Student Leadership 16
We are considering how to develop an understanding and practice of student Leadership.
For the past couple of weeks, we have talked about the usefulness of Class Meetings. These should only take about 30-40 minutes each week; but they are most effective when carried out regularly.
However, what we don’t need is another course or subject in our crowded curricula.
I would suggest therefore that the principles and practices that we develop in Class Meetings should be applied in every area – they need to become part of our good pedagogical practice.
Having students pray for one another at the start of a lesson is a unifying and beneficial thing to do. It reminds us of our dependence upon God and our care for each other. Finding opportunities to express gratitude and respect for one another can take place throughout the day and needs to become “normal practice”.
Students should be encouraged to share what they have learned in a particular unit of work and to have their “report” critiqued respectfully:
“What was really informative our helpful?”
“Can I make a couple of suggestions that might improve your report or project?”
Our pedagogical practices must include a high level of collaborative thinking and action. When students are involved together, we see how leaders arise to guide interactions.
We need to encourage Cooperative Problem Solving – sharing a problem and considering a variety of solutions.
We need to encourage Cooperative Care; simple things like keeping a record of learning activities, resources and expectations that can be passed on to absent students when they return.
Getting students involved in Mission and Service Learning – helping them to see why this is an essential part of life, why people have innate dignity and why we are committed to serving one another. Gradually students should become more involved in Mission and Service initiatives, planning and execution.
We need to encourage Cooperative Learning. It is the way that Christian communities grow – sharing gifts and understandings. It is quite sad that the USA, UK and Australia are top of the individualism index by a very large margin![1] This is not a good Christian community attribute.
It is likely that we will notice different students taking leadership responsibilities in each of these different areas. What we are trying to do is to develop faith, character, skills and growth.
Let’s consider some more helpful pedagogical practices next week.
Blessings
Brian
[1] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Country-scores-for-individualism-index_tbl1_334509709 accessed 17/08/2022