Author: kvaiknoras

The Case for Including Many Voices

The issue of inclusiveness is an extremely important one. Diversity within the classroom and society is a reality, and as educators it is our job to education all of our students. Obviously, we cannot eliminate every struggle that our students have that make it difficult for them to learn. However, Claude M. Steele in Whistling Vivaldi makes a strong case that there are many things we can do to reduce one type of struggle: stereotype threat, which many of our students may suffer from.It is interesting and convenient that many of the things he mentions as being effective against stereotype threat are good teaching practices in general, such as having “positive relationships with students,” and “child-centered teaching.” I also found it very helpful to hear about some of the ways our TA’s and professor for Contemporary Pedagogy reach out to students to assure them that their class will be an inclusive space.

In addition to how we interact with students and manage our classrooms, we can also emphasize inclusiveness through our course material itself, at last in some disciplines. Steele mentions including class material that reflects the experiences of different identity groups as a possible remedy to stereotype threat. This may not be very relevant in some classes, but I am in a social science field (applied economics) and I can see how economic theory may turn some students off due to its rigidity and lack of multiple viewpoints. Economic theory has a tendency to emphasize rational decision making, efficiency, and individual actions over all else. For a student who has experienced discrimination or comes from a low-income family background or simply sees the many ways in which our lives are dominated by factors outside of our own personal actions, it may be difficult to reconcile his or her experiences with this view of the world.

In reality, the field of economics is evolving and a lot of economic research examines discrimination, inequality, and other issues that all types of students may find interesting and relevant. But, students rarely learn any of this until upper-level undergraduate courses, at least. I think it would be better for earlier students of economics to hear criticisms of theory, varied applications of economic tools, and ways social institutions can be included in economic models to make them more realistic and relevant to all students’ lives. They should also be exposed to research and theories by people of different genders, race, religion, etc. Currently the only names anyone hears in at least the first five semesters of econ are of dead British guys.

I believe that this is important for several reasons. Many students take one or two econ courses as freshmen. Many of these students will hate economics based on these classes, or see its many faults without seeing its usefulness. By teaching in a more inclusive way and opening up discussions to differing viewpoints and criticisms, more students will take an interest in economics. This could lead to greater diversity within the field, which would mean better and broader research and theories because they would reflect a greater range of experiences and interests. It would also broaden the minds of even the students that never take another econ class.

This brings us back to many other themes we have explored in this class and that I have explored in my blog. Emphasizing inclusiveness in our classroom is not only morally the right thing to do (in my opinion), it gives our students a better education and helps address the question “What is the purpose of education?”  Is the purpose of school to teach you to do well in the workplace? Well, workplaces are becoming more diverse so students need to be able to work with diverse groups of people. Is the purpose of school to enrich your life? Well, exposure to more perspectives offers better opportunities for this. Is the purpose of school to teach the future generation how to fix the world’s problems?  It seems to me that,  in order to fix the world’s problems, we need everyone on board. As teachers, it’s part of our job to make that happen.  It does our students, and our society, a disservice to include only a few voices in our classroom.

 


My Teaching Goals and Plans

I have never formally taught a class before. I’ve been a TA for two college classes and a third-grade class, I’ve facilitated discussion groups, been a tour guide, a tutor in many subjects, and co-led a creative writing after school program for middle school students (although almost nothing was actually accomplished besides having fun in that last one). Oh, and I definitely taught my little brother how to read and do arithmetic. My point is, I’ve been an educator of one kind of another many times in my life, but I’ve never been responsible for running an entire classroom on my own before. But I will next semester! And then maybe I’ll be a professor some day? It’s an option. But even if I don’t become a professor, educating others is a part of of many jobs, not to mention life. So here is a categorized bullet list of things I want to incorporate into my teaching:

Big-Picture Things

  • I want to be intentional about what I want students to get from the class, and structure the class accordingly. I want my class to be helpful/meaningful for them in some way, whether that be in learning some specific knowledge, developing skills, gaining the ability to think about things from different perspectives, etc. I want to focus on these goals: I would rather prioritize a few key topics than try to shallowly cover lots of material.
  • Seymour Papert says, in “Yearners and Schoolers,” “Geometry is not there for being learned. It is there for being used.” I like this perspective and want to keep it in mind when developing my class materials. I hope to structure my class so that students aren’t wondering why they need to “know this stuff.” I want to have the “why” built directly into the material itself.

