Motivation, Mantle and Me: Children as co-planners and researchers in a partnership (teacher educator/teacher) project using Mantle of the Expert in Senior Primary in Ireland.
This study is grounded in four key areas of research; Curriculum Integration (Beane 1997, Drake, 1998), Motivation as a social construct (Nolen and Ward, 2008); Mantle of the Expert as an approach to teaching and learning (Heathcote and Bolton, 1996) and children as researchers ( Hart, 1992; Shier, 2001 and Lundy 2007).
Many theorists confirm the role of an integrated curriculum for increasing student motivation and for making learning relevant and meaningful (Duran, Duran and Worch, 2009; Drake, 2007). Beane (1997) testifies to the efficacy of an integrated approach in maximising learning opportunities in school and believes that students ought to be at the centre of the planning process. In criticising the traditional emphasis on the transfer of alien bodies of knowledge to children, Dewey (1956:100) suggests that such approaches are external to the child’s world and neglect to make connections to life and society. This aligns with Heathcote’s child-centred approach and her insistence on ‘affirming the person’ and ‘teaching at risk’ (Hesten, 1994). It further aligns with her characteristic reversal of traditional teacher/pupil roles as evidenced in Teacher in Role.
Informed by the work of Lundy et al., (2007) on a children’s rights based approach to research; this study includes 27 children, aged between eight and ten years, in a rural Irish primary school. It examines the impact of privileging children’s voices both in planning for and researching a mantle of the expert approach to teaching and learning. Encouraged by the writing of Nicholls (1992) who remarked at the relatively few studies on motivation that invite children’s input, the central question in this study is ‘Do children report feeling motivated to learn when invited to co-plan their learning and co-research the teaching and learning approach?
Before the Mantle of the Expert approach was undertaken; children were asked to write about a time when they felt they “really wanted to learn” and another time when they “really didn’t want to learn”. They also responded in writing to the following: ‘Do you feel you have any choice in what you learn at school?’
In the next phase, children were asked three questions which informed the teacher and teacher educator in their curriculum planning:
1. What questions do you have about yourself?
2. What questions do you have about your world? ( Beane, 1997, p. 86)
These questions relate to the content of the curriculum i.e. the ‘what’. In this
study, we were interested to also find out how children would like to learn and so added a third question
3. How would you like to learn?
Situated within the interpretive paradigm, data is being generated using a mixed methods approach. Data generation methods include audio recording, journaling on behalf of adult and child researchers and focus group interviews.