Five Reasons to Learn

Life List

I was recently at the Death and Diversity Project exhibition in the Museum of Wellington City and Sea.  The project asked people from a range of communities (Jewish, Muslim, Chinese, Columbian, Hindu, Mexican, and Assyrian) in Wellington to share their experiences of death, highlighting many commonalities and differences across cultures.  One of the activities that caught my attention was an activity they had for visitors to the exhibition: to complete a list of five things they would like to achieve from life.

The responses on the lists varied, particularly in relation to age and gender.  However, many related to travelling, to having a good job, to falling in love, to learn from mistakes, to take chances, to help others in need, and to make the world a better place.  One child (aged 6) had simply stated on his life list that he would not be a farmer!

The different lists reminded me of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.  Maslow described five levels of development (psysiological, safety, love, esteem, self-actualization) through which humans' motivation can generally move through.  Maslow never actually expressed his levels in the form of a pyramid, but it is a common representation used.  There are many criticisms of this hierarchy, particularly in relation to its ordering (or that ordering them is even possible) and that it centres on individualism over collectivism.  The hierarchy can offer some indication of different types of motivation, but every individual can be drawing on different elements within the hierarchy (something I would have noted from the different life lists at the exhibition).

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

I think the life list would be a very valuable exercise for any teacher to use with their students.  A teacher could get students to do a general life list and then have them do a second one in relation to a particular subject they are doing, e.g., how does or can doing chemistry support your life list?  An articulation of such motivations could be valuable to both the student and the teacher, offering insights into commonalities and differences across students.  In turn, reflecting on such insights may illuminate issues to be discussed or may be instructive on how different material may be approached in class, e.g., what material is more appropriate to group work or what is more suitable to work with on an individual level?  Students' life lists could be dated and stuck on a classroom wall like the picture below, or, if you like your technology, pictures of the life lists could be taken and put on a Pinterest board.  A life list could be completed at certain intervals to see if and how students' motivations can change throughout their schooling.  Where would such motivations fall on Maslow's hierarchy?  Do students highlight that they want to accept facts? be creative? be problem-solvers? help others? get 'stuff'?  have respect?  An understanding of such motivations and the rationale underpinning them are important elements to effective pedagogy.

Life Lists Board

Maslow's hierarchy of needs image taken from wikipedia.

The Point of Pinterest in Education

When I first started using Pinterest I posted on some of the potential uses of it in 'Putting the Pinterest in Education'.  Pinterest has continued to increase in its use and a greater number of ways in which it is being used are emerging.  At the bottom of this post is a recent infographic that highlights 16 ways in which educators use Pinterest (taken from www.onlineuniversities.com).  The 16 ways are discussed in relation to four key areas of curating content, organising ideas, calloborating with others, and students' use of Pinterest.

Despite my original optimism for the potential use of Pinterest I have begun to find certain issues with it, all relating to the four key areas noted above.  Firstly, in terms of curating content, I have issues with finding information quickly on Pinterest.  There is a search function, but search results can still turn up a large number of pins and/or multiples of the same graphic.  Attempts to find relevant pins can be quite time-consuming, especially considering the large size of some of the graphics and then having to scroll down through them.  In certain instances search results do not show up any relevant pins at all.  Also, as an educational researcher, I would like to use Pinterest more in terms of my research work to share links to useful research articles under particular boards.  However, I feel many journal websites (and other websites too) have not aligned themselves with Pinterest, as there is no picture to pin.  Even a small graphic with the journal title and/or number would suffice.  I appreciate this is not directly an issue with Pinterest, but indirectly it is for me in using Pinterest.

Secondly, in terms of organising ideas, there is no great structure under which to organise ideas on Pinterest.  Sure enough there are boards that can be organised alphabetically, but once someone moves over a certain number of pins on a board, they may find it difficult to quickly locate what they are looking for within that board.  A visitor to such a board may also find it difficult to locate what they are looking for.  I do not think boards encompass the complexity of organisation that certain classroom ideas/content may necessitate.

