The Medicine Wheel as an Alternate Approach

The educational framework of the Medicine Wheel is very similar to what is currently being taught as best practices:

See it. The student is seeing the material for the first time. In French, we may read a text or listen to audio where people use a new verb tense. The student is becoming aware of it. Students tend to open themselves to new vulnerabilities that spirituality may assist them in being ready to learn something new.

Relate to it: The student is gaining the explanation of what the new knowledge is. This is where a typical grammar explanation may come into play, with modelled questions and practice, which gives an opportunity for students to ask questions to understand and relate to the material better. The student is starting to understand it. Students become physically ready to practise on their own after practising it with a teacher, working with them to try and relate to the material better.

Figure it out: The student is given the opportunity to practise their new knowledge. They can make errors and finetune their understanding until they know the material. Emotional needs often take on a larger part at this stage as students are trying to figure out practice problems on their own for the first time, which may be challenging and frustrating at times.

Do it: The student can demonstrate their learning and apply it to new situations. This allows them to show the wisdom they gained from seeing it, relating to it, and figuring it out. Finally, applying material to something new takes a greater mental load than what they have done so far.

I can see a shift as something very similar already happens within my own teaching. Within my classroom, the framework I use when teaching new material follows the pattern: Show. Model. Practice, Apply. The eduspeak is just a bit different than what the medicine wheel uses. However, I do appreciate the medicine wheel’s larger focus on whole well-being and to keep in mind what struggles your students may be facing at that stage in learning (ex. Emotional challenge for figuring it out).

The two main challenges that I can see from a shift in firstly, the lack of support. The lack of support can come from administration and from parents. While there has recently been a bigger focus on supporting students holistically, there is also a push to return to the “normal” that existed pre-COVID. Extra support being removed, after students being used to it, makes it a scary time for students, parents, teachers, and administrators who are trying to find the right balance to have a holistic learning environment. However, this may be the push we needed to have a holistic approach that is found within the Medicine Wheel.

Secondly, an overall lack of understanding of Indigenous knowledge and what the Medicine Wheel is and how it can be seen within teaching. (I was today years old when I learned where the term “Medicine Wheel” comes from, despite seeing and hearing about them for years.) Learning is a journey, but as educators, we often feel like we need to be experts in the subject since we are expected to be experts by our students. The added pressure of being a white settler and using an Indigenous approach to education may cause fear and hesitation to apply the Medicine Wheel’s teachings to our own teachings.