POST REFLECTION
Quote: “Legitimate Peripheral Participation” provides a way to speak about the relations between newcomers and old-timers, and about activities, identities, artifacts, and communities of knowledge and practice. It concerns the process by which newcomers become part of a community of practice. A person’s intentions to learn are engaged and the meaning of learning is configured through the process of becoming a full participant in a sociocultural practice. This social process includes, indeed it subsumes, the learning of knowledgeable skills. (29)
Question: How can teachers foster Legitimate Peripheral Participation with their students in their classrooms?
Connection: It is an interesting fact how learning is a product of curiosity through the interaction with others who are often at different levels of mastery. Collaboration is clear when I observe my students in class. During the day, I often try to incorporate activities that involve some kind of collaboration among them. Students reach out to those who they know have a higher level of understanding of what the task is about. Questions and arguments start popping around the classroom and many times it requires a third party to clarify the subject in question. For example, when students are using their iPads. I would say that LPP is clearly shown when students are handled an iPad for the first time. Everyone starts at different levels, due that some are already own a similar tools of technology at home. The curiosity and the need to share start being present right away. Some students start sharing what they know with their peers, and others start looking for resources to get started and look around in search for masters to answer their questions. After several days using their iPads the dynamics change. Those who were masters at something find themselves asking questions or working along with their peers, hoping to discover things together. A community is created among students in the classroom and they become interdependent. Very rarely they ask me (teacher) to help them or to explain how to do something on their iPads.
Epiphany: I thought it was very intriguing to see how Legitimate Peripheral Participation keeps participants in a stage of continuous learning. Without formal teaching or following specific lessons, students are learning through the process of social interaction and sense of belonging. The focus is not on the outcome, but in the interest of the learners to upgrade their knowledge with the help of mentors. The master mostly leads the way to the novice learners, however, it can also become a multi directional interaction in which the masters learn from the novice, at times, updating and reshaping the learning community. The community renovates itself by the constant creation of masters. It is a cycle where the novices become full participants over time and start mentoring new comers as soon as they are ready.
Quote: “Legitimate Peripheral Participation” provides a way to speak about the relations between newcomers and old-timers, and about activities, identities, artifacts, and communities of knowledge and practice. It concerns the process by which newcomers become part of a community of practice. A person’s intentions to learn are engaged and the meaning of learning is configured through the process of becoming a full participant in a sociocultural practice. This social process includes, indeed it subsumes, the learning of knowledgeable skills. (29)
Question: How can teachers foster Legitimate Peripheral Participation with their students in their classrooms?
Connection: It is an interesting fact how learning is a product of curiosity through the interaction with others who are often at different levels of mastery. Collaboration is clear when I observe my students in class. During the day, I often try to incorporate activities that involve some kind of collaboration among them. Students reach out to those who they know have a higher level of understanding of what the task is about. Questions and arguments start popping around the classroom and many times it requires a third party to clarify the subject in question. For example, when students are using their iPads. I would say that LPP is clearly shown when students are handled an iPad for the first time. Everyone starts at different levels, due that some are already own a similar tools of technology at home. The curiosity and the need to share start being present right away. Some students start sharing what they know with their peers, and others start looking for resources to get started and look around in search for masters to answer their questions. After several days using their iPads the dynamics change. Those who were masters at something find themselves asking questions or working along with their peers, hoping to discover things together. A community is created among students in the classroom and they become interdependent. Very rarely they ask me (teacher) to help them or to explain how to do something on their iPads.
Epiphany: I thought it was very intriguing to see how Legitimate Peripheral Participation keeps participants in a stage of continuous learning. Without formal teaching or following specific lessons, students are learning through the process of social interaction and sense of belonging. The focus is not on the outcome, but in the interest of the learners to upgrade their knowledge with the help of mentors. The master mostly leads the way to the novice learners, however, it can also become a multi directional interaction in which the masters learn from the novice, at times, updating and reshaping the learning community. The community renovates itself by the constant creation of masters. It is a cycle where the novices become full participants over time and start mentoring new comers as soon as they are ready.