Self Determination Theory (Case Study)

- The interaction between Vicki's pedagogy and her students was incredibly positive and creative. She empowered her students. And in return they empowered her by teaching her new things as well. This is an excellent example of a powerful, successful learning environment. Vicki thought 'outside the box' and connected her students, and their new knowledge with the World - literally. Her pedagogy was to inspire learning by using her students interests to fuel their own cognitive development in regards to set tasks. In this way, students felt confident in their learning and therefore, excelled above and beyond. It sounds like one of Vicki's biggest goals was - through teaching a new skill, or understanding of technology tasks - students would ultimately open their eyes and minds to a new perspective. This perspective could be varied, but I would speculate that it involved other children learning the same things in another culture, or country and then collaborating with each other to solidify what they learned. Two wonderful experiences.

- Vicki used two powerful strategies to do the above which were both tied her goals of the the students learning, researching and sharing. The students experience throughout tied into what we have been learning about Autonomy, competency and relatedness. The first example is when Vicki mentioned that she paid attention to her students interests to fuel her class lessons and pedagogy - by doing this, she developed a child-centered-learning activity. The students could teach their own peers in a way that they wanted to (in teams). The students exercised choice and independence (autonomy). Through this process students felt competent by sharing what they learned with children in other classrooms and through this related to others that they might not have felt any connection to before. I also think that this case study would work with Dan Pink's theory about 'Purpose'. Student's feel their own learning process, feel confident in it and then feel the same confidence to share with other children which inspires purpose. The second example is when she asks the students to look up words and find the definition of terms etc. This way the students use self-directed learning activities (autonomy). Students feel confident that they can teach themselves - which is an excellent life skill (competence). They also become connected to the other students in the class by sharing their definitions which will naturally vary in understanding (relatedness). All the while Vicki is encouraging - Self - learned - Literacy. The students explore their own learning and develop their skills through research which also open the doors to new perspectives. Both of these examples are geared with the students emotional perspective (age level, interests, social skills) and these things help to motivate intrinsically and extrinsically. Students were so internally inspired they learned a new skill with their Avatars that they in turn taught Vicki. They were extrinsically motivated by the opportunity to teach their own class and as well travel to another country to collaborate with other students on what they learned over-all. Amazing.

- Dear Vicki @coolcatteacher.com, Have any of your student's come back to you at a later time to explain their experience from their perspective? And were there any negative things that happened during this experience (or others) that you learned from that helped you develop your pedagogy? Or any 'Red Flags' that if we wanted to model some things after you - we should keep an eye out for? Thank you!