SOS on Strewing - Part 2 (Please also look at Part 1)

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The instructional strategy of Strewing, can work for any content, as well as giving students experience with natural objects, tools, art supplies, and instruments. One of the concerns that has been brought up in our class is that teachers find students lack motivation to learn. Personally, I feel students are not at their best when they feel forced to learn. They are at their best when they feel inspired to learn. Sadly, that feeling of being forced is increasing with the standardized testing mania, which is likely crushing chances for student’s motivation to learn for learning’s own sake.

 

The book, “Drive” by Daniel Pink (2011) gives an interesting exploration of what motivates people. One thing he found was that external  motivation (like grades) was helpful for routine, boring tasks. However, external motivation reduces performance on tasks which require higher level thinking. This means that while grades may be helpful for encouraging students to learn their multiplication tables, they are unlikely to encourage creativity, and may actually discourage it. If we want to build higher level thinking and creativity in our students, we need to encourage intrinsic motivation. I believe strewing to be an excellent way to accomplish this goal.

 

While the concept of strewing is commonplace in homeschool circles, the idea of incorporating digital media is not, although I am clearly not the only person to think of this! Strewing works when students have time to explore. It makes sense to strew where students like to spend time. This makes sense for their physical environment, and it makes sense for their virtual environment as well.  A side effect I hope to accomplish with digital strewing is to get my students familiar with going to positive places on the web. In a similar way families want to enculturate healthy eating habits in their children, I hope to create healthy browsing habits.

 

On a side note, this is the first time I have used Smore and it was very easy to use. My only snafu is that I found some lovely pictures from a blogger, which I asked for permission to use. Since she didn't get back to me, and I didn't see an public domain pictures I liked, I ended up taking my own. (Which is usually my first choice anyway, but I really like this blogger's pictures.)

 

 

References

 Fisher, M. (2015). Strewing Picture [photograph].

Pink, D. (2011). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. New York: Riverhead Books