Chapter 6: Pedagogical Choices Shaped by Beliefs about Students—Mr. Hill

Throughout my time working with Mr. Hill, he carried with him a basic belief that his students and their ideas mattered particularly in regards to curriculum content. This perspective seemed to stem from his ability to think about classroom content through the eyes of student experience. For instance, he was able to link students’ everyday lives to the curriculum and tap into student belief systems to garner student interest. So student ideas became the base from which the classroom was structured which we saw in prior chapters related to fast food and tobacco. These approaches demonstrated Mr. Hill’s view concerning the intellectual value his students brought to bear in the classroom. The following excerpt from an individual interview provided deeper insight into his sense of students’ abilities and intellectual worth.