> But the teacher as a transformational tool for the students is the
critical
> factor, not the organisation of the classroom. The greatest positive
> influence on my intellectual life was a teacher with terrifyingly rigid
and
> authoritarian practices who also had an absolute and consuming passion for
> his subject (history). So powerful was this contradiction that, as I type,
I
> am 17 again, simultaneously frightened and inspired. Dealing with that
> contradiction in itself was a transformational exercise in expansive
> learning for all of us in the class. I will not here bore you with the
> extraordinary life paths of so many thst he taught, and how many of them.
> like me, attribute so much to what at the time seemed to be a
fundamentally
> traumatic experience.
> One thing, though. A good part of his achievement was that he knew exactly
> who he would strengthen by pushing, and who he would destroy. He also
knew
> precisely what sort of push would be most effective with each individual.
He
> also produced - and knew he was producing - a community of practice which
> operated outside the classroom as we collaborated for survival. But inside
> the classroom we sat in rows, sat weekly rapid fire tests, were lectured
at
> and harangued, and waited in fear for the awful moment when he would
choose
> us to stand up and formally deliver our considered opinion to the class.
>
> Phillip Capper
> WEB Research
> PO Box 2855
> (Level 9, 142 Featherston Street)
> Wellington
> New Zealand
>
By a strange coincidence, I had a similar history teacher, who was also a
major inspiration to me in taking up and studying history. His pedagogical
techniques were as folllows: come into the classroom, sit down at a table
with nothing on it, either read out loud ( in a soft voice) from his own
notebooks or a newspaper or just start talking and continue until the end of
the lesson. No direct participation from the students. Total silence
expected but he didn't mind if you fell asleep as long as you didn't snore!
The participation came through his reading out and passing comment on
students' essays, which served both to show that history was interpretation
as well as fact and to make us think that our own opinions were of value if
well argued. He was very eccentric, but if you were at all interested you
could get a lot out of listening to him. (If you weren't you had to make do
with reproducing the textbook.) Similarly a major influence on many of his
students.
My other history teacher also influenced me a lot. His style was very
different. Lots of debate and dialogue, but again the opinions of 15/16/17
year olds taken seriously.
Bruce Robinson
> Ph: (64) 4 499 8140
> Fx: (64) 4 499 8395
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nate Schmolze [mailto:vygotsky@home.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, 18 July 2001 04:22
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: Re: RE: active learning/teaching at the 7000 level
>
>
> At 07:28 AM 7/17/01, you wrote:
>
>
>
> > thank you, Phillip, for this caution - finding the term
> "motivation" an
> >explanatory principle more appropriate for behaviorism than CHAT, i
myself
> >would never assume that students can be motivated. so when you read-in
> >that assumption, i'm glad that you disagree with it.
>
>
> Confusedly,
>
> Nate :)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >>
> >>
> >>What I am suggesting is that the teacher must first be able to create a
> >>collective object of collaborative learning.
> >
> > yes, absolutely - i appreciate you taking the time to clarify
and
> >elucidate this - as i wrote my response i considered if i were being
too
> >brief - and being lazy took up the better part of valor.
> >
> >>The practices and processes
> >>that Phillip suggests then form part of a portfolio of tools that create
> >>an
> >>environment which nurtures the collective object. This prerequisite
> >>requires
> >>that the teacher is able to create a zoped focused on the subject matter
> >>for
> >>the course into which the students wish to flow. Or, to put it bluntly,
> >>the
> >>teacher herself must be able to demonstrate her own passion for the
> >>subject,
> >>and also relate it meaningfully to the personal objects and aspirations
of
> >>the students. Without that, no creative classroom practices will work.
> >
> > i was so glad to see the term "passion" used - Vera has been
> doing work
> >on the affective domain which is, i believe, the most critical element in
> >teaching/learning - i wish that i had a larger working vocabulary to
> >express this.
> >>
> >>
> > the story about you son's academic success i liked, being that it
> >supports some of my beliefs about education. As he said -
> >> He replied 'They're very
> >>good with me and a few others. But for the rest the teachers and
students
> >>reinforce each other's apathetic rituals."
> >
> > and of course, in any classroom there is always resistance to
> >collaboration, for whatever reason.
> >
> > anyway, i sure hope that this is of some help for Barb.
> >
> >phillip
>
>
****************************************************************************
> *
> George Bernard Shaw:
> It is the deed that teaches, not the name we give it. Murder and capital
> punishment are not opposites that cancel one another, but similars that
> breed their kind
>
>
****************************************************************************
> **
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Nate Schmolze
> http://members.home.net/schmolze1/
> schmolze1@home.com
>
>
>
****************************************************************************
> *
> Albert Camus (1957):
> An execution is not simply death. It is just as different from the
privation
> of life as a concentration camp is from prison. It adds to death a rule, a
> public premeditation known to the future victim, an organization which is
> itself a source of moral sufferings more terrible than death. Capital
> punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's
deed,
> however calculated can be compared. For there to be an equivalency, the
> death penalty would have
> to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he
would
> inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had
> confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in
> private life.
>
****************************************************************************
> *
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Aug 01 2001 - 01:01:15 PDT