Mr. Wiggins spotted wisely the means by which we should guide successful, observable; hence, improvable learning, so as to develop effective understanding and not mere forgettable knowledge. Lately, I’ve been dealing with primary teachers who have told me about their experiences and ideas about teaching, and I could make out a few aspects that helped me to understand his ideas in a context. (Understanding?)
During my conversations with these teachers, I could single out some of the problems that in the long run will affect this chapter proposals: planning, assessment and I would add one more, commitment. I’ve noticed that lack of clarity in their knowledge/understanding of class stages, purposes and objectives which are unclear and aimless; in addition, the lack of context in their lessons is also a major flaw. One of these teachers I’m talking about told me about her problems teaching the prepositions to 6th graders. She claimed having explained thoroughly what part of speech prepositions belong to and so on and so forth (without realizing about the implications of this). The problem is not grammar but the contents, and possible values you may come up with while revising, say, prepositions (if there’s any related whatsoever).
Without lessons designed to bring ideas to life, concepts such as honour, manifest destiny, or the water cycle, remain empty phrases to be memorized, depriving learners of the realization that ideas have power (p. 43), which is a serious matter if we think about it carefully. Let alone assessment. If we want to educate our students on a critical thinking basis, crafting assessments to evoke transferability is one of the skills we need to develop by finding out if students can take their learning and use it wisely, flexibly creatively in unknown settings (p.48) in other words: autonomy. Last not least, commitment, which is one of the, or THE issue, which would help to solve some of the curriculum hampers we need to deal with. As mentioned above, ideas have power, and I’m afraid that some teachers virtually ignore the real impact of this idea.
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21 comments:
testing
Dear Claudio,
You mention two concepts that are crucial here.
AUTONOMY and COMMITMENT.
How can we ask our students for commitment if the ideas we are dealing with in classes don't mean a thing to them? How can we ask them to be autonomus if we don't teach them how to use things in different contexts for their own good?
And on the other side of the coin...how can we look so surprised when our students are unable to APPLY things if our own commitment is not enough to make us do our classes in a decent way?
Well...some questions for us to discuss having a cupa coffee!
Thanks!
thx
sp
'Scientia potestas est', as Sir Francis Bacon wisely stated more than 400 hundred years ago. Certainly, context and 'the human factor' in teaching, as you allude in your accurate analysis, are very important factors teachers usually forget about. Sometimes, in order to generate learning, you have to show the two sides of the coin,not only good techniques but also, conextualizing and humanizing teaching so as to produce effective learning, and transferability of knowledge as you also refer to.
Commitment is key concept for and effective teaching and learning indeed.It is absolutely better to give students the tools to be autonomous and critical enough rather than teaching them things and teaching them about things, without saying the reasons why things are as they are and as they appear to be.
it is contextualizing, sorry.
Thanks for your ideas. By the way, I still can't find Daniela's blog. Did you? If you did, please let me know.
Dear Claudio
I would like to comment on critical thinking. This concept encourages the existence of new ideas which are the basis of transfer and transfer is the aim which all schools must have. Good ideas, commitment, vocation, motivation are values which constantly involve the essence of current methodologies. However, when an opportunity to talk about teachers about their performances at school is possible, their answers show the lack of understanding about how to teach effectively. Is it that they know how to teach instead of understanding? Were these teachers well- prepared to teach understanding?
I asked that questions because my experience as a student at school was oriented to the traditional approach. The best student was the one who learnt by heart everything. Teachers motivated students to believe in them without questioning.
From my point of view, changes have to start at university when students begin to study pedagogy. Understanding is a skill that has to be learned because it is vital for our world’s future.
I found a sort of “teacher’s reality” in your words when you mentioned “forgettable knowledge”, because unfortunately it happens; sometimes we teachers deal with content but not with context which is a crucial issue when teaching. I have noticed with my own students that when I have taught them whatever “in context” they have really learnt. And probably it takes time to do so, I mean to teach contents in context; nevertheless, it is crucial for us to teach in that way, because only there we will see effective learning.
Angelina
C,
It is really sad to see that most teachers spend most of their precious time complaining their students don't learn instead of investing it (yes, it is an investment) into planning classes which provide students contextualised contents.
In addition, I insist on the students doing, revising and editing the activities themselves, with little aid of the teacher. I have been doing that lately, and experience has told me students commit more into what they do (it could be because of being 'jugded' by a peer or just for the sake of doing things well) and there is more 'intake' into their learning.
It is everyone's resposability (but specially ours) to change the our and others' beliefs to make our classrooms better.
Lore
Sorry again, it is 'commitment is a key concept'..
for effective teaching and learning, another mistake again!!
