Episode 78: Redefining Learning — Cultivating Personalized, Student-Centric Experiences at Home and Harnessing the Power of 'Slow Parenting'

What if your child's learning experience could go beyond the traditional classroom setting? What if you, as a parent, could turn every moment into an enriching learning opportunity? In this episode, I'm going to crack the code on how to cultivate a more profound, personalized learning experience for your child. 

Today, I'm dissecting the book 'Smart Parents: Parenting for Powerful Learning', and discussing how to implement student-centric learning tactics at home. I'll unlock the secrets to fostering a growth mindset, and explore how technology is revolutionizing K-12 education. On top of that, I'll delve into the concept of 'slow parenting', a strategy that emphasizes quality over quantity and being present with your kids. Keep your ears perked up as I share some actionable steps that you can take to transform your home into a dynamic, student-centered learning environment. Get ready to redefine learning, and set your child up for success in today's ever-evolving educational landscape.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:40

Welcome to another episode of K-12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the micro discriminations that I faced. As an African American mom raising my two kids, who were in the public school system, I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their educational progress. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K-12 education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening.

Speaker 1: 1:52

On today's episode, I'll be discussing how to deepen learning for your children. Every so often, I come across a resource that has great ideas that I feel would be beneficial for you. As parents, you most likely have noticed certain shifts in the way that your children learn. Formal and informal learning options have exploded to the point where your children, as students, can now learn anything, anywhere and at any time. You often face unprecedented amounts of information and try to make the best education-related decisions that you can. This leaves you to try to navigate a complex maze for new learning opportunities, new standards, new assessments and new technology, in spite of your limited access to education reports, papers and articles. The resource that I will be sharing information, ideas and concepts from on this episode is from a book called Smart Parents Parenting for Powerful Learning by Bonnie Lathrom, tom Van Der Arc and Keri Snyder. I have highlighted the more salient points. Let's get started. Several of the topics that I've discussed on previous episodes are actually answers to your questions about how best to advocate for your child's individual needs as a learner, how schools are changing to meet the needs of all learners, the impact of technology on your child's learning, and the new terms that are being bantered about, like makerspaces and flipped classrooms. All of this with the understanding that every child has unique challenges and strengths. That's why the current focus on student-centric learning, where teachers and parents create and encourage learning experiences that leverage interest and cultivate critical thinking skills and mindsets. These critical thinking skills are required in today's global learning environment, which is complex, connected but segmented into narrow channels, and is hyper-competitive, yet emphasizes collaboration. After all, it is these learning experiences that shape your child's knowledge, skills and dispositions, and parents, who convey and model the enjoyment of learning for learning's sake, help to cultivate these mindset, skills and dispositions that are often a key differentiator in success, as measured by college graduation or subsequent career satisfaction.

Speaker 1: 5:00

The four keys to parenting deeper, more powerful learning for your children include 1. Being involved in your children's lives. 2. Being informed about and advocating for your children's learning. 3. Being intentional about creating meaningful learning experiences. And 4. Being inspirational learning guides and role models.

Speaker 1: 5:29

The focus here is on advocating for student-centered learning, which is also called personalized learning, a topic that I recently discussed in episode 77. For purposes here, personalized learning engages students and their own success by incorporating their skills and interests in the learning process, with the teacher as facilitator in that process. The skills developed in personalized learning include self-mastery, self-regulation, motivation and empathy toward others. The main tenets of personalized learning are that its competency-based, happens inside and outside of the classroom at any time, and encourages students to take ownership for their own learning. You can create the conditions in which student-centered learning can thrive, whether that be at home, at school or anywhere else. There's a growing body of research now that indicates that a growth mindset is important for students. A growth mindset is the belief or the understanding that intelligence can be developed. Students with a growth mindset focus on how they can improve instead of what their intelligence level is. They work hard to learn more and get smarter. They also persevere in the face of challenges and setbacks, as well as achieve higher competence. Schools need to figure out how to help each child use his or her innate abilities to live a happy life and to achieve the highest levels possible. That's what the growth mindset system is all about focusing on strengths, aptitudes and individual differences in children.

Speaker 1: 7:28

Parents, as advocates for their children, are critical for ensuring that their children's individualized needs are met. This includes advocating for your child in his or her school, as well as getting involved at the policy level. Working at the policy level, parents can work with other parents and the community, as well as elected officials and community leaders, as they work to ensure that every child is getting the best education possible. Advocating for your child involves supporting your child's individual needs to be successful on his or her own. It's also about helping teachers, principals and school administrators gain insight into your child as a learner and a responsible participant in the school environment. Another key aspect of being an advocate for your child is to share information about your child's home life with his or her teacher, as it pertains to values and expectations that are important to your family. Here's something to think about. A 2015 study in Psychological Science Journal found that daughters aspire to greater professional goals when they see their fathers performing tasks such as washing the dishes. Think about that for a moment. A young girl has a better chance of becoming a CEO or mayor or senator if she sees her dad at the sink getting ready to put dishes in the dishwasher. Now imagine the possibilities for boys and girls who see their fathers volunteering at school or visiting the classroom, leading field trips, etc. This is one way to definitely instill powerful learning for your children.