Thirdly, in terms of collaborating with others, Pinterest in isolation is only useful for collaboration in finding other pins of interest and following people who linked such pins.  Such interaction would not equate with much meaningful collaboration.  However, Pinterest could certainly have its uses for greater collaboration when combined with other mediums such as Twitter, blogging, e-mail, etc.  Finally, in relation to students' use of Pinterest, I believe Pinterest could be a nice change of pace for a classroom project, but anything of critical mass may run into issues previously mentioned.

Finally, another issue of Pinterest that has been noted relates to potential copyright infringements.  I think deleting a Pinterest account can be a drastic step.  The important thing is to be aware of what you are pinning.  Plagiarism should be avoided in any use of social media.  Use Google's Advanced Search to find images that are free to use or share.

Pin image above taken from here.

Education Quotes

Here are 10 of my favourite quotes on education.  What are some of your favourites?

Albert Einstein – “One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year.”

David O. McKay - “True education does not consist merely in the acquiring of a few facts of science, history, literature, or art, but in the development of character.” 

Herbert M. Shelton - “It is always a much easier task to educate uneducated people than to re-educate the mis-educated.” 

Herbert Spencer – “The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.”

Mark Twain – “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

Nelson Mandela – “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” 

Richard Dawkins - “Science replaces private prejudice with public, verifiable evidence.”

Sharon Salzberg - “We need the courage to learn from our past and not live in it.” 

Thomas Jefferson – “There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.” 

William Butler Yeats – “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” 

Teacher Engagement in Technology Use

The integration of technology in school classrooms commonly focuses on teachers, as they are ‘naturally’ the first person to consider (Zhao et al. 2002).  Zhao et al. (2002) explicate three features that influence technology integration related to teachers: technology proficiency, pedagogical compatibility, and social awareness. 

Firstly, in terms of technology proficiency, Schibeci et al. (2008) present a four stage framework that explains teacher progression in proficient technology use.  The first stage (Where’s the ON button?) relates to technical aspects of the technology and developing confidence in using it.  The second stage (Black line mastery) encompasses the use of the technology for tasks within current curricula.  The third stage (Routine student use) focuses on frequent use of the technology such that the technology becomes a transparent part of the learning process.  Finally, the fourth stage (What’s in the curriculum?) moves towards looking at the bigger picture of curriculum development and educational change that is prompted from using the technology.  These stages have similar characteristics to phases described by Mandinach and Cline (1994): survival, mastery, impact, and innovation (See Steve Wheeler’s blogpost ‘Shock of the new’ for more detail).  In a study of 12 schools, involving 200 teachers it was found that teachers demonstrated characteristics related to the first and second stages, a decreased number of teachers reached the third stage, and there was no concrete evidence to suggest any teachers had reached the fourth stage (Schibeci et al. 2008).

Secondly, pedagogical compatibility refers to how compatible a technology is with a teacher’s pedagogical beliefs.  Pedagogical compatibility could be encompassed as an intermittent stage between the second stage (Black line mastery) and the third stage (Routine student use).  If the technology does not agree with a teacher’s pedagogy, it is unlikely that the technology would reach routine use in the classroom. 

Thirdly, social awareness relates to a teacher’s ability to negotiate through the different intricacies of the school culture and could be viewed as underpinning the process towards the higher stages of technology proficiency.  Such social awareness can relate to factors impacting technology use such as perceptions of assessment and teacher empowerment (Donnelly et al. 2011), that teachers can feel are beyond their control and do not have time to address within hectic schedules.

The factors above focus on the teacher, but there are of course other factors that teachers can have little control over in relation to technology integration that have been alluded to above.  Zhao et al. (2002) describe two domains outside of the teacher that influence technology integration: the innovation itself and contextual factors.  Factors in terms of innovation relate to its distance from the status quo and how much it depends on other people or resources.  Factors in terms of contextual factors relate to organisational support, current resources in schools, and social support from other staff.

What factors most influence your incorporation of technology in the classroom?  Is it personal factors or external factors?  Is it both?

