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| A murmuration of starlings (image courtesy of http://pyramidbeach.com/tag/murmuration/) |
In his post, Rodd remarked on the beauty and awe of such spectacles. He also offered a commentary on how such flocking behaviours might be related back to teaching:
First of all, what happens in a murmuration of starlings? A huge group of starlings conglomerates and flies through the sky, the birds seemingly in synch with one another. When one starling at the edge of the group makes a sudden change, other starlings will mirror its movement and follow suit. No one starling is a leader of the group, and the birds move very quickly in random and complicated ways. Then end result is quite spectacular to watch.
What usually happens in a classroom? A group of students takes instruction from one or more teachers (usually just the one). And while some teachers have moved on to more effective teaching methods, the vast majority of classrooms are authoritarian regimes where the students sit in rows, face the teacher at the front of the class, and are asked to regurgitate whatever content the teacher is trying to convey. Such classrooms are quite boring to watch, and even less fun to participate in.
I like Rodd's work, and I understand what he's trying to say. Classrooms are not usually places where students and teachers work together to produce awe inspiring displays, so wouldn't it be nice if they would be more like starlings? Well yes, yes it would. But the problem is the nature of school and classrooms.
In the classroom there is one person who is responsible for the well-being of all those present, and that is the teacher. The teacher is also responsible for helping students learn a curriculum, and is the only member of the group being paid to attend. If the classroom is a post-secondary one, most of the students are actually paying to be in the classroom. In short, there is an inherent and unavoidable power differential at work in the classroom. There is one person in charge, and everyone in the room knows it.
That isn't to say that I'm advocating for traditional classroom. On Rodd's post, I offered a counterproposal: a flock of geese. With a flock of geese there is a leader, but that leadership is constantly being rotated, which I felt reflected the idea of teachers collaborating with students. But as Rodd pointed out, when geese flock, there is usually only one leader at any given moment, and all of the geese are headed in the same direction. Which means that neither the starling nor the geese comparisons are perfect matches for an ideal classroom.
Where does that leave us, then? We may have to leave Aves and look elsewhere in the animal kingdom. My new comparison is social insects. While there is one "leader" (the queen), each individual member of the colony is off doing its own thing. Furthermore, social insects can perform some awesome feats of their own, such as building huge colonies.
Can you come up with a better comparison?
"Flocking behaviour has evolved in fish and birds to a level we as human beings can only hope to emulate. Still, I can't help but wonder what might be possible if teachers and students could mimic the murmuration of starlings. This video provides a powerful metaphor for how willing collaboration, distributed leadership, and shared responsibility can bring our classrooms to life."While the sentiment is nice and I understand where Rodd is coming from, I must say that I find such thinking unrealistic, and I'll explain why.
First of all, what happens in a murmuration of starlings? A huge group of starlings conglomerates and flies through the sky, the birds seemingly in synch with one another. When one starling at the edge of the group makes a sudden change, other starlings will mirror its movement and follow suit. No one starling is a leader of the group, and the birds move very quickly in random and complicated ways. Then end result is quite spectacular to watch.
What usually happens in a classroom? A group of students takes instruction from one or more teachers (usually just the one). And while some teachers have moved on to more effective teaching methods, the vast majority of classrooms are authoritarian regimes where the students sit in rows, face the teacher at the front of the class, and are asked to regurgitate whatever content the teacher is trying to convey. Such classrooms are quite boring to watch, and even less fun to participate in.
I like Rodd's work, and I understand what he's trying to say. Classrooms are not usually places where students and teachers work together to produce awe inspiring displays, so wouldn't it be nice if they would be more like starlings? Well yes, yes it would. But the problem is the nature of school and classrooms.
In the classroom there is one person who is responsible for the well-being of all those present, and that is the teacher. The teacher is also responsible for helping students learn a curriculum, and is the only member of the group being paid to attend. If the classroom is a post-secondary one, most of the students are actually paying to be in the classroom. In short, there is an inherent and unavoidable power differential at work in the classroom. There is one person in charge, and everyone in the room knows it.
That isn't to say that I'm advocating for traditional classroom. On Rodd's post, I offered a counterproposal: a flock of geese. With a flock of geese there is a leader, but that leadership is constantly being rotated, which I felt reflected the idea of teachers collaborating with students. But as Rodd pointed out, when geese flock, there is usually only one leader at any given moment, and all of the geese are headed in the same direction. Which means that neither the starling nor the geese comparisons are perfect matches for an ideal classroom.
Where does that leave us, then? We may have to leave Aves and look elsewhere in the animal kingdom. My new comparison is social insects. While there is one "leader" (the queen), each individual member of the colony is off doing its own thing. Furthermore, social insects can perform some awesome feats of their own, such as building huge colonies.
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| Cast of a termite colony (image from Loughborough University) |
Can you come up with a better comparison?
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