Speaker 1: 9:28

In this technology-driven, internet-based world that we all live in now, learning happens anytime and anywhere, and for children, this means that they learn on their own terms and at times and places that work best for them. Thanks to access to online learning and blended learning, students gain access to courses that are not offered in their traditional school, but are provided online from colleges, universities and private providers. Through the use of technology and innovation, a new landscape of opportunity for K-12 students in the US has created avenues for learning that exists beyond brick and mortar schools. In some cases, entire schools exist and operate solely online. The leading provider of online K-12 schools is Connections Academy. Blended learning simply uses a combination of online delivery of content and instruction along with face-to-face instruction in a typical school classroom.

Speaker 1: 10:39

There's a growing movement called slow parenting, which basically means that you stop rushing around taking your children from one extracurricular activity to another. Slow parenting means focusing on quality over quantity, being in the moment and making real connections with your family. Taking the time to activate interest and stimulate conversation can be worthwhile. What about being intentional about the time you spend with your kids, like having conversations about what interests them, what they want to know more about and what they want to experience. What if, for one weekend alone, you created an intentional weekend? This could be as simple as getting out and exploring in nature, starting a family book club, cultivating an interest in the arts by watching recorded videos of concerts and shows like Cirque du Soleil.

Speaker 1: 11:49

The point is to just keep learning together, encouraging your child to take ownership over his or her learning is vile. Letting them persist through challenges of learning something new helps them to be more confident in their skill development. The learning process that occurs when they are learning new skills teaches them how to think and how to be lifelong learners. When learners drive their learning, it leads to greater engagement and intrinsic motivation, better problem solving, accepting bigger challenges and reflecting and evaluating their work. In summary, these are the eight keys of powerful learning for parents 1. Create a safe learning environment, one that's physically and emotionally safe. 2. Provide a personal connection when learning. 3. Make learning active by engaging your child's hands as well as their mind. 4. Make learning challenging yet achievable. 5. Act as your children's learning coach to make sure they're doing the right things while giving them time to learn from their mistakes. 6. Help them demonstrate what they understand by teaching it to others. 7. Allow time for your child to reflect on what he or she learned, to deepen learning. And 8. Create a plan for developing an idea or solving a problem.

Speaker 1: 13:37

The key is to encourage children to activate their own interests and to pursue their education in a personalized way. It's also about being informed, involved, intentional and inspirational. Here are some action steps that you can take regarding this topic. The focus of these action steps is on creating an environment of student-centered learning inside and outside of your home, as well as ways to model and inspire your children for learning. It's not about being a perfect parent, because there's no such thing, but about being an informed parent. Stay informed about what's going on at the school and in your child's class by regularly talking with your child's teacher and principal. Stay engaged with your children. Ask each child one question about what they learned every day. Teach yourself about educational concepts that may be confusing for you.

Speaker 1: 14:46

Milestones is a free collection of online videos which can help you learn about the success measures for grades K through 5, for example. Milestones can be found at greatschoolsorg. There are also videos for success measures for middle school and high school. You can encourage a growth mindset by praising effort over product. Praise reinforces positive behaviors that help the child develop strategies that can be applied every day. You have to model your own ability to persevere, set goals, work through challenges and continue to try in spite of failure or success, and these all prove critical to helping your child develop a positive self-confidence and the innate beliefs about himself or herself as a learner.

Speaker 1: 15:53

Initiating personalized learning at home is all about allowing your child to investigate their interests and choose what they want to learn, aligned with high standards. You can create a learning plan at home by using a simple one-page template, which can be found at liberationthrougheducationcom. One of the main informal learning opportunities is mobile learning apps. How are you to know which of the 3 million or so mobile apps in Apple and Android stores that are aimed at early learning are the best? Check out commonsensemedia at commonsensemediaorg, which rates apps based on age appropriateness and learning potential, using factors such as engagement, success with learning outcomes and opportunities to give feedback. As usual, make sure that you supervise the apps that your children use by sitting next to them while they're using the app and asking them questions afterwards. In the end, you want your children to find and develop their unique talent, connect it to a mission and experience the fulfillment of making a contribution. The goal is that your children will take responsibility for their own learning, using their talent and purpose to guide their development and to make their own impact in the world.

Speaker 1: 17:35

I'll be doing a couple of other resource reviews for you that I think will be informative and eye-opening in upcoming podcast episodes. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so, then leave me a rating, a review or a comment on Apple the Podchaser. Leaving me a review is a great way to support me and to help my podcast grow. Remember to share this episode with anyone that you think will find it valuable. So tell your friends, family and your community about my podcast. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K-12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. Be sure to stay tuned. On the next episode, I'll be discussing place-based education. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day.