Riddle Me This...

.....how would you define "teaching"? This isn't a terribly important question in the grand scheme of things (at least not nearly as important as getting a handle on what learning is or what ought to be learned). Perhaps, a different way to ask the question is what do people typically called "teachers" (like myself, your favorite teacher in high school, etc) do in the classroom (very broadly understood as where classes meet) that can facilitate or impede learning?

What powers are "teachers" given and do we use them as well as we could to facilitate your learning (and learning of what)?

Like I said, this may not be a hugely relevant question, but I'd be curious to hear/read your thoughts.

Meaningful Life

I'm going to assume that there are few people who want to have a life devoid of meaning and instead assume what makes me happy...that everyone wants a meaningful life. Now, there are two questions to be asked here that I think get conflated. I think what people jump right into is the question of how to have a meaningful life, what does one need to do or not do in order to have a meaningful life. The question that I think may need to be asked first is what is a meaningful life.

Put in different terms, suppose I told you that I wanted a blerg for my birthday (which, by the way is September 13th so you don't have that much time to be wasting on this front). Before you could figure out what to do to get me a blerg, you need to figure out what a blerg is. So, back to meaningful life. It seems that before we can ask what we need to do to get a life of meaning, a meaningful life, we need to figure out what it is that we're aiming toward. If we don't know what our target is, how on earth can we move toward it?

Time to Reflect

I need to remember that I need time to reflect. Thus, what I say in class will sometimes be followed with amendments and amendments to those amendments as I have the time and space to reflect.

Case in point: Today when discussing the different between possessive, performative and proactive knowledge, Caitlin and Katie, separately made the point about different learning styles. I don't think I responded in a way that was as helpful as could have been. There is good reason to believe that different people have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to ways of getting information (for example, I do very well with reading, less well with listening). Interestingly, we can typically become better at that which we are weak at, but it also makes sense to build on our strengths. Further, I honestly encourage all of you to make use of different ways of getting information (I couldn't get links to audio versions of readings but if you can find them cheaply, I encourage you to listen as well as read the texts).

But, I think that the strengths and weaknesses individuals have at getting information is different from what Perkins is talking about. I'm fairly certain, and my copy of the article isn't in front of me, that he's interested in how we think about what it means to know. Does knowing mean possessing information? Or, does it mean be able to use the information when called upon to do so (the performative understanding)? Or, does it mean knowing when the knowledge could fruitfully be used and using it well? I'm fairly certain that Perkins is arguing that the latter type (proactive knowledge) is not taken all that seriously -- I'm thinking, in particular, where he discusses the preferability of competent proactive knowledge over excellent performative knowledge.

When he discusses how to facilitate proactive learning in learners, it isn't by emphasizing reading or not reading, etc. It has to do with the circumstances under which the reader needs to get the information (however that may be most conducive for that particular student). I'm pretty sure Perkins is definitely opposed to students being told to read chapter 2 in preparation for being tested on chapter 2. I don't know that he'd be opposed to students being given a problem (that they are interested in) that involves using information from chapter 2 (though adapted to the situation) but the students have to figure it out. I think that Perkins believes that if students use the textbook this way (as a resource instead of a manual to be memorized) they will learn the information in a way that will make it more likely that they'll see it's applicability elsewhere.

So, I think that Caitlin and Katie were talking about something different from what Perkins was talking about and I think that I did not do a very good job of (a) noticing this or (b) making this clear.

It bears mentioning that Perkins is saying more than this, but I wanted to clarify the difference between talking about styles of gaining information and the purpose for which one gains information and that Perkins is interested in and values a particular purpose (namely, usefulness in life and not just in the classroom) over others.

Among other things, what have I learned from this? To slow down and force myself to reflect at the time instead of letting everything come to me in dribs and drabs over the next hours (and you know that I'll be wanting to come back and amend this).

Thoughts? Comments? Statements of Outrage? :-)