STUDY QUESTION: Think of a class you are planning to teach or are currently teaching. What could be a profound question that could create the "window" for you, and at the same time, promote deep reflective thinking among your students?
Last fall I had my Counseling/Leadership grad students write a reflection paper for Career Development Across the Lifespan. The paper asked each student to reflect on their own work experiences as well those of their families, down through the generations. Students were to reflect also on what they were taught about work, growing up, and on how they saw the role of work in their lives, going forward.
This assignment gave me a window into students' families of origin, their role within those families, their struggles, and their dreams. With their permission, I read anonymous excerpts from a few of the papers.
Reading (and commenting on) these papers was a humbling privilege, one that allowed me to connect both personally and academically in a more meaningful way to each student.
If I had one disappointment, it's that we had not reached a point in the semester when the students felt comfortable sharing their papers with one another. Just as we saw in the recent documentary about the fourth-grade classroom, learning is enhanced tremendously when students bond not only with their teacher but with one another.
We did achieve some of that bonding as the semester went on. I only wish I had started actively encouraging that bonding even sooner.
Ch. 5 If children have the ability to learn without instruction outside schools, what could educators do to help them use this ability in schools?
I think it is important for educators to teach students how to critically think and reflect on their learning to improve upon the task they are working on. Students need to learn how to guide themselves and weed through the information and not just passively accept it. To be a critical thinker you must, ask questions, define a problem, examine evidence, analyze biases, and be open to considering other interpretations. If educators successfully teach students to be critical thinkers they will be able to approach any problem or obstacle they face inside or outside of the classroom. As for skills that students may already possess, I think they are curious and have an imagination. These two skills that kind of roll into one , I believe these skills can help them learn in school. Children are naturally curious and have an imagination, if educators help students to strengthen this still by allowing them to be curious. For example, educators can foster this by letting students choose projects, or topics based on their interest or curiosity. Students will construct their own meaning from the topic just as they would outside of the classroom.
STUDY QUESTION: Why could it be the case that simply conveying information to students is not sufficient enough for the students to learn the content? What processes are missing here?
Now that we are week into class, I think that most of my classmates are aware of my interest – or obsession – in the construction of meaning in the classroom. Simply conveying information to students can be insufficient because according to Dr. Inoue (2012), “Learning requires the students’ internal effort to construct meaning, and without it, meaningful learning does not take place no matter how well the external conditions are set up for the student” (p. 77). In order for students to actually learn the material I teach them, they have to utilize it and be able to construct meanings from this new information.
I think that the concept of meaningful learning is especially important to my work with adult ELLs. Learning a new language is a complex process, but I think that the most efficient way of ensuring lasting knowledge is to create opportunities for meaningful learning in the classroom. I want my students to be able to relate new vocabulary, phrases, and sentence structures to their actual lives. I also hope that they will be able to find connections between English and their own native languages because this might give any new knowledge greater importance. Additionally, I want my students to be able to use the concepts I teach them to construct their own knowledge – for example, I would like them to be able to construct new sentences and carry on conversations using phrases they have never used previously. In this way, they will be learning new content by constructing their own meanings.
Why is it the case that adult are not as smart as young children in adapting to new situations and developing new knowledge? What makes us lose such smartness as we grow up?
As adults, we rely what we view as logic to solve problems. We use the same means of problem solving for every problem. We are quick to judge ways of solving problems unless they make sense to our minds. I caught myself thinking, “that won’t work” when I was watching the students build their rafts in “Children Full of Life” video. Their way of building rafts didn’t make sense to my narrow and rigid ideas of building a raft to float. Conversely, children are open to all kinds of ways of solving one problem. The textbook reads, “their flexibility and willingness to try an accept new ways of doing things” (Inoue, p.84). I think as we grow up, we start to be told from parents and teachers, “that won’t work”, when tackling a science experiment, math problem, painting, etc. Our creativity is stifled and therefore we begin to think very narrowly in solving problems. In terms of learning a new language, we are so set in the rules of our native language the ways in which other languages work don’t make sense so therefore we fight it or give on it. All in all, children are smarter because their openness, flexibility, adaptability and creativity at tackling all sorts of situations.
Why is it the case that adults are not as smart as young children in adapting to new situations and developing new knowledge? What makes us lose such smartness as we grow up?
I think that it is not the case that adults are not as smart as young children when it comes to adapting to new situations and developing new knowledge. I think adults and children are both equally smart, but children are more open minded and willing to learn and adults are more closed minded and some feel like they already learned how to handle new situations and don’t need to develop new knowledge. I think what makes us loose that open-mindedness as we grow up is the expectations that we carry as adults (and teachers) to have answers to everything and know how to solve all problems. As we grow up we also get comfortable in certain situations and with what we know, so we resist change and are hesitant to accept the change that is inevitable.
In my opinion, the more open an adult is to new situations and change the more likely they will be to develop new knowledge and continue to grow and learn which will help in adapting to new situations. The more willing we are as adults (and teachers) to say “I don’t know” or accept that we cannot control a situation the more we can benefit from new situations. As long as we are always willing to learn and accept when we do not know something, and the more uncomfortable we are willing to be in changing and adapting to a new situation, the “smarter” we adults will be.
