Changing Students' Relationships to Knowledge in a Theme-Study Classroom

Abstract

This article reports the conclusions from a year-long experience as a teacher-researcher, in which the author created a theme-study classroom, and reviews the resulting relationships to knowledge that students appeared to form. Theme study, as defined by this study, involved students using the process of inquiry to understand powerful, crosscutting ideas that speak to the students' larger world. Student research became a venue for this inquiry in the classroom, while the author continued to struggle to balance belief structures with the multiple dilemmas of classroom life. The stance of the students toward knowledge in the classroom became a primary concern, as three approaches to knowledge are defined. A stable/passive relationship to knowledge means that students may actively interpret knowledge, but do not criticize it. An inquisitory/active approach involves students in questioning and translating knowledge in the pursuit of expertise. Communal approaches to knowledge involve redefining the purposes of learning, beyond the individual, toward creating a Community of learners. Changing the social context of the classroom, where students are given voice as questioners of knowledge, appeared to allow these slow steps toward more active relationships to knowledge. Weakening of teacher control appeared necessary to move toward these active and communal approaches to knowledge.