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RE: US Education: There Is No Silver Bullet
Deeply insightful, Vaughn, and your experience of the education business is consistent with my own.
Any suggestions?
Deeply insightful, Vaughn, and your experience of the education business is consistent with my own.
Any suggestions?
What I've used in my own classes is increasing student autonomy in writing assignments. The more the student feels that it was their choice, the more invested/passionate they are about the assignment. Also, in class discussions, I have them put their desks in a circle, so that they're facing each other instead of all in rows looking directly at me. When they feel that they're talking to each other, and that I'm just a facilitator instead of the lecturer, it's much closer to a "problem posing" model, the goal of which is to put the instructor on the same level, or very close to the same level as the students.
It doesn't happen often, but occasionally my students will go off each others cues and points and continue the discussion of the material amongst themselves for several minutes without any input or guidance needed by me. It's those moments a teach lives for. :)
"It's those moments a teacher lives for."
That's clear to me, Vaughn. Thanks.
Have you followed developments in theories of learning ?
E.G. critical pedagogy, learner-centered methods, inquiry-based learning, dynamic learning environments...
My question is: how can we persuade people that critical theory is relevant to fulfilling our lives and to supporting the social flourishing of future generations? I'm dancing as hard and as fast as I can.
Any ideas on that??
Critical thinking is the hot new soft skill because that's what employers are looking for. As far as social flourishing is concerned, it's difficult to find one definite pedagogy that will encompass what's needed. I know a lot of schools are big fans of VAK learning theory (Visual, Audio, Kinesthetic), but that theory has been shut down after further study that while yes, there are different types of learners, attempting to accommodate didn't increase retention.
What I took from the study though is that it admitted that some students liked those methods of learning better, even if they weren't more effective. I've found that if the student likes the learning method, they'll be more invested in the long run. I truly do believe that education requires generational solutions, because it takes 6-12 years to really see the long term benefits, which doesn't mesh with results-oriented people. (I'll just say it, politicians, parents, and administrators.)
Hmmm. Critical thinking is very poorly understood by many educators, Vaughn, isn't it?
Despite the great number of professors who have claimed that CT is focussed on seeking the truth about things, that is a very popular misconception. CT is based on critical theory, which warns that thinkers and learners should never presume to think that that our ideas or our arguments are absolutely true.
There's not much to do with truth in this two-year study of the subject by forty-two highly qualified educators: Delphi Report
I was referring to critical theory
"Critical Theory offers an approach to distinctly normative issues that cooperates with the social sciences in a nonreductive way. Its domain is inquiry into the normative dimension of social activity, in particular how actors employ their practical knowledge and normative attitudes from complex perspectives in various sorts of contexts. It also must consider social facts as problematic situations from the point of view of variously situated agents."
It's grew out of postmodern philosophical standards (I added one editorial remark for clarification):
Lyotard defined philosophical postmodernism in The Postmodern Condition, writing "Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity towards metanarratives,"[1] where what he means by metanarrative is something like a unified, complete, universal, and epistemically certain story about everything [or anything!] that is. Postmodernists reject metanarratives because they reject the concept of truth that metanarratives presuppose. Postmodernist philosophers in general argue that truth is always contingent on historical and social context rather than being absolute and universal and that truth is always partial and "at issue" rather than being complete and certain." [2]
[1] Lyotard, J.-F. (1979). The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. University of Minnesota Press
[2] Aylesworth, Gary (2015). Zalta, Edward N., ed. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2015 ed.) Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
Any thoughts (or questions) on this, V?
[wondering]
I would mostly be curious on how this would be utilized in secondary or collegiate education. Most of my students wouldn't understand the concept of postmodernism whether in literature or philosophy. When trying to develop critical thinking and critical theory in students, it's mostly, from what I've found in my time in the classroom, to get them to accept that they can, in fact, question and seek clarification on subjects. I often have my students investigate media bias, and ask the questions themselves about the veracity or accuracy of information, but also the intent of the information's portrayal.
For example, when teaching poetry to my students, I went from a list of the 25 most commonly assigned poems to college freshmen, but I made certain that they were fully aware that I was assigning from that list. Part of class discussion would be about the poem itself, but another part would be going into why this poem in particular is so commonly assigned, and what the assigners want college freshmen to get out of it.
"Most of my students wouldn't understand the concept of postmodernism"
Well, they don't want to, right? It's not important, is it?
Isn't it more important to fight over what's true?
Don't most academics do that?
"trying to develop critical thinking and critical theory in students"
Hmm. Well, I wonder...
How could you? Isn't that their job? Do they want to? Do they understand the value?
Is it possible for them?
No need to answer these, Vaughn.
You seem to have the situation figured out.
Best wishes.