Month: July 2021

Talking with each other is not only fundamental in building relationships but it is critical in learning.  In informal education around family-centered museums, research looks for exhibits where families linger and talk about the exhibit.  The talking is noted as an indicator for family learning (Borun et al., 1997).  In more formal learning experiences, dialogue-based education is intended to activate learning by building on pre-existing schema, add new knowledge in small bites for better cognition, give learners an opportunity to apply the ideas, and then reflect on their next steps.   In the 1980’s Dr. Jane Vella constructed dialogue education as a method of lesson planning based on the ideas of educational psychologists.  Dr. Joye Norris popularized the concept with her book From Telling to Teaching (Norris, 2003).

Dialogue-based learning theories are used as the foundation of the 4-H Family Fun Online Learning Projects because of the simplicity, and the intent to level the playing field between adults and children so that it is not an adult teaching experience but a family learning experience.  Paulo Freire wrote in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, “The teacher is no longer merely the one who teaches, but one who is him/herself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teaches.  They become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow” (Freire et al., 2014).

4-H Family Fun Online Learning Projects are intended to get you talking with one another, learning with one another, laughing about what doesn’t work (it is refreshing for youth to hear that things don’t only go wrong for them :)), and getting curious about what might work the next time around.  The instructions are “an” option…but the activities are not meant to get only one right answer.

Do you ever wonder what helps motivate you to DO things?  I spend a lot of time thinking about and trying out ways to help develop staff trainings that work (you can read into that…lots of things I’ve tried never amounted to people using the training that I’ve provided LOL).  Recently, I’ve turned my attention to considering what helps youth and families try new things together.  I came across the idea of “affordances” and keep thinking more about the value of registering (or investing in) for a future experience.  What does registering “afford” us the opportunity to do?

Affordances

While the concept of affordances began with influential experimental psychologists like Donald Norman (did you ever hear of “Norman Doors” as a theory that visual perception is linked to action?).   Similarly, urban environmental education has been noted to help youth realize the affordances offered by nature and social interactions (Delia & Krasny, 2018) and STEM projects have been cited to afford youth, families, and new audiences an opportunity to connect to others, voice their ideas, and try on new experiences including leadership (Schmidt et al., 2020).  In these cases, signing up to do something meant the participants had a chance to have new experiences.

These ideas suggest that registering for an opportunity affords families the intention to do a project together, as you pledge to set aside time to work on a project with children and grandchildren, engage with each other, do something different, and share with others and the community.

I like the idea of warming up to something.  I believe registering helps us set intentions to invest time with each other.  And (as mom of three) I know sometimes it is easier to sell the “we are committed to” idea over surprising the family with a last-minute project.  I’m interested in knowing your experiences…has registering for an educational opportunity “afforded” you time with your family?