答えは対話の中に、教えずに教える 白熱教室から The Answer is in Dialogue - From a Bright Classroom that Teaches Without Teaching 2011年1月1日5時0分 January 1, 2010 5:00 AM 子どもや若者のあしたへ。希望の橋を懸けたい。まず、小さな白熱教室から。
You want to build a bridge of hope for children and young people’s future? Well, it starts in small, bright classrooms.
A 6th year Japanese class: a cryptic equation is written on the blackboard. (Picture 1) It’s a discussion picture. Right away the kids explain its meaning.
“Discussion increases thought. Once people who have three thoughts each discuss them with one another, the number of thoughts will end up increasing to six or more.”
Kitakyushu Private Elementary School. The man in charge, a 51 year old teacher by the name Syouzou Kikuti, is know as ‘Professor Charisma’. He can help give any child self-confidence by tossing the kid’s ideas back and forth among his peers. Week after week, visitors come by to see his methods, and the requests for him to give a lecture never end.
A dozen years ago, he took charge of a class in shambles. “What do you think when I say this?”, he’d ask. The kids, afraid of the reactions from other people, couldn’t come to speak their minds.
So, he first incorporated speeches into the curriculum and taught the kids the importance of having an opinion and the techniques of conveying those ideas. Next, debate - drills where the kids decided their position either for or against and threw out their viewpoints against one another.
But, he began to think, “Something missing that you need in order to survive in society.” It’s not speeches where you just keep on talking, nor is it debate where you just bicker at each other. It’s listening to others’ opinions, soaking them up, and casting them out again as new ideas. This process tends to give everyone a boost and leads to the formation of good relationships.
On this day, there was a class where they read a descriptive piece called “Build a Stronghold of Peace” that spelled out the history of the Atomic Bomb Dome. The passage had 13 paragraphs.
「筆者が一番主張したい段落はどこでしょう」
“Where would the paragraph that the author wants to argue most go?”, he asks the class.
The numbers 1 to 13 are written on the blackboard, and the kids come up to it. They post their portrait cards under one of the numbers to show their answer.
次は、同じ段落の答えの子同士が教室の隅に集まり、理由を言い始める。
Next, kids who answered together on the same paragraph group together in a corner of the classroom, and they begin to give their reason for their answer.
Five minutes later, the kids who chose another paragraph have a turn to speak. After a while, some voices pop up here and there, declaring, “I’ve changed my mind!”.
最後は、机を教室の真ん中に向けての全体討議だ。
Last is a whole-class debate where they turn all their desks towards the center of the room.
「核兵器を使わないでと言っているから12段落でしょ」
“Since he’s saying ‘without using nuclear weapons’, you’d put it in Paragraph 12.”
「では、11段落で、平和を求める気持ちを書いているのは、どう見るんですか?」
“Well, in Paragraph 11, how do you see his writing his feelings asking for peace?”
“Peace in Paragraph 11 and nuclear weapons in Paragraph 12 are both important, but I think the most important is in Paragraph 13: building a stronghold of peace in the hearts of men.”
The voices each pile up, swell, and echo off each other. The dialogue rotates around the room so that everyone is learning. The teacher simply folds his arms and nods in approval.
Thanks to the professor’s instillation, the kids’ interaction moved towards true dialogue. From here, it’ll spread. It’s his vision of a future of a society that is built out of these new values.
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対話の授業の輪は、いま静かに広がっている。小さな白熱教室である。(宮坂麻子)
Interactive class circles are now quietly spreading. They’re small, bright classrooms. (Mako Miyasaka)