Creating Lifelong Learners: Fostering Facilitation, Modeling, & Choice in the Classroom

Abstract

This article discusses alternatives to the lecture-style teaching that remains a fundamental practice for many middleschool classrooms. Information was accumulated by pre-service middle school language arts teachers, whointerviewed their mentor for their student teaching experience, focusing on how each teacher attempts to fosterlifelong learning through facilitating learning rather than directing it. To do so, respondents stated that they attemptto provide more choices for students based on students’ interests or experiences, promote collaboration amongstudents, and model or guide the learning by providing clear examples. These methods of communication attempt toinspire learning with the use of visual, auditory, tactile, or kinesthetic instructional techniques. Teachers providestudents with the digital environment to foster research skills, making students much more autonomous learners. It ishoped that by reading this article teachers will be able to facilitate the learning of students so as to promote students’own interests, creating lifelong learners as a result.