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My "ism"

So about time to tackle what my "ism" would look like. I purposefully waited until after my paper as I was still searching for what it would look like. I think my "ism" [represented by the bold lettering] would look like the following:

Description:

• If you asked me at the beginning of my masters I would have said a 75% realism and 25% neo-thomism. However as this course has progressed my "ism" has shifted to pragmatism. Why? Through my own experiences through Action Research and what I have learned about myself due to this course I have greatly seen a change in me as I need to learn through experiential learning. This has revolutionized the way I thought about myself and how I learned, and I seek to capture that energy within the classroom by allowing students to experience. I realize that I need to develop yet. So as of right now here is what my "ism" would l be described as:
• 50% Pragmatism/25% Realism/25% Neo-Thomism

Key Theorists:

• Dewey has been the most influential on me as this course grows, but I cannot simply deny my past influence of Plato and Socrates.

Epistemology:

• As I described above the empirical method has been growing within myself and the classroom. However being in the social sciences it is hard not to occassionally fall back into the transmission mode. There are just sometimes where you have to talk and desiminate information.

Ontology:

• Self. Perhaps above all I think self exploration is key for anyone, myself included, to truly learn. In many of my classes, especially Psych 20, I state that if you take anything from this class take what you have learned about yourself. To me that is a mark of a great educator.

Role of Teacher:

• The main belief of my "ism" is the teacher as a facilitator. To assist the students in their own learning by helping them, by guiding, learn the best way that they can for themselves. However, occassionally authoritative and interpreter come into play. I would endeavour to say percent wise it would fall like this: 50% facilitator, 25% authoritative and 25% interpreter.

Role of Student:

• I see the most growth of my own teaching style here as my views on students change. I currently would see students as investigator and colleague. By becoming a learner with them and listening to their needs and interests I have moved away as seeing them as empty vessels. I see them as partners in education with both of us learning from one another and together.

Situatedness of the Curriculum:

• With my views on students changing my focus here has shifted from knowledge based to one that embraces observation and milieu. With different students and learning styles I have been adapting much more in the last year than ever before.
  

Visual Metaphor:

• Jedi Acadmey/Force. I know that this is somewhat recycled from a previous assignment but I think the basic tenets still hold. Padawans/Jedi learn through both transmission of info but also learn by doing. The skills learned vary with the situation as the milieu and their observations change. They investigate the world around them as well as the world within themselves. Jedi Masters guide them [padawans] in their learning, morfe often through experiences.

Been a while...

So I took a break from my blog to focus on my paper and I think it was a good break for me as I think I am ready to try to tackle a couple of questions that Steve asked at the beginning of the semester.

The first one I want to try and tackle is what knowledge is worth knowing. Since the beginning of this course I have been more aware of the decisions I make within the classroom. Most importantly though I have been wondering for whom am I making these decisions. Is it for my best interest, in order to plan, or for the students?

This weekend's presentations caused me to reflect on what is it that is worth knowing. I have to agree with Meagan that I think the most basic skills, that are definitely worth knowing are the three "R"s. Reading, writing and arithmetic. These skills transend most courses and definitely impact upon a student's success in these courses. But what else? Is the knowledge from my History 30 class worth knowing? Law 30? Econ 30? Will the students even remember the specifics that I "taught" them.

The answer is most obviously no (at least for many of them). I am sure that some students will hang onto some of the information for whatever reason. Fun moment, links to them, etc. When I look at the various courses I teach there is a recurring thread that is present in them all. Perhaps this is what I value as the knowledge most worth knowing.

What is it you may ask? Critical thinking and exercising their own opinions. This is something that in all classes I take the time to develop in them. I make it clear at the start of the term that I want to hear about their values and beliefs. Often times they have their opinions but they do not clearly explain them. This is something that has always bothered me. But am I making a judgement? Is this something that they need to know? I think the answer is yes! Basic communication skills are a must: literacy and writing. I believe that this is just an obvious extension of that subject material.

Throughout the term we work on being able to clearly state their opinions and then have the ability to back them up. We work with dialectical essays that exercise their critical thinking skills to see others opinions. This is an ongoing process that takes time and if in all the courses in which I teach this is the only skill/knowledge they came out with I think I have succeeded in helping them.

So what knowledge do I think is worth knowing? In my beliefs it is helping the students find their voice. A voice that can clearly explain their beliefs and values, while backing those beliefs up.

A quote from another...

I find in amusing as we go through our Masters degree the extent to which we take things for granted and how with each class my eyes are opened up to see things in a new light. I can remember becoming a parent and seeing for the "first" time how many mini-vans are out there. Experiences such as this shape how we see things...either for the first time or just changes our perceptions to see things in another light.

