VYGOTSKY
I agree completely with Lev Vygotsky’s claim that a student’s learning is related to their environment and culture. I am sure that this is the case and I believe that for many students the classroom environment may not be the ideal place in which to learn, as they are often so distracted by social interaction with other students. Of course they will be learning about socialisation but content learnt may be minimal.
Vygotsky talked of egocentric speech (talking out loud) as “a transition to internalized thought” (Driscoll cited in Riddle. 1999) and I wonder whether in the present time egocentric speech is more socially acceptable than it was in the past, resulting in people talking considerably more than in the past (during classes, movies or concerts for example).
Vygotsky claimed that the three elements that needed to be present in order for learning to occur were 1) active student 2) active teacher and 3) an active social environment. (The Mozart of Psychology. N.d.)
Here I think he is referring to the fact that unless a student is actively involved whatever they are doing will not be internalized. I think that this is helpful as it means that as a teacher I would be wise to relax in the knowledge that there is only a certain amount that I can do.
As a teacher of mine used to say “teaching has nothing to do with learning” (Ilana Nevill. 1980) and Vygotsky also said that “From a scientific point of view, strictly speaking, you cannot educate anyone else”. (ibid.)
Vygotsky created the term Zone of Proximal Development describing it as “the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers”. (Vygotsky 1978) I interpret this to mean that students can learn more when they are helped by someone else, if they are met on ground of something that they already know. This makes sense as from what I have seen if I can engage students with something about which they feel confident, learning is much more likely than if they feel lost from the start.
References:
Nicholl, T. Vygotsky.
Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://www.massey.ac.nz/-alock/virtual/trishvyg.htm" http://www.massey.ac.nz/-alock/virtual/trishvyg.htm on April 3 2007
Riddle, E. Lev Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory (1999)
Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://tonymcarthur.edublogs.org/files/2007/03/vygotsky1.htm" http://tonymcarthur.edublogs.org/files/2007/03/vygotsky1.htm on March 4 2007
Lev Vygotsky Wikipedia entry
Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Vygotsky" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Vygotsky
On April 3 2007
The Mozart of Psychology
Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://vygotsky.afraid.org/" http://vygotsky.afraid.org/ on April 3 2007
EVALUATION of VYGOTSKY
In order to learn one has to internalize what one has learnt and one does this with the aid of language. The culture that one lives in influences what one values and I am aware that my choice of video clips and music reflects my interests and my culture.My postings on the various education theorists also show my use of language as a means of learning and assimilating new information. Likewise the Journal entries we had to write for Michael. In that work I really contemplated what was discussed and came to conclusions.
HATTIE
I found it both inspiring and uncomfortable to read John Hattie’s article “Teachers Make a Difference: What is the research evidence?”
Inspiring because as a Novice teacher I can still live in hope that I might become an expert teacher and have ‘exceptional effects’ and uncomfortable because I saw myself as a teacher reflected in many descriptions of novice teachers.
I am not surprised that the student accounts for 50% of the variance of achievement. I am also not surprised that the teacher accounts for about 30%. Although simultaneously excited and alarmed by the power at my hands!
I am certainly passionate about my subject but I am also aware that I don’t think I am able to see the ‘essential representations’ without having the experience of having taught it already several times.
I am aware that I need to provide much more feedback to the students and that a great deal of my time is spent in classroom management and if asked how a lesson was, my response will be largely based on how much or little control I felt I had. I am certainly “attempting to dominate the situation”, something expert teachers apparently do not do.
I am also passionate about teaching the students to learn by participating but I have been afraid of showing emotionality about successes and failures in relation to this. I know that my classes would benefit from more praise being given.
I certainly respect the students and believe that they are all capable of learning but I think that this may often not come across to the students as I am trying so hard to keep control, the emphasis moves from learning to trying to create the learning environment.
Reference:
Hattie, J. (2003) Teachers Make a Difference: What is the research evidence?
Retrieved from Notre Dame University Portal School of Education March 1 2007
Hattie, J (2005) What is the Nature of Evidence That Makes a Difference to learning?
Retrieved from www.acer.edu.au/workshops/documents/HattieSlides.pdf
HATTIE EVALUATION
Feedback is extremely important to anyone and part of my blog could have been to add the feedback that I received on the work I had posted, but I did not manage to do this and I probably the I should have spent more time evaluating what I had done after I had completed various sections of it.
GLASSER
I have found reading some of William Glasser’s work very interesting. From what I have read, it seems that it would be empowering for everyone using it. To concentrate on acting and thinking (two of the things that make up his view of ‘total behaviour’) is logical, because, as he rightly says our feelings often seem to be out of our control.
Glasser claims that the only significant problem people have is that of relationship and that even those diagnosed as mentally ill either have at least one very dissatisfying relationship or no relationships at all. Glasser believes that there is no such thing as mental illness but he is concerned with mental health. He believes that people chose certain behaviours, (even hallucinating, panic attacks, etc), in preference of experiencing their current life.
