Thanks for posting! It’s interesting to hear how all of you are working towards incorporating critical pedagogy concepts in your own classrooms in very different fields. It goes to show that getting to know a student, make them feel valued, and pushing them to think deeper spans across all disciplines.
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I really liked your post. As a women in a STEM field, its refreshing whenever I hear that men are thinking about gender issues as well. The last point you made about language as a barrier for learning math proofs is something I haven’t spent much time reflecting on, but one that is worth considering. I am in a statistics course now, and there is a fair amount of writing involved; so I’m sure for non-native speakers it would be much more cumbersome to learn. It is a good reminder that clarity in our explanations as educators can be helpful on multiple levels.
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I had a similar experience when I started the readings for this week. I thought grades were a good motivator hadn’t considered about how they were motivating in the wrong way. I hope there’s still time to change student’s learning philosopy in college, but more could be done earlier in the process to allow for a full educational career of engaged learning.
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I agree; we should openly explain that the information presented is one way of approaching a subject. I also think that in order to properly challenge an idea, you have to fully understand the viewpoint. Creating that space where students can grasp a concept and then inspiring them to delve deeper into the the potential issues of that concept helps inspire a richer learning environment.
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I’ve often wondered the same thing when writing posts. (At least this semester, we have the benefit of having each other as our audience.) In all seriousness, the Seth Godin quote that you reference at the end of the blog post is a great way to re-frame thinking about blogging. Talking about my own research in different social contexts has made me think about it from different angles. Blogging would provide another avenue for reflection.
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I completely understand your discomfort with blogging; it’s not something we are encouraged to do in entomology either. Reading your post about networked learning in mathematics, I was inspired to think about examples in my own field. This summer, I discovered there is a fairly vibrant community of entomologists on twitter. Following other students and young professionals has been refreshing for my own research.
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