Day to Day Classroom Stuff

  • Tell students ahead of time what to expect in class. If we are having a big discussion next week for example, I want them to know about it. I want my syllabus to be as clear as possible. As a student (and a person), I like to be as prepared as possible so I will give my students that opportunity.
  • Break the class up by having some lecturing, some group discussion, some bigger class discussion, videos, etc.

Physical / Emotional Aspects of My Teaching

  • I won’t be very formal with my students. I don’t think I could be if I tried. I will be approachable, and smile, and encourage them to be brave in the classroom. When I think back to the teachers I liked the best and felt most comfortable around, they were the ones that weren’t overly “popular” or “fun,” but still had a friendly, informal approach in the classroom.
  • Sarah E. Deel in “Finding my teaching voice” mentions that she acknowledges to her students when assignments might seem “silly” to them. I like this approach. I always appreciated when teachers would acknowledge when certain things would be silly, or tedious, or difficult. A statement like “I know this may seem ___ to some of you, but it’s important because ____.” was always appreciated.
  • Be physically energetic in the classroom. This is brought up by Shelli Fowler in “The Authentic Teaching Self and Communication Skills.” I have noticed that it’s easier to pay attention to teachers and presenters when they move around the room.
  • Dress sharply. I am very short and people sometimes think I’m a teenager. I may have to dress more professionally than other professors in order to stand apart from the college students.
  • I have a really quiet voice. I’m going to need to work hard at amplifying! This may be a struggle for me.

I’m sure I’ll come up with more ideas about how I want to be as a teacher but this is what I have for now!

 

 

 


Shopping Lists and Crossword Puzzles: My experiences with lectures

I have spent many class periods in my life doing things other than paying attention and taking notes. I’ve drawn countless doodles, written up dozens of shopping lists, even done some crossword puzzles. And this week’s readings have helped me to understand why, and to think about how I can prevent my future students from feeling the need to do these things in my classes.

Robert Talbert’s short blog post “Four things lecture is good for” was eye opening and, surprisingly, the first thing I ever read that really critiqued the lecture format. I agree deeply that lectures are terrible at information transfer. Most lectures I have attended for classes have done nothing more than give me information that I could have much more effectively learned from reading a book or written notes. The result has always been a strong feeling that my time is being wasted, and my shopping lists getting written up. However, I do also agree and recognize that there are times when lecture is appropriate and I think that blog post does a great job at identifying those instances.

So I’m trying to think- to think of ways that economics (and agricultural economics, which is my actual field) can be taught in a way that “sets students’ minds on fire,” as Mark C. Carnes urges professors to do. How can I incorporate readings, group work, class discussion, and lectures (and other things? videos? songs? art?) in a way that makes students feel passionately about the material and also to think critically? I don’t have the answers right now, but when I teach my class next fall and especially if I become a professor, it will be my goal to figure it out.

I also want to touch upon James Paul Gee’s “Introduction: 36 Ways to Play a Video Game,” because his discussion on video games relates to how we can motivate students to learn. Sometimes, my economics homework problems felt like puzzles, and once I got better at the mechanics of the math that they required, I enjoyed doing them. It made me think of how studying and video games (at least the puzzly ones) can be similar, and how teachers could learn from video games about what motivates people to spend so much mental effort on them while they are not interested in doing school work. Is it the audio-visuals that people like, or the social aspects? Or merely the fact that they are choosing which games to play and when to play them? Or that they don’t have to worry about a grade? Of course, video games are designed to be interesting, while school work is not generally designed to be interesting. Maybe school work could very easily be interesting to more students if that was its motivation. I am interested in learning and thinking about this some more!


