Collaborative Learning and Unschooling
Nov 25th, 2006 by willa
Stephanie of Throwing Marshmallows writes in What We Are Up To:
” Hmmm…we don’t really sound very “unschooly” lately, but really the above does not take up a huge amount of time and it has come about from seeing what my kids need and working on finding resources that work for them. And it works…. I think that this is what Cindy means when she talks about collaborative learning. It is not totally child-led, but it is totally based on the needs of the child. It is not “no structure” but it is structure where it makes sense to have structure. And it feels like the right balance (for now) for us.”
Both Stephanie and Cindy have discussed the Right-Brained Visual-Spatial Learner, and because the description sounded like several of my kids, I checked out the book Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World: Unlocking the Potential of Your ADD Child by Jeffrey Freed. It is wonderful to read. My kids don’t seem to be ADD — he says the primary characteristics are distractibility and impulsive behavior, and they don’t seem to have those in greater degree than other kids we meet up with. But they are quite good fits with the other characteristics, and reading the book helped me see how to some extent I had naturally been able to provide them a good right-brained environment and also showed me some things I had been missing out on and could improve on. Cindy at Apple Stars has some suggestions on how to understand and guide right-brained learners, and the book has many more that sound exactly right and doable for my particular kids.
Anyway, it suddenly occured to my rather foggy brain (it’s 1:32 am here) that perhaps the collaborative learning component has something to do with the visual-spatial RB learner’s needs. The reason I’m wondering is that both Cindy and Stephanie mention that a collaborative form of unschooling has been the best suited for their family and children. Stephanie’s description of how she gives the children some structured things to do, but they consent to it though they have not suggested it themselves, is a description of how things have gone best in our household too.
I spent all last year pretty much radically unschooling. It was a leap of faith and trust for me, and it was difficult. It taught me a lot. When I write on this blog about math books and handwriting practice, and well, “assignments”, it makes me feel a bit uneasy, because it isn’t “pure” unschooling. But I am seeing that the kids respond to it. So I like that word “collaborative”. Other unschooling friends of mine have used metaphors like “dancing”. I think sometimes of how I used to bounce Aidan on the mini-trampoline. He had sensory integration dysfunction and the bouncing really changed his mood, sometimes; it helped him organize. He did not ask for the bouncing, because he could not talk or even gesture for what he wanted — part of the source of his frustration was that lack of communication ability! but he responded to it, and it helped him.
I could see where it could be overdone — become a trap rather than a helpful support.
In the past, I too often worked my way into a structured trap. My kids would respond to a small amount of regular academics. So I’d pile on more and more incrementally, trying to get to where I sub-consciously thought we “should” be. Of course, they would then get overloaded. I am reading that “right-brained” learners don’t need the sequence and repetition that “left brained” ones do. So they would shut down. This happened in cycles. My conscious deschooling interim last year — not just default unschooling because I was pregnant or someone was in the hospital, but conscious “masterly inactivity” as Charlotte Mason calls it — was beneficial in breaking that pattern, and I want to continue that way. But the collaboration seems to strike sparks in our family learning patterns that just pure responsiveness doesn’t. These past weeks have gone so much better than the earlier parts of the year, when I felt we were just treading water and not going anywhere.
I have been reading a bit about Montessori recently, and possibly her idea of “normalization” applies a bit here. (the link takes you to a post on my other blog, when I was conversing back and forth with Kim of Starry Sky Ranch, who is a Montessori resource and mentor to me — and expecting her ninth child soon!). Kim wrote once about how her two young sons went through an intense phase of writing out copywork into little books. It may have been triggered by some sort of work she gave them to do, but the motivation became theirs and she described their absorption and focus on this activity and how peaceful they became during the process and afterwards.
I notice a sort of joyful peace with my kids when the work they are doing is not too much, not too little, and “just right” in kind (you can tell I’ve been reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears to Paddy recently
). Obviously this is not happening all the time every day. For one thing, I make mistakes — break the rhythm of the dance, step on someone’s toe, lose my concentration. But the challenge of that dance– of doing my part in that collaboration — is very invigorating.
Oh I absolutely love the term ‘collaborative learning’! I think lots of unschoolers are doing things that way but aren’t conscious of it. Or maybe it is such a natural development from attachment parenting that it is just part and parcel of their family lifestyle.
Anyway, I really think learning happens on a spectrum. No matter how much homeschoolers might highlight the failures of the school system, lots of learning does go on there. And then there are those who completely mistrust unschooling and think all learning must be structured. I think both extremes are doing the blind man and the elephant routine. Learning happens all the time; sometimes in a highly formal way and sometimes in a highly casual way and then it also happens at every point along the spectrum in between. To me the most natural way to learn is to let each point on the spectrum serve its purpose when it strikes the right chord.
Some of the debate (and guilt) about unschooling comes from thinking that it is some rigid set of rules. This seems particularly odd to me given the basic philosophy of unschooling. But Collaborative Learning does seem more immediately comprehensible to people not involved in it.
