Season 3 | Episode 3 - Choice as a Foundation for Student Engagement - Guest: Drs. Zandra De Arajuo and Amber Candela

Drs. Zandra De Arajuo and Amber Candela, Choice as a Foundation for Student Engagement

ROUNDING UP: SEASON 3 | EPISODE 3

As educators, we know offering students choice has a big impact on their engagement, identity, and sense of autonomy. That said, it's not always clear how to design choice into activities, especially when using curriculum materials. Today, we’re talking with Drs. Zandra De Araujo and Amber Candela about some of the ways educators can design choice into their students’ learning experiences.

BIOGRAPHY

Zandra de Araujo serves as the mathematics principal at the Lastinger Center for Learning. Her research examines teachers’ instruction in algebra with students who are primarily English learners. 

Amber Candela is an assistant professor of mathematics education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL). She teaches mathematics methods classes for prospective elementary, middle, and high school teachers in the teacher education program at UMSL.

TRANSCRIPT

Mike Wallus: As an educator, I know that offering my students choice has a big impact on their engagement, their identity, and their sense of autonomy. That said, I've not always been sure how to design choice into the activities in my classroom, especially when I'm using curriculum. Today, we're talking with Drs. Zandra de Araujo and Amber Candela about some of the ways educators can design choice into their students' learning experiences. 

Welcome back to the podcast, Zandra and Amber. It is really exciting to have you all with us today.

Zandra de Araujo: Glad to be back. 

Amber Candela: Very excited to be here.

Mike: So, I've heard you both talk at length about the importance of choice in students' learning experiences, and I wonder if we can start there. Before we talk about the ways you think teachers can design choice in a learning experience, can we just talk about the “why”? How would you describe the impact that choice has on students' learning experiences?

Zandra: So, if you think about your own life, how fun would it be to never have a choice in what you get to do during a day? So, you don't get to choose what chores to do, where to go, what order to do things, who to work with, who to talk to. Schools are a very low-choice environment, and those tend to be punitive when you have a low-choice environment. And so, we don't want schools to be that way. We want them to be very free and open and empowering places.

Amber: And a lot of times, especially in mathematics, students don't always enjoy being in that space. So, you can get more enjoyment, engagement, and if you have choice with how to engage with the content, you'll have more opportunity to be more curious and joyful and have hopefully better experiences in math.

Zandra: And if you think about being able to choose things in your day makes you better able to make choices. And so, I think we want students to be smart consumers and users and creators of mathematics. And if you're never given choice or opportunity to kind of own it, I think that you're at a deficit.

Amber: Also, if we want problem-solving people engaged in mathematics, it needs to be something that you view as something you were able to do. And so often we teach math like it's this prepackaged thing, and it's just your role to memorize this thing that I give you. You don't feel like it's yours to play with. Choice offers more of those opportunities for kids.

Zandra: Yeah, it feels like you're a consumer of something that's already made rather than somebody who's empowered to create and use and drive the mathematics that you're using, which would make it a lot more fun.

Mike: Yeah. You all are hitting on something that really clicked for me as I was listening to you talk. This idea that school, as it's designed oftentimes, is low choice. But math, in particular, where historically it has really been, “Let me show you what to do. Let me have you practice the way I showed you how to do it,” rinse and repeat. It's particularly important in math, it feels like, to break out and build a sense of choice for kids.

Zandra: Absolutely.

Mike: Well, one of the things that I appreciate about the work that both of you do is the way that you advocate for practices that are both really, really impactful and also eminently practical. And I'm wondering if we can dive right in and have you all share some of the ways that you think about designing choice into learning experiences.

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