Grades- The More You Get, the Less You Learn

In the “Case Against Grades,” Alfie Kohn quotes a teacher who has de-graded his classroom stating that some of his high-achieving students did not like the system without grades, because “they viewed school as work and their peers as competitors.” After reading about the case against grades and reflecting on how it has felt to be a student most of my life, I can understand why students would feel this way about school. This is, in many ways, how it is structured- complete tasks, turn in products, have these products assessed. The system isn’t really designed for learning, it’s designed for this cycle to recur.

Another part from that article strikes me as well- Kohn cites the results of a study (Butler, 1992) that indicate that when students are asked to think about their scores on a task, they become interested in the scores of other students, but when they are just allowed to do the task, they become are more interested in what the other students created. If you think about the broader implications of this, it is remarkable how grades could inhibit collaboration and promote competition. I know that in our society, we are supposed to think competition is a good thing, but it seems to me like there is much  to be gained from collaboration. Perhaps, if grades are emphasized less heavily in the classroom, students will stop seeing their peers as competitors and start seeing the potential for collaboration.

“Authentic Assessment” as described by Marilyn Lombardi in her article “Making the Grade: The Role of Assessment in Authentic Learning” may be key to making school be more about actual learning, since assessment does still need to be done. By giving students the opportunity to develop critical thinking skills, it will both better prepare them for the workforce and be more enjoyable and meaningful to them. It seems like a win-win, although there is so much opposition to changing the status-quo. At the K-12 levels, teachers may face tight constraints on how they can structure their classes and grading systems, and college faculty may be too overworked to deal with it. I am hopeful that change will come, since there is an increasing need for it, but fear that it will be very slow. I think that a crucial first step is for everyone: teachers, policy-makers, university administrators, etc., to acknowledge that the purpose of education should be learning. Perhaps teacher constraints and faculty demands could diminish if there was a greater emphasis on real learning. Then other things, like better methods of assessment, could begin to fall into place.

 


I was a Teenage Mindless Learner

It started in high school. My primary goal at the time was to get into a “good” college, and I knew how to do it- get good grades, and fill my time up with lots of “extra-curricular activities” to tack onto my application. I also knew that the material in my classes was not really that hard for me- I could pay attention 10% of the time in class, memorize a bunch of stuff, and get A’s. I got very good at efficiently allocating my time to maximize my GPA. I literally felt sometimes like I was cracking some kind of formula. In class last Wednesday, we lamented the question “Will this be on the test?” I don’t think I ever actually said these words aloud, but I would certainly pay attention if anyone else did. This kind of learning more or less got me through my master’s program, as by that time I had gotten really good it. This isn’t entirely true- along the way, there were plenty of classes or topics or assignments that truly engaged me. Writing papers was usually more engaging than studying for exams, for instance, and anything that required some creativity often got me thinking more “mindfully.”  Sometimes, the topic was complicated enough that I actually had to sit down and understand it. I would notice when this happened, so I really appreciate having words for it now. Mindless learning was fast, efficient, and not a lot of fun. Mindful learning, on the other hand, was slow. I would read a few sentences or paragraphs, then stop and think about them. I would solve a math problem, and then come up with another way to solve it. Even when I was 17, when I thought about “learning,” this is what I meant. Everything changed when I entered my PhD program. I realized after my first midterm that I couldn’t rely on mindless learning anymore, and that now, the most “efficient” thing for me to do was to actually, mindfully, learn the material. In order for me to do this, I had to stop thinking about my grade- the outcome- and focus on the process. The great irony here is that my grades improved once I stopped caring about them, and I realized that it was more enjoyable and in some cases easier to engage with the material than to memorize it. I firmly believe that schools should promote mindful learning.  Ellen Langer, in “The Power of Mindful Learning” discusses the importance of critical thinking and the dangers of “overlearning” or simply memorizing processes. Not only can mindless learning be dangerous (and she lists many convincing examples of this), it is also thoroughly unenjoyable and does not prepare you either for the workforce or a fulfilled life. It reminds me of a quote from the song “Kodachrome” by Paul Simon – “When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all.” Students may always try to “maximize,” since they have limited time and attention. But as teachers, maybe we can shift what it is they are maximizing. Ellen Langer also discusses, as does Michael Wesch in his article “Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance”  how she promotes mindful learning in her classroom. As she writes in “Mindful Learning,” “‘what we teach’ may be less important than ‘how we teach.'” If teachers promote the idea in the classroom that the purpose of the class is to be engaged and to learn how to think critically, rather than to memorize a bunch of stuff and do well on exams, then I think the students will absorb this message. It may seem like an uphill battle at first, but I believe that if it is done well, students will thrive in this kind of environment. I’m curious to hear about other’s personal experiences with mindless vs. mindful learning. Share your stories!    