Dear Claudio,
there is a word in your post which made me think about the great importance of the person in this process of education. It's not only teaching our students contents or knowledge about a particular subject, but to guide them in this process of becoming "autonomous". But how can we do that? If chidren don't want to think, most of them don't have opinion, they just follow trends and in the classroom they simply learn by heart what the teacher says. Most students just take what teachers give them and that's it! Is it our fault? or shall we blame their parents? or society? I don't really know but it's something important to keep in mind in order to improve the educational system in this country.
In order to have autonomous students we must be very accuented with our jobs, when we have problems and blame our students for not learning, do we really make a intrspection and analyze our classes,why it is always students`fault, we cannot be so selfish and arrogant to not see our mistakes. Students act as we teach them
Claudio
I think the idea of commitment is attached to respect. Respect to our students, and most of all to ourselves as professionals. A bit of introspective analysis isn't a bad idea if we consider the mediocre delivery of contents we might be producing.
Hi Claudio!
For a reason I don't understand the system hasn't saved the TWO POSTS I've already written!!!... whatever, here I go again.
I liked your quotation about having the class stages, purposes and objectives. From the moment we make these aspects clear to our students they would eventually become more involved, and feel part of the class, not only as receivers of contents, but as active participants in the process. Let's then, explicit them what our objectives are and what it is that we expect from them, and that those expectations are high and that we trust in their abilities. That, in a way may lead to more committed students in their learning.
As you said, we are immersed in a process which looks as a big chain. Off course it encompasses all the participants who are in charge of fulfilling the aims proposed as ideals in our educational environment. However what occurs if they are non-well set up due to the misunderstanding that exist between ´the know’ and ‘the know how’. This simple confusion can make us to make a lot of mistakes in our lessons, because most of us are just focusing in conveying information without taking in account the applicability that it should have in order to improve the learning on our students.
As you said, we are immersed in a process which looks as a big chain. Off course it encompasses all the participants who are in charge of fulfilling the aims proposed as ideals in our educational environment. However what occurs if they are non-well set up due to the misunderstanding that exist between ´the know’ and ‘the know how’. This simple confusion can make us to make a lot of mistakes in our lessons, because most of us are just focusing in conveying information without taking in account the applicability that it should have in order to improve the learning on our students.
My dear neighbour:
"The more I read, the less I understand" Oh My Good Lord, you don't know how difficult it was to me to teach those little angels the structure above...
Context! I think it is one of the flaws grammar has. How to give grammar a context... I've managed to do it with several topics, but with others it is just impossible. And through feedback I have found/noticed there are some topics that are absolutely useless. That is the critical moment in which I start suffering this Academic Cardiac Arrest Syndrome (ACAS), I reflect, re-reflect and re-re-reflect about the steps to follow, and a bunch of questions come to my head; Should I change the methodology? Should I change my hairdo? Should I just forget and skip this content? After that process of thorough inquiriy, I eventually find an answer, sometimes positive, others, negative. The only good thing to rescue out of this, it is the idea of commitment you mention; I have a lot to learn, I've been teacher for just two years... And when everything is difficult and my faith in my students and in my own practice decreases... I, at least, know that I am extremely committed to their learning...
Thanks my friend.
PS: The very first sentence refers to the fact that the more I read (articles at the m.a. and our classmates' posts), the less I manage to understand, and I think about the huge responsibility we have when teach... It is just the tip of the iceberg!
Macarena focuses on meaningful learning which is the only way to achieve understanding. Therefore, students and teacher must be engaged in activities that lead to true understanding. Conversely, if students are not motivated taking into account their interests they are not likely to learn anything. This view is inserted in the student-centered approach, which today undoubtedly, is the most prestigious approach to learning. We might be careful though not to focus exclusively on students’ interests. From my point of view, there must a balance between a student-centered approach and curriculum-centered approach.
The lack of context which Claudio refers to is a serious problem found in our TEFL classes. It is definitely aimless to teach any content isolated from its substance, in other words, from its context. One of the key aspects for a successful learning is transferability. If students are able to transfer what they have learned to other contexts or settings, understanding will take place. Consequently, there will be meaningful learning and the learning experience will end up being memorable. Nonetheless, many teachers could forget about the presence of context, particularly when the context we want to pay attention to is bit complex and we decide to stress form rather than content.
Transfer, transfer, transfer... The word that rings in my head after reading your comment and all the posts. That's the way it is!
I think we are the main actors, we are able to achieve the goal of real learning through many concrete actions and I really believe that ideas have power! but this real learning becomes difficult when facing obstacles such as students' conceptions of teaching and learning, teachers' beliefs, and schools' 'requirements'. This my experience of course...
thx for the reflections
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