Student engagement and leadership skills are at the core of student work being undertaken in the Sociology of Education course (3300B) at Carleton University. The majority of students enrolled in the course are majoring in child studies, sociology, psychology, or women’s studies. Many have an interested in teaching and take the course to further their knowledge of and to explore educational institutions and the social relations within them. With guidance from instructor Kathleen Moss, third year undergraduate sociology students are utilizing the Experiential Learning Plan template (found at OCDSBXL) created by Eric Hardie & Cam Jones to come up with purposeful projects.
As part of their summative assessment, students were tasked with group work which included 3 components; an infographic, a student video recording, and a completed Experiential Learning Plan Template. The infographic highlights themes, concepts &/or pieces of evidence from student essays; the second component has student’s video recording Carleton University students’ answering questions around education in Canada; and the third component is a completed EL Plan Template which focuses on a student guided project from start to finish.
Over the past four months students spent lots of time on campus capturing student recordings, and put in lots of hard work gathering student voice and completing their EL templates which showcased a wide range of student lead projects.
During the research process students tackled curriculum expectation issues, looked at how to engage community partners, and examined how these projects facilitated and promoted a culture of innovation, caring and responsibility in our classrooms. By incorporating a variety of assessment methods, students were able to have control over their work which highlights the importance of student choice and autonomy, which fosters motivation.
One student made a comment that she had never done a summative like this before which began the conversation around deconstructing learning as a process. Sometimes as educators we must take risks in the classroom, even if it means several attempts.
