I enjoyed and found the Dervin article validating to a post-modern view of the world that has developed throughout my life. The discontinuity she brings to light is actually the starting point in my constructivist approach to teaching. In the article, I believe she is explaining the process of making sense of information, and the principle that each persons perspective guides how the information is approached, addressed, valued, and applied.
Relating this information to my area of focus in social emotional learning (SEL), I feel that a post-modern view is helpful to see why the discontinuity occurs, also allowing me to see the struggle and discomfort students face when their view is discontinuous with the status quo understanding. This diversity of perspective is a great treasure of our society, as a teacher I want to learn from my students as they reveal when sense-making is discontinuous. If I've established enough rapport with my students they will show me this vulnerability, which allows me to adapt, reframe, and approach the gap from a different direction. Baggio's input into constructivism reveals how students' motivation, bias, beliefs, and understanding all contribute to how they will make sense of the information. I also found it insightful to contrast pegagogy with androgogy, the later being strategies for adults, taking into consideration that adults will want to know the "why", and how it can be applied. The idea that we are blank slates according to Paiget, doesn't match my own experience in learning and teaching; instead information is acquired when it is accepted, when the information gap is manageable, and tools are offered to facilitate sense-making. In sharing this, I think of some of my more stubborn colleagues over the years, who become so attached to their way of understanding that any lack of sense-making is seen as the students' fault. What a cop out! How about learning about the thought processes of students and adapting to them?! Sociology reveals that the indexicality of meaning requires that no one perspective be unshakable to others; unfalsifiability makes any perspective inherently flawed. How arrogant for someone to think that the exact time, place, family, SES, education, motivations, etc. have created their sense-making to be objectively true; I may be off the post-modern spectrum with this thought, but our beliefs are certainly not validated as true because they are ours. This is commentary on the nature of epistemology, it is a justified belief through the intersectionality of various disciplines, but it is not an objective truth, it requires continued flexibility. Validity comes with utility, not allegiance to past understanding. We may come to a similar conclusion, but keeping the imaginative and innovative flexibility within teaching brings more agency in our students. I propose this even though I taught various high school math subject. This department is often seen as binary, either right or wrong, but the path to discovering the solution for X can be found through countless methods, math in it's highest form is creative. The sequential path of Blooms taxonomy doesn't allow the novice access to this level, but that doesn't mean that creativity is left out. As a student I always enjoyed addressing a geometry proof in unconventional ways; it was always incredibly motivating to discover postulates through experiment. The great part about math is you can know if the solution is right or wrong; it's one of the few things in life you can know for certain, but even in that, the path to solve varies, and is abstracted by students in infinite ways. Positive risk-taking needs to be inserted into math instruction to make room for creativity. To teach these concepts to a high school student would require addressing the fact that young people have not acquired their full brain capacity, their abstraction level will likely still be developing, their ability to objectively monitor and identify their sense-making process may also be limited. Part of my work in nonprofits, allows me to face a similar challenge, how to speak about abstract concepts like mindfulness, in concrete ways. Making it approachable and motivating to bridge the gap. Baggio suggests that visual impressions are the most powerful way to communicate information. In addition, the constructivist approach requires motivation and utility to be addressed; adding scenarios could support sense-making around sense-making. To instill a lasting understanding, I would also use help-chains, were the strategy for solving the problem (gap) is dissected and the use is emphasized. I think this understanding is essential for teachers, we are artists of young minds, responsible for understanding needs to bridge the gaps to sense-making. This is what makes my work in education satisfying; I seek to bridge the gap between the abstract and the concrete, hoping that our shared representation will benefit larger societal goals.
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AuthorAs a teacher and community advocate I strive to remedy the challenges of adverse childhood experiences (ACE), poverty and violence. I'm intrigued by the motivation that is cultivated by different supportive and discouraging learning environment, and how overcoming the achievement gap can transform our society. Archives
July 2017
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