As a teacher, I do not only have the power to run my class, but I also have the responsibility to empower my students. In his book, Brookfield (p.241; 2015) contended that, “Learners exercise power when they suggest examples that clarify a concept or illustrate a principle, helping a discussion gather momentum.” This resonates with what I feel and experience when facilitating classes.
Witnessing my students express their ideas and relate it to their observations or experiences puts me in awe. This is the feeling that satsifies me as a teacher and pushes me to learn more to give my students the best learning opportunities. As a student, I also feel the same when my instructor encourages me to share my ideas and respects these ideas. This for me makes student empowerment an important factor to consider in teaching and learning.
What do we know about student empowerment?
Empowering students starts with letting them know and feel that they are part of the group and that there is a safe learning environment (Obenchain & Abernathy, 2003). This entails that I foster an environment where students know each other not only as classmates but also as peers who respect each other and are ready to lend a hand. This kind of environment may take some time to take shape, but I can start by emphasizing that our class is where everyone is free to commit mistakes and learn from these mistakes.
I would like my students to be self-directed learners and to be keen on how they acquire knowledge. I believe this occurs when I provide them opportunities to exercise their power by expressing their thoughts. Empowerment reflects emancipatory learning (Pham & Renshaw, 2013).
More importantly, deep learning occurs when students are empowered (Tangney, 2014). There are situations in my classes where I observed that my students are more engaged after sharing their ideas for some time, especially when these ideas are being recognized and further discussed in the session. Eventually, the session becomes a vessel for sharing what they learned and what they are having difficulty with leading to suggesting ways on how to address such a difficulty. For me, this is an indicator of deep learning fueled by empowered students.
How can we empower students?
Acknowledging that student empowerment is a facilitator of meaningful learning experience, I am looking forward to making this an important part of my class. One of the ways I can do this is to help my students articulate their thoughts. There are times when a student may be sharing his/her thoughts but cannot find the words or phrases to express it. In this situation, I will give time for that student to compose his/her thoughts and I will also throw some questions to clarify the thoughts. I must emphasize that I am not interrupting, instead I am helping to find ways in articulating the ideas. I will continue to model this behavior so that other students may also learn to do it and hopefully will empower everyone in the class to not be afraid to share what they think and feel.
It is also worth noting that one of the ways to empower students is to present their research or insights through multimedia (Wang, 2007). This is important in my research class as we regularly engage in presenting proposals and research findings. Other than just pure powerpoint presentations, I can give my students the option to convert it into a creative multimedia presentation which they can share even outside our class.
References
Brookfield, S. D. (2015). The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom. John Wiley & Sons.
Obenchain, K. M., & Abernathy, T. V. (2003). Build community and empower students. Intervention in School and Clinic, 39(1), 55-60.
Pham, T. T., & Renshaw, P. (2013). How to enable Asian teachers to empower students to adopt student-centred learning. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 38(11). http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2013v38n11.4
Tangney, S. (2014). Student-centred learning: A humanist perspective. Teaching in Higher Education, 19(3), 266-275. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2013.860099 Wang, Y. M. (2006). Technology projects as a vehicle to empower students. Educational Media International, 43(4), 315-330. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523980600926275
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