I have known two people who finally suicided and I always felt that they lost their power by coming to rely on drugs as a cure for what was described as ‘chemical imbalances’ in their brains. In both cases I felt that what they were being told by doctors was untrue and felt that the doctors concerned were really abusing their power by disempowering the patients and offering them drugs, which they later came to rely on.
The idea that teachers in schools can have a large impact on students through showing caring and compassion is also empowering as this is what I desire. As Glasser says, “There is no shortage of unhappy people” (Reality Therapy in the year 2000) and if I can do any thing to reduce the number by offering compassion, so much the better.
Glasser does not believe in punishments and from what I have seen of detentions, their effectiveness is extremely limited and I would like to see an alternative course of action.
I am also conscious that in my need to ‘survive’ as an untrained teacher I have used many of the ‘Seven Deadly Habits’ Glasser speaks of at times when it would have been more useful to focus on the ‘Seven Caring Habits’.
Sources
Glasser, W. Reality Therapy in the year 2000.
Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://www.wglasser.com/rt2000.htm" http://www.wglasser.com/rt2000.htm
On April 3 2007
Glasser,W. School Violence from the Perspective of William Glasser. Retrieved from http://www.wglasser.com/violence.htm on April 3 2007
Glasser, W. Focusing on Chemistry instead of Compassion
Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://www.wglasser.com/chemistr.htm " http://www.wglasser.com/chemistr.htm
on April 3 2007
Glasser, W. Counseling with Choice Therapy.
Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://www.wglasser.com/thenew/htm" http://www.wglasser.com/thenew/htm
On April 3 2007
Wikipedia entry on Glasser, William
Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Glasser,_William" http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Glasser,_William
EVALUATION of GLASSER
Glasser's work focusses on relationships between people and it is very hard to construct a blog that reflects personal relationships.Glasser stresses the need for students to feel that they have power, fun and to experience belonging. In choosing which particular part of a blog a student would like to look at, the student would have power and through looking at a video clip a student might have fun. The student might feel that he or she belongs to a group as they relate to what is on a blog.I am not sure that I have constructed my blog in a way to incorporate Glasser's understanding of the world.
On April 3 2007BRUNER
Jerome Bruner considers that there is no age at which a person is not able to learn something if it is taught in the appropriate way. Although this may be true, I question whether learning certain things when very young is healthy. For example, children may learn to read when very young but might it not be better that the child is playing outdoors and experiencing real life?
Bruner claims that there are three modes of representation: Enactive, Iconic and Symbolic and everything should be taught in this order. It is interesting to note that these same modes correspond to the rough approaches which are used in Steiner education with the first seven years of life being active (not reading etc), the second seven years having learning with many pictures being used and the third seven years becoming more logical and academic in its focus.
Bruner also says that the culture in which a person lives is very important in education and I agree with this. I am sure that where someone is living has an enormous impact on how someone learns both negatively and positively. When I think of the lack of motivation in most of the North Shore students I teach, it is quite alarming. It is very difficult for students to imagine themselves outside of their immediate surroundings, so to them the idea of learning a foreign language is a waste of time as it not part of their culture. For Germans to learn English is a different matter as English is so readily available in their media. As Bruner says an “interest in the material to be learned is the best stimulus for learning”. (The Process of Education. 1960)
Knowing how very little I remember from the information I learnt while at school, the final quote I read by Bruner reflects exactly what I think:
“To instruct someone…is not a matter of getting him to commit results to mind. Rather it is to teach him to participate in the process that makes possible the establishment of knowledge. Knowing is a process not a product”. (Postscript for The Process of Education. 1966)
References:
Flores, Nicole. Jerome Bruner’s Education Theory
Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Bruner.html" http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Bruner.html
on April 3 2007
jerome bruner and the process of education
Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm" http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm
on April 3 2007
Jerome Bruner Wikipedia article
Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Bruner
On April 3 2007
LECTURE 14: BRUNER
Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://evolution.massey.ac.nz/lect14/lect1400.htm" http://evolution.massey.ac.nz/lect14/lect1400.htm
on April 3 2007
Evaluation Bruner suggests that people aquire knowledge always passing through the same stages of learning, starting with the enactive, then iconic and then symbolic. Within a blog the enactive stage could be present as one can be passive while watching a video-clip or listening to a sound file. The iconic phase could well be supported by having external images on a blog to support their own inner pictures. The higher level of symbolic learning could be seen as I have shown that I have analysed Bruner's work.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
question 3
Question 3
Does on line learning have a place in schools? I think that it entirely depends on the philosophy behind the school.
In many schools where computers are a normal part of the environment on line learning may well have a place as so much information is so easily available on line. As the connectivists say learning is no longer a matter of ‘know-how’ or ‘know-what’ but rather a matter of ‘know-where’ as information and knowledge is changing so fast that one cannot possibly keep up with all the developments and know everything, one must more importantly know where one can find relevant information and as with Bloom’s Taxonomy, learn how to critically analyse and evaluate what one learns on line.
