> From: GMBrady@aol.com
> Date: Wed, 6 Dec 1995 09:29:47 -0500
>
> Ivan says:
>
> >The problem between
> >teaching and learning, at least in the US, is that must of us see teaching
> >as a situation where I, the professor, talk, and they, the students,
> >listen and learn.
>
> Looking back over my many years of teaching, I find that I've steadily had
> less and less to say. Now, it often comes down to my doing little more
> than asking a single question, posing a dilemma, providing a single bit of
> data, noting an anomaly, etc., and sitting down in the back of the room.
> I look for "puzzles," the solutions to which seem to me to have great (no,
> VERY great) explanatory power.
Nothing like listening to all those brains processing stuff. One
thing is that students have tyo be convinced that they do not have to come
with an answer that will satisfy the professor. It is a strongly held
habit (product of our efforts as professors), that students strive to find
the "right answer the professor wants to see."
> Of course, to accomodate this, I've had to make major changes in classroom
> organization. I direct these "puzzles" to teams of 4 or 5 members each,
> who do the best they can with them, then interact in various ways with
> other teams to pursue ever-greater refinement. I tell them they're pretty
> much on their own, but that I'll answer any precisely worded question to
> the best of my ability.
Yes! The teams are very important. One must develop an
envirionment where students feel that they can think on their own, that
they can express those thoughts too, and that there is no fear.
Professors are too intimidating to students; control of the grades, the
exams, etc. I don't think that people can think under these conditions.
> I've never thought of it exactly like this before, but it seems to me
> that, in a research mode, I'm paid to think; in a teaching mode, I'm paid
> to make the students think. And I don't consider simple recall of
> something I've said or had students read as requiring them to think.
I agree. In the traditional appraoch we measure learning by how
ell students repeat what we say in class, or what they read in textbooks,
etc. Memorizinig is bad news. I ask students to try to read their
material as they read novels, etc. There no concepts or major points to
memorize, or repeat. They tell me what they saw as major points, and why.
I always have the opportunity to tell them what major points are too. That
is why I don't like regular textbooks, because they take away all the
students can do for the material. Each chapter is introduced with a list
of key terms to be learned from the chapter, instead of leaving that up to
the students to come up with the terms they consider as important. ETC.!
> A few years ago, in a Texas college that I considered above average, I
> asked for and got permission to look at all the final exams in all
> subjects for a term. More than 85% of the questions required students
> merely to recall specific information to provide answers on both objective
> and essay types of tests. It was a rare question that required
> categorizing, hypothesizing, generalizing, synthesizing, valuing, or other
> thought processes. I think the picture is about the same nationwide from
> about the 3rd grade up.
I am afraid you are right! We kill the fun of learning too early
in life, and then complain because our students are not dynamically
involved in their learning.
> I don't think that's defensible. I've quoted Alfred North Whitehead on
> this subject before:
>
> "The secondhandedness of the learned world is the secret of its
> mediocrity."
>
> Marion Brady
I believe that we must develop our learning system designs so that
thinking is emphasized! In fact I was looking again at your words in this
earlier message "In Western culture, in our attempt TO UNDERSTAND
EXPERIENCE, WE ROUTINELY "TAKE REALITY APART" BY ATTENDING TO TIME,
LOCATION, PARTICIPANT ACTORS, ACTION, AND CAUSE, AND THE SYSTEMIC
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THESE FIVE ASPECTS OF OUR PERCEPTIONS OF REALITY.
THESE, NOT THE TRADITIONAL ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES, ARE THE PROPER
SUBDISCIPLINES OF A SINGLE, INTEGRATED, INTELLECTUALLY MANAGEABLE GENERAL
EDUCATION CURRICULUM," and I think that a lot of tasks in the classroom
can be developed with this five aspects and their relationships in mind,
so that students understand clearly the process. By doing this, I think,
we will make sure to avoid the lack of awareness in systems thinking
mentioned by John Woods (Dec 5, 1995).
Thanks for sharing those ideas,
Ivan
--
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R. IVAN BLANCO, Ph.D. Voice 305 899-3515
Assoc. Prof. & Director Fax 305 892-6412
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