Thanks for sharing this post with the bullet point. I wonder how to archive to fulfill each individual students’ needs. It could be done in a graduate class witch maybe around 10-15 people. However, in the undergraduate class, the number could be 50-100, how can a teacher t do that in practical? I am curious about that.

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It was such a creative way of using cognitive mapping to answer questions. These drawings are so awesome. I believed the discussion about these drawings should be super fun!

Looking at the different education systems worldwide gives a glimpse at how diverse people really are, and goes to show that something that is considered normal in one country can be completely alien in another. Consider the example of government exams deciding which university and which major you are allowed to apply for. In my opinion this approach is very harsh and unfair, however, you have entire education systems based on this approach. I guess that because of these differences in the education approach, each student will gain a unique perspective and approach to deal with problems which makes diversity a useful tool for people to complete each other.

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When students point out a teacher’s mistake, they often face a wide range of reactions from their instructor. I have had teachers take it lightly, apologize for the mistake, correct it and move on. While others stubbornly and irrationally defend their position just to avoid admitting their mistake. I remember being kicked out of an economics class in undergrad for correcting my professor and insisting that his equations are wrong. After I went to his office, he still did not want to completely admit I was correct and ended up saying to me “I think you might have a point, Ill check it out and get back to you”. He never did get back to me, but still.

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There are many aspects to critical pedagogy as you neatly described in your post. However, I don’t think you have to worry about applying all the approaches detailed above. As long as the overall tone of a teaching class follows the fundamental concepts of critical pedagogy, you will have succeeded in your implementation. At the end of the day no class is perfect no matter what guidelines you follow or how much you pay attention to the details.

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When it comes to the issue of being a hypocrite regarding grading, i can tell you that the majority of people are, at least I am. Not only with grading, but with the entire education system. I remember when i was an undergrad that i used to go to class in the morning, not pay attention and waste time, then I would go teach the same day in the evening and wonder why some of my students were not paying attention. Same thing would also happen when I find myself consolidating a friend after he gets a bad grade and explaining how its not the end of the world, while i fail to get a good night sleep whenever i get anything less than an A.

First, I would like to thank you for presenting Mexico. And I would like to extend my appreciation to everyone presented their higher ed system. Secondly, I agree with you that there are some similarities between nations worldwide, specifically on the basis of higher ed. What really interested me is that my classmates presented the higher ed in more than 10 countries. That was really a great source of information to me and I learned a lot about the broad picture of higher ed. These presentation illustrated interesting facts that made think of ways to improve the higher ed in my home. After these presentations, I understood why Dr. DePauw made us go global because of the importance of exploring other nations’ higher ed in improving our self and our higher ed system.

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Thanks for your post. Sara, you bring up such a unique perspective about our landscape. It is easy to see the physical features of a space, the ones we can touch and see, but I never really thought about the stories or narratives. You made a great point about understanding place, and if we don’t dig deeper and think critically about the experience of people we are doing an injustice. Your section of the post made me more aware of how critical pedagogy can help students see beyond the obvious and in the process have a more equitable view point.

Wow, this is AMAZING! I love what you did because it works on so many levels. Even though everyone had their own way of mapping critical pedagogy, the concepts are very clear and unique to each person. I also love the visualizations of critical pedagogy as a Round Table where every teacher/learner is equally important and respected. So cool!

I agree with Carlisle that your definition of critical pedagogy rocks, especially the part of “acknowledging the realities”. I would also like to respectfully disagree in your assessment that large class sizes and critical pedagogy are mutually exclusive. While ideally, we would all love to teach sections with 20 students, that is not always possible, particularly in the lower level courses. Although it is not ideal to teach to class sizes in the hundreds, instructors supported by a horde of TA’s can find ways to incorporate critical pedagogy. Activities can still be done in class to promote active learning. Instructors can have students discuss X with their neighbors, make tests more open-ended, short answer questions, and use technology to make lectures more interactive. Since so many intro level courses are larger, I think we should put extra effort into fostering critical thinking and creativity in these courses to undo the damage of our current K-12 public school system as soon as possible.