I was flipping through a book that my wife borrowed from the library (and if you are not a library member you should be) about 100 Best Worldwide Vacations to Enrich Your Life. A quote from Miriam Beard, an American writer and traveler, spoke to me. Change a key word and could we not be talking about curriculum. With a nod to Miriam Beard the quote would read as such..."Curriculum is more than the written goals and outlines; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent." Within this statement are many different layers.

Firstly that curriculum can be both explicit and implicit. What is taught in class does not necessarily have to be what the students learn. I cannot really recall any student thaanking me for teaching a specific piece of knowledge. However students have thanked me for teaching them other "unplanned" lessons about life.

Secondly is that curriculum can be both negative and positive. We like to think that we always create a positive change but as in life there can be a "dark side" to curriculum (implicitly or explicitly). Is everything that is modelled within a curriculum a positive change? Perhaps an innocent comment taken wrong can undue positive change. I seem to recall many of us arguing something similar when talking about the roles of homes in a child's life and how what is taught within the hours of 9-3:30 can be gratly undone by the influence of their homelife.

Finally the deep and permanance of the curriculum. Do we really know how deeply we might change and alter a student's life/perceptions/etc? Though not an example from school it is something that happened to me and my parents. When I was a child I ate everything in sight. However upon a visit to our family doctor he said that vegetables weren't all that important. As an impressionable young child I took it literally and refused to eat veggies again. My mother could have killed him. This innocent comment greatly effected my outlook towards veggies that has lasted til this very day. Could a lesson do this? Can we as teachers do this? Yes if we are not careful.

I have to be careful what books I pick up...who thought a travel book could evoke a thought about curriculum?

Been thinking...

I have been thinking about Nutana's change in policy about not awarding F's to students. I realize as John said in class that a rose is rose by any other name...but I think that this is a step foward. Words and what is uaually associated with them can often hurt and demoralize a person moreso than any other form of abuse. I think F is one of these and the schemas that go along with it. If you get an F you are a failure, clear as can be. Sure we think that this might lose meaning to people and they simply don't care, but have we asked them about how they "truly" feel about getting an F? Is this not contradictory to the Ministry's effort to build lifelong learners? By giving them in incomplete it does not indicate that they are failures, it indicates hope and that they just came up short. Often with these students hope is a much better way of appraoching them to succeed than failure. Without the negative stereotype of being seen as a failure these students might come back to finish what they started. If one of our main jobs is to help build character and perservence does not an incomplete work towards that goal of lifelong learners rather than an F?

Trying to find something else...

I found this video on YouTube while searching for something else. I think this individual makes some valid points regarding teaching/learning within the "product" model. He does compare students to "little robots" that work on the assembly line, working for society and the economy. Are we simply creating students that repeat what we want them to think? I can recall many "high end" students at Carpenter picking my brain on how I wanted to see an assignment done. I know and understand that they are just trying to improve their grades, but are they not just leaning on me as a crutch? Am I helping them to succeed? I think in a world that trains students to be little automatons yes. But I want more. I want to challenge them to think outside of the box. To get them to think for themselves, not simply for someone else. Is that wrong? Does this individual hit the button for so many students and how they feel that schools are restricting them?

Struggling...

I have over the the past couple of months been struggling with this course in terms of defining what I believe about curriculum and what it means to me. Where I began with my rather simplistic definition of curriculum and where I am now is different, but I have yet to conclusively state what it is I currently define curriculum as.

This has become a little clearer to me as I tackle my final paper for this class. I originally was going to question curriculum along students perceptions and feelings about what they are/were taught. I thought before asking my current students their feelings upon the subject of curriculum I would refine my questioning with former students via emails/social networking sites (such as Facebook). The answers I received were not that surprising. However what i also did was send similar questions to former colleagues of mine across Canada to gauge their feelings about curriculum.

This afterthought of mine sopke closer to me as I saw that not only myself, but others, were struggling with idea of what curriculum is. The variety of answers and interpretations came back as startling. As I began to sift through the responses (about 20 in total) I started to understand a little more of what wehave talked about in class (process, product & praxis). By sifting through the responses I challenged myself to group them into the three "P"s. This hands-on work clarified much of what was challenging me.

However I was still struggling with my own personal "ism" of what defines me and my beliefs about curriculum. Through analysis of colleagues' remarks and our chart on "isms" that we developed in class I can tell you what I don't believe in. Hopefully as my paper emerges a clearer belief of curriculum will emerge for me.