giving students choices not only helps them to feel more in control of their learning but it actually enhances their learning. Take this research study from 2012. Second and third-grade students were assigned either a mandatory or voluntary log and surveyed about their motivation to read at baseline and after two months. Students with mandatory logs expressed declines in both interest and attitudes towards recreational reading in comparison to peers with voluntary logs, and attitudes towards academic reading decreased significantly from pre to post test across conditions. So just by forcing the students to do the reading log, it made their motivation to read and their attitudes toward reading decline.
Can choices help my child actually learn more?
Check out this study, where 7-9 year olds were asked to solve a series of anagrams (a world that is formed by rearranging the letters of another given word). There were 3 groups of children: the first group was allowed to choose from among six categories of anagrams like food, animals, or parties. The second group was told that the experimenter had chosen the categories, and the third group was told their mother had chosen the categories. In fact, second and third groups actually completed the exact same anagrams as the first groups. There were two important findings in the study. First, the children who chose their own category solved twice as many anagrams as the children who thought the experimenter or their mother had chosen for them. Secondly, during an optional free-play session after the initial anagram task, the children who chose their own category spent much more time freely choosing to solve anagrams than did children whose category had been chosen for them.
Can you believe that? Children who chose their own category solved twice as many! Think about if you extrapolated this to things like the number of math problems they completed, or the number of books they read. This study demonstrates how the power of choice positively enhances motivation and performance. When children are allowed to choose what to work on, when, and for how long their learning is enhanced.
Another study, this time of eighth graders, revealed that when students shifted from assigned reading to choice reading, there was “increased reading volume, a reduction in students failing the state test, and changes in peer relationships, self-regulation, and conceptions of self.”
practical ways teachers can give students choice
What are some ways that teachers can give meaningful choices to students?
- Who to work with- whether they complete the assignment independently or with a partner/group
- Ways to show their knowledge- a report, a dramatic play, song, podcast
- Choice of which book to read
- Seating- sit on the floor, at a desk, in a beanbag chair
how Montessori schools give choice
In Montessori education, this idea of “choice” is taken to a whole new level. One of the core tenets of Montessori is freedom of choice within limits. As we mentioned above, students in a Montessori classroom have the choice of who to work with, and the choice of how and where to work . But also, children in a Montessori classroom choose what work they engage with from the outset. Maria Montessori, the founder of the Montessori educational method, recognized the importance of choice back in 1910. The impact of student choice isn’t new information; this is something that Montessori education has been doing for over 100 years! Through their ability to choose what to work on, children in a Montessori classroom are constantly learning the skills of time management, prioritizing what needs to get done today or tomorrow, choosing works that interest them and having the ability to spend greater amounts of time in an area of interest.
What ways have you seen choice given in your child’s current school? Leave us a comment!
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