- Feb 2018
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ijds.lemoyne.edu ijds.lemoyne.edu
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en. As Bakhtin(1986) explains, “there can neither be a first nor a last meaning,” but instead the totality of meaning exists in an infinite chain and “each individual link in it is renewed again and again, as though it were being reborn” (p. 146). In such a cosmos, change might not be a new perspective, but a deeper and more clarified affirmation of an existing one. Change might not be that I’m thinking something entirely new, but that I’m thinking in new or deeper ways about something I’ve come to accept.
This to me is an expression of life-long learning but also speaks to the fact that learning is not a destination but a never-ending process through which we journey together. In my experience, wobbling and deeper understandings rarely come on their own but rather are initiated by outside forces such as colleagues, teachers, and world events.
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A common conception often characterized by teachers is theidea that the classroom is rarified space, somehow different and perhaps also protected from “the real world.” I argue that such has never been true, that “the real world” or, more accurately “the wider world,” has always impinged on c
In many ways, this is what Paulo Freire's pedagogy is telling us. Equally, considering Maslow's hierarchy of needs, if a student is in constant fear of being deported or family being deported, their sense of safety is threatened and if basic needs, of which safety is one, are not met, then students will struggle more with learning.
Of course what goes on outside the classroom inevitably impacts what occurs in it.
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marginalsyllab.us marginalsyllab.us
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The links between practice and theory in the texts on our syllabus were obvious to us, but often less so to our students,
This is something I come up against frequently. I found myself making the connections for the students and writing them off as lazy but what I eventually found was that they had never been taught to make these connections for themselves before college. Critical-thinking is a skill and it is one that is going untaught, perhaps because we are needing to teach to specific standards. #ED677
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- Jan 2018
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marginalsyllab.us marginalsyllab.us
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the increase in toleration, in breadth of social judgment, the larger acquaintance with human nature, the sharpened alertness in reading signs of character and interpreting social situations, greater accuracy of adaptation to differing personalities, contact with greater commercial activities.
This sentence sparked, for me, notions of the inter-connectedness of globalization, which many argue had its start at the turn of the century with the industrial revolution.
Thanks to globalization, knowledge and information is more readily available to us today. For example. before sending my student on their international experience, I am able to work with them to research the destination in terms of culture, health, safety, and other practical topics.
Ideally, access to this information results in the 'compensations that Dewey states here such as an increases tolerance. It has been my experience that mere availability of information is not, on its own, enough to be rewarded by those compensations that Dewey lists. However, as Dewey states in his next sentence, when we are able to couple this information before departure and continue instruction/reflection during a student's international experience, students do begin to demonstrate those 'compensations.' The key being, to mix theory with experience.
In the article Transitioning from Conventional to Connected Teaching, this mix of theory and practice and the ultimate result of "authentic, civically engaged projects" is defined as Connected Learning. (Perhaps Dewey was on to something...)
See: http://thecurrent.educatorinnovator.org/collection/what-does-it-take-teach-connected-learning
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Knowledge is no longer an immobile solid; it has been liquefied
With the digital age, I agree with jhartman and ccantrill that this statement is even more true today. I also believe that, thanks to the digital age, we can take Dewey's statement a step further and rather than just sharing information (liquefied knowledge), we can work together in the creation of new or further development of knowledge. John Seely Brown, in his Global One-Room Schoohouse lecture, said that unlike generations before, we are able to not only access knowledge but 'engage in active conversations in real time.'
I believe Dewey would see the digital age as a real opportunity for access to information and collaboration, while acknowledging that education is still divided, perhaps more than ever, by class due to the simple fact that not all schools have access to funds necessary for the most up-to-date technology. Private schools will continue to have 3-D printers and laser cutters, while inner-city schools will continue to creatively problem-solve with antiquated computers.
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It keeps them alert and active, instead of passive and receptive; it makes them more useful, more capable
"They shouldn't be forced to learn them [derivatives] unless they are part of the solution to the problems they are faced or challenged with." This statement by ndsteinmetz made previously resonated with me.
I am currently teaching a course to first-year college students that is designed to introduce them to a new culture and essentially "teach" students how to travel. I have made an intentional effort to "create context" (John Seely Brown) in which what we discuss in class has demonstrated real-world connects, consequences, etc.
The issue I am having is that students are not able to see these connects, but rather expect me, as their instructor, to make the connections for them. My struggle is to begin to help them learn how to learn, instead of to teach them how to recall what I say.
See: http://dmlcentral.net/the-global-one-room-schoolhouse-john-seely-brown/
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