STUDY QUESTION: Think of a class you are planning to teach or are currently teaching. What could be a profound question that could create the "window" for you, and at the same time, promote deep reflective thinking among your students?
ReplyDeleteLast fall I had my Counseling/Leadership grad students write a reflection paper for Career Development Across the Lifespan. The paper asked each student to reflect on their own work experiences as well those of their families, down through the generations. Students were to reflect also on what they were taught about work, growing up, and on how they saw the role of work in their lives, going forward.
This assignment gave me a window into students' families of origin, their role within those families, their struggles, and their dreams. With their permission, I read anonymous excerpts from a few of the papers.
Reading (and commenting on) these papers was a humbling privilege, one that allowed me to connect both personally and academically in a more meaningful way to each student.
If I had one disappointment, it's that we had not reached a point in the semester when the students felt comfortable sharing their papers with one another. Just as we saw in the recent documentary about the fourth-grade classroom, learning is enhanced tremendously when students bond not only with their teacher but with one another.
We did achieve some of that bonding as the semester went on. I only wish I had started actively encouraging that bonding even sooner.
Ch. 5 If children have the ability to learn without instruction outside schools, what could educators do to help them use this ability in schools?
ReplyDeleteI think it is important for educators to teach students how to critically think and reflect on their learning to improve upon the task they are working on. Students need to learn how to guide themselves and weed through the information and not just passively accept it. To be a critical thinker you must, ask questions, define a problem, examine evidence, analyze biases, and be open to considering other interpretations. If educators successfully teach students to be critical thinkers they will be able to approach any problem or obstacle they face inside or outside of the classroom. As for skills that students may already possess, I think they are curious and have an imagination. These two skills that kind of roll into one , I believe these skills can help them learn in school. Children are naturally curious and have an imagination, if educators help students to strengthen this still by allowing them to be curious. For example, educators can foster this by letting students choose projects, or topics based on their interest or curiosity. Students will construct their own meaning from the topic just as they would outside of the classroom.
STUDY QUESTION: Why could it be the case that simply conveying information to students is not sufficient enough for the students to learn the content? What processes are missing here?
ReplyDeleteNow that we are week into class, I think that most of my classmates are aware of my interest – or obsession – in the construction of meaning in the classroom. Simply conveying information to students can be insufficient because according to Dr. Inoue (2012), “Learning requires the students’ internal effort to construct meaning, and without it, meaningful learning does not take place no matter how well the external conditions are set up for the student” (p. 77). In order for students to actually learn the material I teach them, they have to utilize it and be able to construct meanings from this new information.
I think that the concept of meaningful learning is especially important to my work with adult ELLs. Learning a new language is a complex process, but I think that the most efficient way of ensuring lasting knowledge is to create opportunities for meaningful learning in the classroom. I want my students to be able to relate new vocabulary, phrases, and sentence structures to their actual lives. I also hope that they will be able to find connections between English and their own native languages because this might give any new knowledge greater importance. Additionally, I want my students to be able to use the concepts I teach them to construct their own knowledge – for example, I would like them to be able to construct new sentences and carry on conversations using phrases they have never used previously. In this way, they will be learning new content by constructing their own meanings.
Chapter 5 Study Question
ReplyDeleteWhy is it the case that adult are not as smart as young children in adapting to new situations and developing new knowledge? What makes us lose such smartness as we grow up?
As adults, we rely what we view as logic to solve problems. We use the same means of problem solving for every problem. We are quick to judge ways of solving problems unless they make sense to our minds. I caught myself thinking, “that won’t work” when I was watching the students build their rafts in “Children Full of Life” video. Their way of building rafts didn’t make sense to my narrow and rigid ideas of building a raft to float. Conversely, children are open to all kinds of ways of solving one problem. The textbook reads, “their flexibility and willingness to try an accept new ways of doing things” (Inoue, p.84).
I think as we grow up, we start to be told from parents and teachers, “that won’t work”, when tackling a science experiment, math problem, painting, etc. Our creativity is stifled and therefore we begin to think very narrowly in solving problems. In terms of learning a new language, we are so set in the rules of our native language the ways in which other languages work don’t make sense so therefore we fight it or give on it. All in all, children are smarter because their openness, flexibility, adaptability and creativity at tackling all sorts of situations.
Why is it the case that adults are not as smart as young children in adapting to new situations and developing new knowledge? What makes us lose such smartness as we grow up?
ReplyDeleteI think that it is not the case that adults are not as smart as young children when it comes to adapting to new situations and developing new knowledge. I think adults and children are both equally smart, but children are more open minded and willing to learn and adults are more closed minded and some feel like they already learned how to handle new situations and don’t need to develop new knowledge. I think what makes us loose that open-mindedness as we grow up is the expectations that we carry as adults (and teachers) to have answers to everything and know how to solve all problems. As we grow up we also get comfortable in certain situations and with what we know, so we resist change and are hesitant to accept the change that is inevitable.
In my opinion, the more open an adult is to new situations and change the more likely they will be to develop new knowledge and continue to grow and learn which will help in adapting to new situations. The more willing we are as adults (and teachers) to say “I don’t know” or accept that we cannot control a situation the more we can benefit from new situations. As long as we are always willing to learn and accept when we do not know something, and the more uncomfortable we are willing to be in changing and adapting to a new situation, the “smarter” we adults will be.