Complexity in Education

"Writing White"

Submitted by couldntthinkofa... on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 4:21pm

"...if our option is for (wo)man, education is cultural action for freedom..." ---Paulo Freire

Saturday, I began my first day on the job as a MAST writing tutor to high school students excited at the chance to be a resource and mentor to four brilliant, students of color. Not wanting to impose, as Ivan Illich would say, my views around education, teaching, and, of course, literacy, I gave my students the freedom to design the writing curriculum and classroom space.

I was very pleased with the outcome! My students wanted to learn how to write resumes, research papers, SAT prompts, and to write poetry! I was extremely impressed, not because their answers were not expected, but because I definitely did not worry so much about these things my freshman year of high school.

Before the start of class, I had been instructed by my superiors to collect writing samples from my students. And so, on a topic of their choice, they each wrote a one page argumentative paper. However, when reading their writing samples, I became incredibly sad and discouraged as a tutor. My kids, who knew what was expected of them academically and even professionally, did not know how to write "well." It was more than grammar and spelling (these areas could be worked on easily), it was the style, the flow, the tone, the words used in their writing that I knew would be looked down upon in higher education. They had not mastered what one of my students had labeled as, "white writing."

"The ideal school is one without walls"

Submitted by couldntthinkofa... on Sun, 01/22/2012 - 5:10pm

Below is my response to a twitter convo that began with "What is a school?" and evolved into "How does a school bridge the gap between the classroom and external experiences?" Last semester I finished a course on the culture of poverty. It blew my mind when I realized that every race had a group of people that shared a culture that stemmed from poverty---one of survival, hopelessness, resourcefulness, the value of hardwork,and sufferings from marginalization. Excited to read about poverty and the people who lived it, I dived right into readings from Oscar Lewis, who was an "expert" on the cultural traits of poverty, and Judith Goode, who defended and understood poor communities in contrast to Lewis. And so, through class discussions and readings, I was under the impression that I was "learning" because I was reading from scholars who dedicated their careers to observing and analyzing poverty. It wasn't until I was well into writing papers for the course using these sources did I finally stop and say to myself, "I know firsthand what poverty and its culture is like, why must I have old, white-privilaged scholars who never lived it validate my experiences in my paper?" To my frustration, I was learning things I had known all along. If anything, I was the expert. Which brings me to an answer of the question: How can schools bridge the gap between the classroom and external experiences? Well, we must change the structure of our schools by making the external experiences of the students the focus of the classroom.

Gender and Sexuality in the High School Biology Classroom: Fostering Critical Thinking and Active Engagement

Submitted by chelseam on Wed, 11/02/2011 - 3:45pm

Gender and Sexuality in the High School Biology Classroom:

Fostering Critical Thinking and Active Engagement

Summary: This project was undertaken with the hope of changing the ways we think about teaching and engaging with science. This paper will discuss ways to help students recognize that science is interdisciplinary and can both affect and be affected by the social and/or political context it exists in.

By asking students to think about the way science is presented and conducted, and giving them the tools to think about science not as an isolated body of information, but as a dynamic and shifting discipline, we will not only be encouraging more engaged science scholarship, but will also help students begin to notice the ways science is used as evidence in different contexts and evaluate these uses.

Objective:

The goals of this project are two-fold. I hope to suggest ways for biology teachers:

Cross-Cultural Connections in the ESL Classroom: Forging Respect and Shattering Societal Barriers

Submitted by alesnick on Sat, 05/21/2011 - 11:02pm

Riley Diffenderfer

Empowering Learners

The author responds to an earlier paper in this handbook, focused on transcending cross-cultural barriers in mentorship and teaching.

STOP! Take Me Out the Box!

Submitted by Apocalipsis on Fri, 02/11/2011 - 11:05pm

Apocalipsis Rosario, ENGL 257: Gender & Technology, WebPaper 1, February 11, 2011

Exploring the Idea of Unlearning: A quatrilogue, with invitation to participate

Submitted by alesnick on Mon, 12/20/2010 - 10:47pm

The threaded discussion below took place in October, 2010 (over email) at the initiative of one colleague seeking ideas from others. The focus began with the idea of challenging students' mental models and grew into a consideration of the question whether there is such a thing as unlearning (from the point of view of the brain, of human experience, and growth) and how the idea of unlearning signifies in various fields and endeavors. In hopes of continuing and broadening participation in the conversation, we have moved it to Serendip and invite all interested to join.

From Alison, October 30:

A Defense of the Formal Education System (of sorts)

Submitted by Kwarlizzle on Fri, 12/17/2010 - 12:41pm

This paper chronicles some epiphanies I have had concerning the formal education system. We have spoken in class several times of the need of formal education reform. We have detailed how insufficient the current system is in creating creative thinkers or even educated thinkers. We have spoken of how the system sets many people up for failure and disregards many other children whose minds work in ways different from the ones prized by our system. I wholeheartedly agree with all these sentiments, but as I think on them, my mind harkens back to two incidents: a conversation I had with my friend who attended school in Ghana and a book I read for pleasure.

Legitimacy: the role and power of language in education

Submitted by Kwarlizzle on Mon, 11/08/2010 - 7:23pm

No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
– John Donne
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others
– George Orwell, Animal Farm.
In this class and some of my other classes across many disciplines, we have had several discussions whose aims were to impress upon us the truth of John Donne’s assertion that “no man is an island,” that we do not exist in a vacuum. Especially in this class, we are discovering that even within ourselves, we are not an Island, so to speak. Inside the brain, where the seat of our persons and our cognitive functions reside, we find that the way we perceive the world is an ongoing interaction between compartments of the brain that we have termed the “storyteller” and the “cognitive unconscious” (Grobstein). In addition, we are discovering that more than one ‘person’ exists within ourselves – we are a conglomerate of multiple personalities, each with their own distinct character.

Teaching/Modeling

Submitted by bennett on Mon, 09/27/2010 - 12:59pm

Bennett Smith

Brain, Education, and Inquiry -- Grobstein

Web Paper #1

Would You Like to Swing on a Star? Reflections on the Evolving Systems Project Year One

Submitted by alesnick on Mon, 05/24/2010 - 10:21pm

Would You Like to Swing on a Star?

Reflections on the Evolving Systems Project Year One

Alice Lesnick, May 24, 2010

Q: When the cosmos talks to us in its own terms, what does it say?

A: Notice that I am bigger and stranger than anything you have yet imagined based on your experiences to date. And the more you experience and imagine, the bigger and stranger I will get.

-- Evolving Systems Web Forum, 7/31/09

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