The Children's Machine and My Action Research

Since the beginning of the OMET, we have been reading quite a few readings that are very inspirational, especially The Children's Machine and other Papert's writings.

As a teacher, I ask myself sometimes how I make my students' learning a real one, the learning where they don't forget, the learning where they take control, and the learning where they construct their own knowledge.

To apply the learning to my practice, I am conducting an experiment to allow students to get a new sense of themselves as learners - that learning is something valuable, that setting a goal and working to achieve it is something important to them.

The experiment is a project-based learning where students in small learning circles are allowed to present their own design ideas, set their own goals, timelines, and standards of excellence. It started from last week and ends before the Christmas holiday.

It has been going on very well so far. From my observation, I found that when students were working in the computer lab planning and discussing their projects, and solving their problems, they were deeply involved in the learning. Sometimes they were so serious that they did not want to leave the computer lab when the class time was over. They sometimes came to see me after school discussing their ideas with me. I had never seen such situation when the lessons had been conducted by me in a teacher-centered environment.

Students enjoy learning when the learning makes sense to them We should provide students the opportunity to have a voice in how and what they learn, while building intrinsic motivation towards learning.