Chapter Review: Designing learning for diverse classrooms by Paul Dufficy; Chapter three

Designing Learning for diverse classrooms by Paul Dufficy (Newtown, PETAA, 2006)

Chapter Three – Guiding principles for designing learning 

Reading a chapter about “guiding principles” is not a typically enthralling prospect. Even though this chapter is not really an exception to this expectation, it was a helpful read. So, go for it! What I found it helpful for was for building my understanding of the journey Dufficy is bringing his readers on. And, really, he did quite a good job of keeping my interest with his charts, photo, conversations and real-life teacher-student engagements. It was worth the read.  

In this chapter Dufficy puts some flesh on his idea of mediation as the educational ideal for classrooms (from chapter two). He is basically asking the question: “What foundation do teachers need to build from to have their students learning in their zone of assisted performance?” A good question. His answer is the four practical principles he gives: Challenge, Handover, Engagement, and Assisted Performance.  

By Challenge, Dufficy is referring to the intellectual challenge and engagement of the students with the teaching content. He is very explicitly not referring to challenging classroom tasks. He wants tasks to be a conduit for stretching the student intellectually in one way or another. His very helpful concluding observation is that this sort of challenge will offer teachers guidance in identifying children’s zones of assisted performance “from the questions children ask, the mistakes they make, and their requests for assistance” (Page 31). 

Handover, according to Dufficy, is about teachers not simply standing and delivering their teaching content from the front, but genuinely engaging their classes and eliciting from their students what they can already contribute on the learning content through work in pairs, small groups and classroom discussions. The key to this handover is teachers listening to their students well: “It is through intentional listening and thoughtful response that we can glimpse a child’s thinking and so are able to respond contingently to promote further thought” (page 32). 

Engagement follows on closely from this. It is the principle of giving the students some control in the learning environment. It is about connecting, as much as possible, the learning content with the student’s existing life and worldview – giving the student buy in, motivation for learning this new material.  

The principle of assisted performance is future oriented – showing interest in what the students will come to know. It has teachers asking the questions: “What do the children need to think about?” followed by “How can I assist them to do so?”  

For me, the most compelling aspect to the chapter was Dufficy’s “Our teaching stance” section. Teachers are humans, not conduits of information. Therefore, when teachers show a genuine personal engagement with the learning material through pondering, imagining, and themselves being fascinated by it, their students will join them on the learning journey much more readily. Classroom teachers need to show themselves as fellow learners with their students in this world in which they all live. For me, this is the big take-home from this chapter. I want to be the sort of teacher that my students see as a real life person who is engaging in a real and genuine way with the same teaching material they are being exposed to. 

One question this chapter has raised for me is this: Dufficy has clearly articulated his ideal that students need to be holistically involved in the teaching-learning process – fellow participants. Dufficy wants students to have more control in their learning environments, rather than simply being passive receptors. But I don’t know where Dufficy will go from here. Because even in these principles, the teacher is still guiding the students, directing the course of their learning, setting the direction that these students will be going down. To be a little provocative, the teacher is still the teacher, and directing the students down a path they don’t know but he/she does. I’m fine with this but am wondering if this clashes with the ideal Dufficy seems to be so keen on securing in this book. Let’s see. 
​
Simon van der Wel ​

---