However with this interest in the quantity of information now available to any one, the quality of the information seems to have become less important. Unless you already have considerably knowledge on a subject and can therefore judge the information critically, I think that the information overload could actually be quite dangerous and overwhelming to the indiscriminate student. For one thing without a lot of guidance, one cannot possibly tell whether or not one has read the important thing and one can therefore doubt one’s own understanding. This is an experience I have had on this course, I have never been quite sure what I should have read and when using a search engine, I am quite sure that it is not necessarily the most informative links that come up first.
From a human point of view, I am not sure that on line learning is the answer. Certainly in Steiner Schools computers in general are not used much, particularly in the lower years. Bruner spoke of the different stages necessary in learning as being enactive, iconic and symbolic and though he claimed that anyone can learn anything at any age, I can’t imagine how a computer can be an example which a child would be able to follow in the enactive stage of learning. I would far rather a teacher who has carefully learnt a story or poem and teaches these with their own energy than sitting a child in front of a video clip or listening to a tape.
The same can be said of language learning. Of course one could use i-pods or CDs a lot in learning but I am sure that the physical presence of a teacher and the nuances of his or her voice and character must be more beneficial than pre-recorded sound. After school most of what we learnt is forgotten or never used but what we remember is the social interactions we had with fellow students and teachers. There are not many people who don’t have stories to tell about their teachers and what we learn mostly from them is from their example of how they are a human being, with their care for students, passion for their subject and morals, not much is learnt about the subject.
Another consideration when contemplating the place of on line learning is the extent to which students are actually engaging in what they are learning. If their engagement is more concerned with clicking the correct buttons than the content of what they are learning then clearly does not lend weight to the argument for on line learning, is this active learning? Vygotsky speaks of the need for students and teachers to be active in the process of learning for learning to take place and I am not sure that the teacher can be very active once the webquest is being done, for example.
In this course we have done little on line learning. The experience we had when looking at the webquests was far from inspiring. It confirmed my belief that much of what is done on line runs the risk of being superficial. With out ever having seen a webquest I was asked to critically judge four without even actually following the webquest on its journey. How could I possibly do this? By definition my judgements could only be superficial, and I wonder where that leaves Higher Order thinking?
Does on line learning have a place in schools? I think that it entirely depends on the philosophy behind the school.
In many schools where computers are a normal part of the environment on line learning may well have a place as so much information is so easily available on line. As the connectivists say learning is no longer a matter of ‘know-how’ or ‘know-what’ but rather a matter of ‘know-where’ as information and knowledge is changing so fast that one cannot possibly keep up with all the developments and know everything, one must more importantly know where one can find relevant information and as with Bloom’s Taxonomy, learn how to critically analyse and evaluate what one learns on line.
However with this interest in the quantity of information now available to any one, the quality of the information seems to have become less important. Unless you already have considerably knowledge on a subject and can therefore judge the information critically, I think that the information overload could actually be quite dangerous and overwhelming to the indiscriminate student. For one thing without a lot of guidance, one cannot possibly tell whether or not one has read the important thing and one can therefore doubt one’s own understanding. This is an experience I have had on this course, I have never been quite sure what I should have read and when using a search engine, I am quite sure that it is not necessarily the most informative links that come up first.
From a human point of view, I am not sure that on line learning is the answer. Certainly in Steiner Schools computers in general are not used much, particularly in the lower years. Bruner spoke of the different stages necessary in learning as being enactive, iconic and symbolic and though he claimed that anyone can learn anything at any age, I can’t imagine how a computer can be an example which a child would be able to follow in the enactive stage of learning. I would far rather a teacher who has carefully learnt a story or poem and teaches these with their own energy than sitting a child in front of a video clip or listening to a tape.
The same can be said of language learning. Of course one could use i-pods or CDs a lot in learning but I am sure that the physical presence of a teacher and the nuances of his or her voice and character must be more beneficial than pre-recorded sound. After school most of what we learnt is forgotten or never used but what we remember is the social interactions we had with fellow students and teachers. There are not many people who don’t have stories to tell about their teachers and what we learn mostly from them is from their example of how they are a human being, with their care for students, passion for their subject and morals, not much is learnt about the subject.
Another consideration when contemplating the place of on line learning is the extent to which students are actually engaging in what they are learning. If their engagement is more concerned with clicking the correct buttons than the content of what they are learning then clearly does not lend weight to the argument for on line learning, is this active learning? Vygotsky speaks of the need for students and teachers to be active in the process of learning for learning to take place and I am not sure that the teacher can be very active once the webquest is being done, for example.
In this course we have done little on line learning. The experience we had when looking at the webquests was far from inspiring. It confirmed my belief that much of what is done on line runs the risk of being superficial. With out ever having seen a webquest I was asked to critically judge four without even actually following the webquest on its journey. How could I possibly do this? By definition my judgements could only be superficial, and I wonder where that leaves Higher Order thinking?
Monday, June 4, 2007
Question One
Question One
The components of an interesting blog could be
A video clip
A sound file
A slide show
An image
A game
A mind map
These components are important because they give added interest and encourage and support different ways of learning, as not everyone learns only through speech, listening and reading. A mind map and pictures and video clip are all good ways of seeing more sides to any issue.
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