References

Donnelly, D., McGarr, O. and O'Reilly, J. (2011). A framework for teachers' integration of ICT into their classroom practice. Computers & Education, 57(2), 1469-1483.

Mandinach, E. and Cline, H. (1994). Classroom dynamics: Implementing a technology based learning environment. Hillside, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Schibeci, R., MacCallum, J., Cumming-Potvin, W., Durrant, C., Kissane, B. and Miller, E.-J. (2008). Teachers' journeys towards critical use of ICT. Learning, Media and Technology, 33(4), 313-327.

Zhao, Y., Pugh, K., Sheldon, S. and Byers, J. (2002). Conditions for classroom technology innovations. Teachers College Record, 104(3), 482-515.

Image taken from the following link. 

X Marks the Spot

Ernest Hemingway highlighted the need for good writers to have “built in, finely tuned, crap-detectors” and Neil Postman highlighted this to teachers back in 1969, noting that the most useful thing teachers can help students to learn is how to make distinctions between useful talk and bullshit.  However, children start to become very astute to what their parents know and to what their teachers know from a young age.  There is nothing wrong with a parent or a teacher not knowing something or making mistakes, the problem is what they do about it. 

In terms of classroom practice, McNeil (1982) highlights certain techniques that some teachers use in order to control their students, to save face per se (that are readily applicable to parents), and the result of such techniques could be argued to perpetuate a culture unwelcome of mistakes.  These techniques relate to:

1. Fragmenting knowledge – reducing knowledge to lists makes things easier for teachers in that teachers will not have to try to aid students in connecting ideas and they can get students to simply learn things as lists (the fact that this is a list is ironic, but for the sake of four points you can connect the dots),
2. Mystifying knowledge – teachers can create mystery around a topic in order to stop discussion on it, which in many cases is a means to covering their lack of knowledge on a particular area, e.g., I could explain that, but it is too complicated to go into right now.
3. Omitting knowledge – teachers can omit material that they do not see as important, particularly for their generation, but could be important for their students’ generation, or omit material that may cause debate and may lead to more questions they cannot answer, e.g., You do not need to know about that scientist, it is not on the test.
4. Defensively simplifying knowledge – teachers can obtain student compliance with material by promising that it will not be difficult and that they will not go into too much depth, e.g., this is boring material, but I promise I will keep it simple and get through it as quickly as possible.

I believe that a culture that patronises mistakes has partially caused the development of such strategies.  When this culture meets a classroom where teachers are perceived as experts or perceive themselves as having to be experts, such practices are personified.  It is because of such a culture that I partly do not agree with Neil Postman’s terminology as it can be interpreted as intimidating and witch-hunting in nature.  How is a student supposed to feel in completing a task if mistakes are going to be interpreted as bullshit?  Ernest Hemingway was also quoted as saying ‘The first draft of anything is shit’.  In other words, mistakes are a natural part of the learning process.  I would say that the first draft of anything is shit, but it is something.  What it becomes is a matter of choice.

Reference

McNeil, L. M. (1982) Defensive Teaching and Classroom Control. National Inst. of Education (ED), Washington, DC.

Image taken from the following link. 

Why is Science Important?

The Why science is important? website is a collection of thoughts from scientists, public figures, and the general public.  The primary video on the website presents some interesting views looking to answer the question of why science is important.  Two things stood out to me from the video.  Firstly, one view that particularly stood out is that 'science let's us see superstition for the disempowering nonsense that it is'.  However, science is not a single entity and what is meant by science can be construed in different ways.  Hence, science, when not very well understood and used by others who avoid objectivity (just like superstition), can also be disempowering nonsense.  People may rely on secondary sources, such as the media, to keep up with scientific research and not look to find out more through other sources.  Also, scientists are not infallible and are open to making mistakes themselves.