I’m curious about the right brained thing. I’ve read some of Cindy’s posts and some of those things resonate with what Tigger is like and others just don’t. The distractability issue you mention made me wonder, too. But she was a very early reader and learned to write at about 3, really benefited from having some of those pre-writing workbooks at that age, etc. But she’s very into drama, music, and whatnot and my MIL thinks she reminds her very much of her own sister (who went on to be a successful professional actor and theatre director). She also responds very well to conceptual math programs and resists a lot of repitition in that area.
Maybe some of the problem is that much of what is written is about extremes. For example, Cindy has kids who are diagnosed autistic and the book you mention is about ADD. There is less out there about kids who have some of this but could still do will in a left-brain oriented system (Tigger did well, she was jsust bored out of her mind and frustrated over her lack of control over her life). Not sure where I’m going with this but thanks for sharing your thoughts.
[…] I really believe in collaborative education as Willa has been talking about at Every Waking Hour and Stephanie at Throwing Marshmallows. We go through periods of being perfectly unstructured and periods of being perfectly structured. Sometimes I am over-structured, and sometimes under-structured. As Sarah describes discovering in The Teacher’s Heart at Wickentree Homeschool, to flourish the homeschool has to be a fit for both the mother and the child. […]
Hi Willa, I started reading your post this morning, and it reminded me that I needed to pick up the copy of Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World: Unlocking the Potential of Your ADD Child by Jeffrey Freed that they had on hold for me at the library. I am looking forward to reading it. ;-)
I finally had a chance to finish reading your post. I love everything you’ve written. I think the “collaborative learning model” is definitely where I am headed - especially with my oldest.
Jo…what you might be finding is that your dd is more whole brained…parts of both. I see the whole right brained/left brained thing as being on a continuum rather then you are one or you are the other. It so happens in our case, Jason tends to be fairly right brained and I tend to be fairly left brained (actually kind of scary how left brained I am LOL!) so it really was an eye opener for me to learn more about it. All of a sudden, so many things about Jason made complete sense and I realized why I was banging my head against a wall in some areas.
Have you checked out my Right Brained Learners resource page? There is a list of traits of both types of learners…you might find that your dd has traits from both sides…
http://throwingmarshmallows.homeschooljournal.net/r-b-resources/
Jason also is NOT add/adhd but I did get a lot of great info from Right Brained Children and found so much that applied. Another good one is Upside Down Brillance (although this one takes it from a gifted POV).
I do agree that much of what is written is written from a “problem” perspective rather then just a “right brained” POV. Part of that might be because right brained kids often learn very differently then traditionally taught.
Oh, and not all of Cindy’s right brained learners are autistic. I have found that Jason and her oldest share many similar traits and her BTDT insight has been really helpful…
Oh and one more comment about the unschooling thing…I think that one reason why I really took to Cindy’s use of collaborative learning was because it really seemed to describe what I was finding worked for us…unschooling (as discussed on many radical unschooling lists) paradoxically wound up being a bit restrictive…I stressed over using resources that were too “schooly” even if I thought they could help my kids. Add to that the fact that Jason, due to his perfectionism can be resisitant to trying new things and being totally child-led just really was not working.
I wrote a little bit about that here:
http://lifewithoutschool.typepad.com/lifewithoutschool/2006/09/knowing_when_to.html
I find that pulling things from all sorts of “approaches” allows us to find what works for us. Really not sure if that is unschooling or eclectic which is probably why I like collaborative…
thanks for the reminder Stephanie, I had read that before and I think it was that list that really didn’t feel like Tigger. I’ve reserved the Freed at the library because my discussion with willa (here and by e-mail) makes me think it will help. she thinks I have some right brained traits (based on my descriptions of when I taught in university) and she might be right.
[…] Willa, at Every Waking Hour, talked recently about my Collaborative Learning and Unschooling. She made some great points that I would like to expound on. . . . perhaps the collaborative learning component has something to do with the visual-spatial RB learner’s needs. The reason I’m wondering is that both Cindy and Stephanie mention that a collaborative form of unschooling has been the best suited for their family and children. Stephanie’s description of how she gives the children some structured things to do, but they consent to it though they have not suggested it themselves, is a description of how things have gone best in our household too. […]
JoVE,
I do think girls can represent a bit differently on the right-brained spectrum. I believe that girls are more prone to having verbal-driven assets because of our gender that links to how our brains differ. That being the case, I think writing and reading can be less of an issue for girls. I also believe girls are more likely to be whole-brained, because as you mentioned, they seem to adapt to our left-brained world better because of the gender traits. This is why you may see a lot of traits, but not all. I don’t think it’s about extreme, except that I do believe learning styles have a “spectrum” to it in that some can be very right-brained, some a little bit.
My reason for being so outspoken about the right-brained learning style is because it is not VALUED in our society. Thus, it’s not that they NEED any more or less than any other learning style, but they DO need people to be educated about it in order to understand it in order to start to give it equal value in our society today.
Hope that helps in your journey to understand your daughter better :-)
-Cindy