Reflection as a teaching tool

Reflection is a powerful tool for helping pre teens and teens learn. It works with younger children too, but their pool of knowledge is smaller.

Recently I have had a chance to teach classes of 12- 14 year olds and other classes of 15-17 year olds using a method that is centered around questions to start discussions. This method uses lots of backup material in case the discussion doesn't pan out as expected, or in case they haven't considered this before. It also drops the idea of trying to teach it all, so if a discussion arises where they are engaged, you can keep it going and expand on that.

They seem more interested in opinions from their peers and listen when a peer speaks and tells of an experience where a particular principle applied in their life.

The questions are intentionally open ended, for example, "How can...?"

Pausing to let them think gives them time to formulate their thoughts.

Stories and their power to pull kids in

While homeschooling some of our kids, my wife has been applying an educational system called  the Thomas Jefferson education and another type called the Charlotte Mason method, that focuses much on reading stories to the children and then pausing to discuss story scenes that exemplify things we are trying to teach the children in multiple subjects. This method also has them dictate what they learned (for the under-10 crowd) or write what they learned (for 11 and up) as an assessment method that lets her know what they are getting and what needs remediation. And it offers a chance for the child to reflect on the learning.

The reason this method is so very interesting, is that the kids are emotionally engaged in a story with characters they care about. Especially for stories the children really enjoy. This excitement carries over into the discussion about what the character just did or didn't do to a degree that has surprised us both. There have been some really good discussions about the protagonist and their situation. They have paid attention in a way that I haven't seen them do for regular idea teaching. The story context also offers the many details needed for concrete examples.

It's been a fascinating journey watching the children get so into this.

Organizing leadership for kids

While writing professionally about complex scenarios aimed at teaching adults in a particular profession leadership skills using increasingly complex scenarios under high stress levels, I came across a European competency framework for leadership that appears to be usable as a framework for organizing and perhaps teaching children leadership if adjusted for their age level and abilities. Although in the Eurozone they split adult leadership competencies into levels, with kids I think we'd have to adjust for age capacities. My initial thoughts are as follows:

Children up to age 11

 Focus on becoming. Teach attitudes, understanding, and values

 Learn confidence in a martial art or sport or activity. Do something well. Set up or attend Camps with chances to lead their peers for a period of time, like Boy Scouts does.

  Grow a garden to help the child learn that nurturing works for plants and people

  Parent or guardian be a mentor and example the best you can 

  Help them learn the value of each person

Young people 12-17

  Help them increase in confidence in formal  leadership roles in youth organizations or sports teams

  Any leadership role is practice

  Progress from simple roles to more challenging and difficult roles 

  Help them influence leaders and peers as informal leaders in any organization

  Look for opportunities to speak publicly

Find a mentor

The adult mentors need to help them see what was effective and ask how they felt that went and what could have gone better (based on the After Action Review method used to help US Army leaders at junior levels, mid levels, and even senior levels reflect, and reuse successfully used skills and attitudes.)

Young adults 18-21

  Encourage them to lead student organizations

  Join service organizations and offer to lead when needed

  Influence peers positively, encourage, lift up

  Find a mentor with higher capability

  Progress to more complex challenges

Adults 21+

  Look for employment or volunteer in organizational leadership roles

Adults 30+

  Start organizations and lead them

  

Although we can imagine age relevant scenarios for kid leadership, they also need the experiential lessons gained from these types of real interactions with followers.