Participatory Learning in Schools: Square Peg in Round Hole

James Bosco - Digital Media in Learning Conference San Diego; Feb. 20, 2010

The title for this session is a question: Is participatory learning a square peg in a round hole?
Is there incompatibility between participatory learning and the structure of schools as they
typically exist? My answer is: yes. The follow up questions is: Can this incompatibility be
overcome? My answer to this question is: Yes but it is not an easy task or certain to be
accomplished if we are speaking of this on a wide scale district level basis rather than as
individual schools here and there. This leads to three more focused questions: What does
"participatory learning" mean? How is it incompatible with the existing nature of schools? What
needs to be done to overcome the incompatibility?

Information and communications technologies have provoked deep and wide changes in how
information and knowledge are produced, disseminated, and used as well as in how, when,
and where we learn. All sectors of society have been profoundly affected with the exception of
formal education. While economic status still affects accessibility, there has never been a era
in human civilization with as much widespread access to the intellectual or learning resources
of the culture than there is at this moment. It is perversely ironic that so many young people in
our society continue to have more access to vibrant learning experiences via the Internet in
their lives outside of school than they do when they are in school.

The Meaning of Participatory Learning

There are a number of definitions of participatory learning. All definitions of participatory

learning are stipulative. As such, there is no correct or incorrect definition but, that does not
mean that one definition is as good as any other. The criterion for assessing the quality of a
given definition is the extent to which it is grounded in sound learning research and theory
andlor the extent to which it contributes to establishing good schooling practices. Several
papers have been helpful to me in forming my thinking about participatory learning (A listing of
them is in the bibliography of this paper.) and I believe the definition I offer fits with what is
happening in best practice situations.

In a participatory learning environment the learner:

Is intrinsically motivated to learn and engaged in the learning process.

Actively pursues a personal, rather than imposed, agenda for learning based on their
own needs, interests, capabilities, and goals.
Makes abundant and effective use of Collaboration and involvement in learning
communities.
Produces and shares products that play a critical role in the learning process for
themselves and other learners.
Encounters learning in tasks that have meaning and relevance for the learner by
connecting the learning to their own frame of reference and to "real world" physical,
social, and cultural contexts
Constructs their knowledge and competencies experientially through authentic
engagements with objects, persons, ideas and other cultural artifacts rather than
through didactic instruction
None of the six elements in the definition are new in the digital media era. There is a long line
of champions of educational reform over past centuries who wanted schools to be that way.
What is new is that ICT has provided resources that make such learning environments in
schools not only far more plausible than has even been the case but also enable schools to be
congruent with the texture of contemporary culture which is increasingly participatory.

Participatory Learning vs. Schools as They Exist

Folk wisdom has it that our schools are modeled after factories but, the great lgmcentury
school reformers, Horace Mann, James Carter, Henry Barnard, who established the type of
we have were not factory builders; they were System thinkers. In the wake of the industrial
revolution their metaphor was the machine. Machines were systems comprised of well
articulated components that efficiently and successfully accomplished a task. That is what
they wanted the system of schooling to be. The key components in the system were age
grading, standardized, discrete subject/discipline curricula, teacher-centered group instruction,
timed class periods, formal teacher training, and a bureaucratized organizational structure.
Those components are well articulated with one another and together maintain homeostasis
for the system.

The key aspects of a participatory learning environment in the above definition are discordant
with the nature of the schooling system as it has existed since the lgmcentury. Also, the
curriculum has become increasingly over-burdened; time is a scarce commodity in schools.
When we move from "covering content" to creating a situation where kids come to understand
and even appreciate what they are learning, the time that is needed is determined by the
learning situation rather than by a pre-set time allocation.

The history of school innovation over the past century shows that contrary to conventional
wisdom, schools actually have rather pemeable boundaries with regard to innovations. The
list of innovations that schools have adopted over the years is long but, innovations that are
accepted tend to be tuned to the existing school system structure. Schools do not reject
innovations: they "tame" them. Innovations get "blended in" with prevailing practices in a
manner which does not alter the basic nature and functioning of schools. Every school can
point to instances, some more than others, where the elements of participatory learning are
occurring but situations where participatory learning represents the dominant character of the
learning are , as one might expect, rare. The way in which teaching and learning
conventionally occurs in schools is exactly what one would expect to see given the nature of
the system.

It is also important to recognize how the publlc feels about the current adequacy of our
schools. The 2009 Phi Delta Kappa Gallup poll reported that 25% of Americans rated the
Nation's schools as poor or failing. Parents were more satisfied with the school their child
attended with only 8% giving the school a poor or failing grade. These data do not indicate
that the public supports major changes in our schools.
Overcoming the Incompatibility

The challenge is to transform rather than tinker with the existing ideological context and
organizational structure of the schools. In order to do this, I believe we need to:

Recognize that active intervention rather than trust in an evolutionary process is the
needed posture.
Provoke revisions in the federal, state, and local school policies that are inimical to best
practice in establishing the learning environments that our children need and deserve.
Enlist the active involvement in such efforts of teachers and administrators who working
to create participatory learning environments for their students.
Enlist and support the leadership of district school administrators in making the needed
paradigm shift of the organizational structure in their districts.
Promote and support efforts to develop schools and classrooms that are "real world
exemplars of participatory learning even if they are anomalies in their district.
Embrace the realization that the hegemony of formal education in the learning domain
no longer exists and that the distinction between formal and informal education is invalid
in the learning lives of our children and dysfunctional in establishing appropriate
learning environments.
Expand efforts in pre and in service professional development for teachers and
administrators to develop the dispositions and competencies required to implement
participatory learning.
Reach out to the parents and the public at large to expand perspectives on what
constitutes a good schooling experience for their children.
 Bibliography

Barab, S., Hay, K., Barnetl, M., Squire, K. (2001) Constructing Virtual Worlds: Tracing he
Historical Development of Learner Practices. Cognifion and lnstwction. 19(1), 47-94.

Davidson, C., Goldberg, D. (2009) The Future of Leaming Institutions in a Digital Age.
httD://mitgress.mitedu/books/full (accessed January 25,201 0).

Greenhow, C., Robella, B., Hughes, J. (2009) Learning, Teaching, and Scholaship in a Digital
Age: Web 2.0 and Classroom Research: What Path Should we Take Now? Educational
Researcher. 38 (4), 246-259.

Havthornthwaite.. C... Partici~atorvTransformations,

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(accessed January 25,2010.

Jenkins, H., with Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robinson, A., Wei el, M. 2006. Confronting the
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Challenoes of Partici~atorvCulture: Media Education for the 21 Centurv.
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Weigel, M., James, G,, Gardner, H., 2009 Leaming:Peering backward and Looking Forward in
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(accessed January 25,2010).

The 41st Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public
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