Re: the calculus wars

Timothy Koschmann (tkoschmann who-is-at acm.org)
Tue, 15 Jun 1999 19:56:32 -0500

Still here, Nate, (where ever 'here' maybe at the moment).

>I will first respond to your second comment, because it may clarify the
>first.
>
>> This has come up several times and I am still not sure I understand your
>> objection. Is it the reduction to a dicotomous choice (i.e.,
>> student-centered or teacher-directed) or is it the fact that the model is
>> promoted as an alternative to (reaction to?) lecture-based instruction?
>
>All of the above and none of the above. For me, the question is not
>student centered, collaboration, or teacher centered, but rather when each
>is applicapble. I see all three in different ways as having the potential
>to be revolutionary. I don't see this as an ecclectic approach, but a
>relational one, in that, looking at how these different "activities",
>classroom organizational styles relate to and transform each other. The
>question for me is what particular kinds of teacher centered, student
>centered, and collaborative teaching styles/arrangements are revolutionary
>and transformative.
>
>In the Sped class I mentioned earlier, all three were used and there was a
>relational aspect to it. The student centered aspect could not be
>abstracted from the collaborative or the teacher centered aspect. They
>were not mutually exclusive, but formed an important whole. I think even
>the most student centered teacher would apply a similar strategy in
>practice. The strict division in its pure form if more ivory tower than
>anything else. While, of course, teachers often struggle with the
>relationship between the three the unity in my experience is always there.
>Where is the role for teacher direction in a classroom and how can that
>role be transformative. The idea of leading activity seems to be a way of
>describing such a role and whole language literature was using that concept
>more and more before politics set in. The tendency is to put collaboration
>up as the synthesis or compromise between teacher/student centered, but one
>point I was attempting to make was that it is important to have all three
>because they each have "revolutionary roles". With that said, I think PBL
>may be an important type of activity for the student centered/directed
>component, which brings us to boundry object.

Thanks, that's helpful. I would say that PBL provides a framework within
which the faculty tutor/coach and the students participate in ways that are
negotiated as they go along. Skilled tutors frequently shift roles
depending on their goals of the moment. Sometimes the students will ask
them to directly provide information or they will do this on their own, if,
in their judgment it will serve to advance the discussion in some important
way. Also, the students can and do sometimes ask the tutor to "time out"
from being a facilitator and serve as an on-the-spot resource person, if
they know it is an issue that falls into the faculty member's area of
expertise. So participation at any given time might be student-initiated,
teacher-initiated, or collaborative.

> The idea of 'PBL as boundary object' sounds pretty nifty. Would you
>like
>> to expand that on that a bit?
>
>
>By boundry object I was thinking of PBL as serving a mediation role between
>inside "education" and outside of it. I would assume that in the medical
>field they would be utilizing knowledge from both the "academic dicipline"
>(the classes in which you learn about the language, "good old boys" etc. of
>the dicipline) and their particular "practice". In this sense PBL as a
>student centered activity is a bridge of sorts between the world of
>"theory" and "practice". This of course is with the assumption, which I
>believe is accurate, that there were prereqisites of more dicipline
>centered knowledge which is a part of any professional school. Before I
>went to the SOE there was an abundance of psychology and other related
>classes whose goal was knowling dicipline specific knowledge. I also
>assume that in addressing particular "problems" that this type of knowledge
>was utilized as well as the knowledge of the practice itself. This is
>where I was going with boundry object.

By the pre-requisites do you mean pre-matrication requirements such as
organic chemistry, etc. that all students are expected to take in their
pre-med program? There are no pre-requisites to the PBL track in medical
school. Students are expected to pick up necessary basic science in the
context of collaboratively working with problems.
----Tim