Secondly, another aspect of the video that stood out is that the narrator often refers to science as a 'method'.  Again this argument relates to my previous point that science is not a single entity.  Science is multi-faceted and if anything, commonly consists of a multitude of methods.  A simple example is that in making a cake, there can be a number of approaches and the results may be different each time.  There could be a recommended recipe to follow, but you will never know if there is a better way if you do not try other approaches.  Check out Chapter One (The Nature of Science) of Science for all Americans that highlights some important characteristics inherent to understanding science as a discipline and common misconceptions people can have about science.  Some examples of these characteristics of science as a discipline are that science demands evidence, science demands a mixture of logic and imagination, science tries to identify and avoid bias, and science is not authoritarian.  Prof. Joe Schwarcz, a public figure on scientific literacy, highlights some common misconceptions people can have through some interesting examples.
 
Despite my points above, the question of why science is important is still a very worthwhile question to attempt to answer in that it clarifies what you see science as and in turn, how you may interpret it.   It is an exceptionally important question to answer in relation to education, where students can commonly see science as irrelevant and lacking little connection to everyday life.  Students have the right to ask such questions and should be encouraged to.  Only then can students truly begin to appreciate what they are learning (the affective domain as described as part of Bloom's taxonomy).

My personal view of why science is important is that it it is a human activity that endeavours to answer the big questions (the hows and the whys) of the world and beyond in an objective manner, seeking evidence from physical to chemical to biological processes.  Humans, by nature, display many characteristics such as curiosity and creativity, and it in science that such characteristics can flourish.  As Einstein put it, "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious" and there is still plenty of mystery in science.


Images taken from http://opencage.info/pics.e/large_9888.asp and http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-2200500024

Losing the Value of Private Reflection Through Blogging?

They only babble who practice not reflection.
Edward Young

Self-Portrait in Spherical Mirror
by M.C. Escher

Written teacher reflections, particularly in pre-service teacher education, have been traditionally done in a rather isolated fashion.  The pre-service teacher may be the only person to read their reflection and oftentimes, the pre-service teacher may only have written the reflection as a result of being asked to do it as part of their course work.  Once out of college/university I would be skeptical about the amount of practising teachers that  regularly take the time to write out a serious reflection of their work.  My scepticism is based on the reality that many teachers can be physically drained after a busy school day, and the last thing they want to consider is doing something that may be seen as further increasing their workload and/or irrelevant to aiding their practice.  However, with blogging on the increase, I find my scepticism of reflection by practising teachers is somewhat diminishing, as blogging can support different forms of reflection in a more engaging and useful manner to teachers.  For further information on the value of blogging than just reflection see Seven reasons why teachers should blog by Steve Wheeler. 

Hatton and Smith (1995) outline four types of writing, three of which are useful for reflection in school-based practice:
1. Descriptive writing - involves the reporting of events and is not considered reflective,
2. Descriptive reflection - involves some reflection, but is more personal in nature with the focus on the individual,
3. Dialogic reflection - seeks a range of answers to difficulties and thus, can contain many questions, and
4. Critical writing - looks to provide more reason to the range of answers to difficulties noted, and in particular, encompasses the broader context, e.g., school structure, cultural issues, societal issues, etc. 

Blogging is at a minimum a useful reflective exercise, capable of including the above forms of writing.  It is also a means to share experiences, and in turn find out about other people's experiences.  At the other possible end blogging can be a very useful way to interact and debate with people of similar interests, that is if other people engage in discussion.  Blogging however, like teaching, is a two way street.  If other people are to interact with you, you should interact with them.  Most blog posts can go unnoticed and it can be difficult to always find the time to blog.  However, blogging could potentially offer more to teachers than isolated reflections, if teachers were willing to invest the time.  It is not that isolated reflections have no utility (they would be useful for issues of a sensitive nature), but more may be achieved through blogging.  Some of the questions I have are: Should private reflections remain as part of teacher education courses?  Should certain reflections be substituted with blogging?  Should private reflections remain in teacher education and the other advantages of blogging should be offset through other avenues?  Time will tell I suppose.

I'm a reflection of the community.

Tupac Shakur

Reference
Hatton, N. and Smith, D. (1995). Reflection in teacher education: Towards definition and implementation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 11(1), 33-49.

Image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_with_Reflecting_Sphere