Page 124 - TWO OF A KIND • Erik Renkema
P. 124

CHAPTER 5
addressing a specific experience that can be recognizable for students: the material is open to free interpretation. This enables the students to express various experiences and thoughts.
In this way, we see that the focus on students’ experiences and perceptions are in line with the teachers’ values and the school values, and that this is a dominant objective of the design. This focus is recognizable during the activity in the questions that are asked and the material that is presented. This was very explicit during the dialogue between a teacher and one student in the entire group, after the dialogue in small groups. There is no focus on one specific student’s experience in the dialogue in small groups, nor in the closing assignment.
b. Content
The teachers recognize a relationship between the theme (‘What makes you quiet?’) and the choice of material: this poem, story and trailer can make an impression. Nevertheless, this theme is not highlighted during the dialogue groups, nor in the closing assignment. Although teachers choose to follow this central theme in the preparation, students discuss a variety of subjects in carrying out the activity.
c. Dialogue
In the sessions, teachers value dialogue as a unique characteristic of this specific design. The key value of encounter is expressed in another way than through the presentationsinthewaythattheyareusedtointheirpracticeofcelebrations.According to the teachers, students are more actively involved when dialogue is fostered. Dialogue is clearly structured: small groups are formed by the teachers, questions for this dialogue are pre-selected, and time is allotted. Remarkably, the teachers did not deliberately form the small dialogue groups to bring together students from Christian educationandgeneralreligiouseducation;thatconvergencehappenedcoincidentally. Some students (aged 11 and 12 years), in whom the teacher has confidence, have been appointed as moderators, although they are not used to fulfilling this role. The dialogue between students is about the presented material: the poem, the story and the trailer. Most students complete the closing assignment individually. All teachers indicate that they recognize their values and those of the school in this new practice. They also see several connections between the design and the design requirements collected in the sessions.
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