Just the Beginning: A Reflection on COVA & CSLE

Silver Lake, NY

I think I’m bound to be a perpetual student. I’m a pretty good one - I love to learn and discover, and I can jump through hoops with the best of them. So when I started Lamar University’s Digital Learning and Leading program eighteen months ago, I jumped in with that mindset - go through the motions, increase salary, move on. But then I was given my first assignment. To create an innovation plan for change within my organization. Granted, I could have continued down my path of getting things done for the grade, but I realized the beauty of this program was that I could spend time creating something truly meaningful. And that’s what I did.

Authentic Learning

Choice, ownership, voice, and authenticity (COVA) - the cornerstone of Lamar University’s Digital Learning and Leading program. According to Dr. Harapnuik (n.d.), COVA is a learner centered approach focused on fostering active learning. COVA has allowed me to not only grow as a student, learning and experimenting with new ideas, but it has also allowed me to grow as an educator. As a student, having choice and ownership in my projects has allowed autonomy and freedom, but also a sense of meaning. Like I said, I’ve been use to going through the motions, but with an authentic assignment - one that I was excited to not only build on but to also implement - I was able to see (or be reminded of) how crucial it is to have freedom as a student.

Throughout this program, I was also encouraged to share my story. After all, we are the stories we tell. As I revisit my many stories, and continue to reflect on and investigate my why, it is clear that my own unique voice was encouraged. The assignments couldn’t be done as something to simply check off my list - they needed more than some traditional 5 paragraph essay. Being given the opportunity to express myself has added to the overall authenticity of my experience and my innovation project. While it has gone through some minor changes (more on this next week), I’m incredibly pleased with the transformation and my efforts to bring about change (albeit on a smaller scale than originally planned).

Significant Learning

As I near completion of my second masters, I can say that it is because of COVA that the experience has been more meaningful than any other degree I’ve completed. However, the most important factor and lesson learned has been my own incorporation of COVA in my classroom. There is so much out there to learn and so many ways to learn. I’ve never looked at myself as the teacher who has information to give out; rather, my students and I are in this together; maybe I'm more like a tour guide. We tackle the tough problems and ask the deeper questions. We find our own meaning and create significance in the world. But we can’t do this teaching to a test. Nor can we do this by embracing COVA or a growth mindset alone. We need to connect all the dots in order to create a significant learning environment (CSLE).

When I first read Carol Dweck's Growth Mindset, I thought I'd found some long-lost elixir for teaching. I realize now that my overly simplified idea of the "power of yet" needed to be combined with something else. Alfie Kohn (2015) points out the glaring error in simply focusing on growth mindsets is that all of the books and whole-hearted believers “devoted to the wonders of adopting a growth mindset rarely bother to ask whether the curriculum is meaningful, whether the pedagogy is thoughtful, or whether the assessment of students’ learning is authentic” (para. 7). My modeling of a growth mindset and encouraging their own will not simply get my students to love to learn. The fact that I design my classroom as a reflection of my own constructivist learning philosophy will also not get them to learn. I have to take into account a combination of course design and the actual human beings sitting in front me. By shifting my focus to my students and recognizing their passions, together, we can create a “significant learning environment”; an environment that embraces the unknown and constant fluidity of the world.

Sometimes we fail… forward

It’s easy to write about the amazing things I’ve learned and talk about how I’ve used some of these ideas in my classroom. But that’s not the whole story. Like any good journey, the hero has to encounter some roadblocks.

My roadblocks have had less to do with me as student and more to do with me trying to use COVA and CSLE within my own classroom. Many of my students have been spoon-fed information for most of their school career. Their creativity had its time and place, and their voices were often overlooked. To do well simply meant being able to regurgitate the information on a test. So when I introduced the idea of COVA and stepped to the side to facilitate their learning, they resisted. When given the opportunity to choose and have a sense of ownership over their learning, they still wanted to know what I wanted. They wanted to know which hoop to jump through. The questions seemed endless, but then the light bulbs went on. Once the initial shock of an adult telling them their voice matters, my students appreciated COVA just as much as I did/do.

Occasionally I find myself reverting back to the safety of a tried and true assignment or pining for some quick activity at the last minute, but I’m happy to say that COVA and CSLE has helped me reflect on the whys, the whats, and the hows in my classroom. Looking back on my experience as a learner and a leader has reminded me that while I’ve grown, I haven’t changed - COVA and CSLE will continue to play a huge role in my classroom. My students (all 150 of them each year) are my why - and this is just the beginning of our journey.

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References

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.

Harapnuik, D. (n.d.). "COVA." Retrieved from http://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=6991

Kohn, A. (2015) The "mindset" mindset. Retrieved from http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/mindset/