Sparking Creativity: The Role of Connected Learning

Connected Learning, which connects interests, peer culture, and academic success, is a model of education that is truly appropriate for the early 21st century.  As we discussed in class on Wednesday night, education has become a process of measuring “outcomes.” Perhaps it has always been this way, but now that we have all seen how technology can transform education into so much more, this traditional view has come under criticism. The abundance of information and the ease of accessing that information allows us reexamine the purpose of education; if it is no longer a challenge to obtain knowledge, then we can ask ourselves- what can we do with all of the knowledge that we have? What was the purpose of learning it in the first place? In the day-to-day grind and the policy making of education, these questions seem to get lost, or obscured by the pressing needs of passing the next test. This brings us to another topic we discussed in class- how institutions can sometimes be slow to change, even when many people want to change them.

Part of the appeal of academia, however, is the hope of being able to rise above some of that institutional sluggishness. That is the main reason why, for me, teaching college is much more appealing than teaching high school. From my viewpoint, a teacher of a college course has more power to implement his or her vision for the purpose of the course, while a high school teacher faces more constraints. This brings the conversation back to me, and the rest of the students in contemporary pedagogy, as we begin our journeys into teaching careers. My hope for this class is that it will help me to develop my own ideas for the purpose of education in general, and economics education in particular, and how I can use Connected Learning to implement those ideas.

A good starting point here is the idea brought forth by Scott Rosenberg in his article “How Blogs Changed Everything” of human creativity being “like a gene that will turn on given the right cues.” If human creativity is the key to solving the world’s problems, and I believe that it is, then the purpose of education should be to spark this creativity. Connected Learning provides an abundance of potential “cues,” as well as the opportunity for learning to occur once the creativity gene has been “turned on.” Right now it is Thursday afternoon and I am sitting in my living room, excited about the upcoming snowstorm. I have never been very interested in learning about how weather predictions are made, but this week my curiosity has been piqued, as I hear vastly different estimates for the total snowfall we will receive. The “cue” here in sparking that interest was a feeling of snow-deprivation after living in Virginia too long (I am from Massachusetts) combined with the discovery that there are many different models of weather prediction. Thanks to facebook posts by knowledgeable friends, websites, and weather blogs, I will be able to fuel that spark of interest with information all evening if I want to. In other words, the possibility of Connected Learning provides me with more opportunities to learn about something that interests me than I could hope to take advantage of.

As a researcher, I believe it is my responsibility to add to this network of knowledge. I agree with Tim Hitchcock, who argues in his blog post “Twitter and blogs are not just add-ons to academic research, but a simple reflection of the passion underpinning it” that public conversations should be a central part of an academic’s work. I want my research to be applicable to problems, and to spark ideas that others may have.

As a teacher, I hope to keep in mind what the purpose of my course is,  and to use the framework of Connected Learning to spark student’s interests and creativity. Gardner Campbell’s article “Narrate, Curate, Share: How Blogging Can Catalyze Learning” points out that putting what you have learned into your own words, like you do when blogging,  reinforces learning.  I have noticed in my own learning that information really only sticks when I have put it into my own words, when I can reproduce it on my own, even if only in my head. I hope therefore that as an instructor, I can create assignments and environments which encourage students to do this.

Thinking about the potential power of Connected Learning in education has forced me to think theoretically about the purpose of learning and how that purpose can be fulfilled. It has also opened my mind to practical tools that can be used to connect students with knowledge and, more importantly, inspiration.