Comments on: I’m doing it wrong

By: monica

monica — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:26:16 +0000

All of these strategies that are incoporated into this course are effective for our learning, but we still struggle to quantify what we are learning. I can sympathize with my gifted math student who sinks into tears when he encounters something that is difficult for him. That frustration level is very stressful for some of us. For those who value learning for the sake of learning, this instructional style is ideal. The open-ended-ness lets us all go as far as we can go. That is something we don’t provide students, at least in elemenatry school – the opportunity to take a thread of knowledge as far as they want to go for the primary sake of their intererst in the topic.

By: Kim Clevinger

Kim Clevinger — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:23:45 +0000

Having recently gone through an education program there are a lot of structured activities you have to follow. They include things just as you mentioned such as clear objectives and assessments. However, I do not think that you are doing things wrong. If you were I wouldn’t be learning and I am learning a lot from this class.

I think there is a lot of room for improvement in our education programs today (and in education in general). Everything is not black and white–there is always a lot of gray and this is what we seem to learn the most from.

By: Elizabeth Freeman

Elizabeth Freeman — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:43:56 +0000

I don’t think that a teacher really can do it wrong as long as the students are learning. Some of the classes that I have learned the most in have been out of my comfort zone and I survived. The role of the teacher is not to make all of their students fall in love with them. Their role is to get the students learning and thinking. I think that when teachers set fourth too many pre-set objectives at once that often get so wrapped up in completing those objectives that they forgot about their students. It doesn’t really matter to these teachers if the students are all lost..they must move on to get the next objective complete in time. I think that it is okay to have objectives in advance, but it is also okay if the objectives are a little fuzzy because they may need to be changed.

By: lowell

lowell — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:37:34 +0000

“Anytime you embark on a journey you need an end point in mind.”

True.

But what happens when you’re not all going to the same place?

The System requires everybody to wind up at the same place at the same time. The Problem is that not everybody is going there and some of those alternate destinations are really good places to be.

By: Shellae Peters

Shellae Peters — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:24:04 +0000

School is a factory is exactly what we are dealing with. Teachers may see that the class structure need to be different to ensure that all students can learn to their own level but the state does not allow that. The state makes the Teacher Standards by which teachers must follow (they are assessed on) and the colleges use these standards to create the guidelines for their Teacher Education Programs; it is a never ending cycle. One of those standards is “Clear defines goals and objectives” so how do we get away from that?

I think that it is good to have goals and objectives even though they may be “fuzzy” as you say. Anytime you embark on a journey you need an end point in mind. That does not say that you have to have a specific roadmap. I think classes should start with a goal but how to get there needs to be “tentative” especially because what works with one group of students, may not work with the next.

By: lowell

lowell — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:58:13 +0000

Yea, well, assessment is art, too. One of the Dark Arts and I’m not sure that there’s some fundamental evil involved — perhaps a blood sacrifice — that I’ve not been willing to make yet.

I think you’re right about semantics and over analysis, too.

I think it goes back to “School is a Factory” model but we fail to account for the full range of variation in the raw materials when we layout the specifications for the final assembly.

By: Dean Shareski

Dean Shareski — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:11:32 +0000

Hey Nathan,

The “fuzzines” of objectives is the challenge. I don’t worry so much in the higher ed environment but in K-12 it’s an issue. Like you say, “I expect that every person will leave the course in a different place”. The problem with that thinking in K-12 is that it becomes difficult to assess and measure and we all know how important it is to measure. Even when you try and have broader objectives the challenge of assessment is there.

Lisa Thuuman wrote a nice response on my blog that made me feel a lot better.

Sometimes it’s so much about semantics. Good teaching is good teaching. It’s like trying to analyze a great athlete. While I could perhaps give you reasons why Tiger Woods is a great golfer, I’d rather just enjoy watching him. Teaching remains an art. The science of teaching does lie somewhere in the effort to analyze and break down objectives but is usually way too over analyzed.