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EDCI 569-Stuck in the Middle

 

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In the modern, litigious, and ownership-based society in which we live, one must ask if education could ever be truly open? How do we recognize the achievement of higher education? How do we structure a system where knowledge supersedes credentials? What are credentials actually? Does someone with a Master’s degree in a subject, have the knowledge, or the performance in that subject, more fully than someone with a high school diploma, but a voracious appetite for that subject matter and has read everything available on the subject? Does knowledge even need to be formally acknowledged by an institution, that we have paid money for the privilege of having that institution give us a piece of paper for our completion? Therefore, do credentials mean qualification?

UNESCO fights for access to education as a right. They discuss human rights around free and accessible education. Furthermore, one could say, if the whole educational, and social, structure of our societies is based on not what you know, but what an institution says you know, and that acknowledgment is the defining factor in your progression in both status and financial security, then we will need a true paradigm explosion in not only education but what society values. 

It is clear that most people, and countries, know the value and the essential nature, of having an educated and informed population. The very nature of being informed is that you can take part in society and try, though not always successfully, to move that society forward. However, we only guarantee an education to a certain level (high school) and that will supposedly get everyone to one playing field. Furthermore, only having a high school education will get you only so far. If one is interested in following their dreams and becoming a doctor, lawyer, teacher, etc, then one will have to have the resources to do this: And so begins the proliferation of wealth and equity gaps. Those who can afford the education can reap the rewards, where those who can’t, cannot. Moreover, this goes to the heart of the issue of ability versus credentials. Our societal structure dictates that status is achieved through education, or at least financial status and security. That is not true in all cases and we have all seen, or know of people, who have made a great success of themselves, in terms of status and security, with little to no education but those cases are few and far between. Therefore, access to knowledge and education are not linked.

I will bring this idea out with an example. I worked in the restaurant industry for a greater part of my working life, 17years. In a kitchen, there are chefs and there are cooks. One difference is that the chef has gone to Culinary School and the cook has worked in actual kitchens. The Chef runs the kitchen and gets paid more, based on his/her paid education. The cook works under the chef, makes less, and in most cases, that I have seen, are better at working with, and cooking, food. Thus, the disparity in the kitchen is based on what someone is certified in, knot what they can do. This is true in the front of the restaurant too, where the person who started out as a host, has worked there for years, rose to the top as head waiter, and knows how a restaurant should run, is working under a person who has 12 months of Hospitality schooling and a certificate, but is not effective in the actual work beyond book learning and classroom scenarios. Can the chef and the manager learn and get better? Yes. Is it the cook or ex-host that is invariably training and bringing the skills to their superiors? Yes. Thus, is the status and financial security achievement of the chef and manager not based on the fact they paid someone money for a piece of paper? 

Before I go any deeper into this rabbit hole, I will end with this. Do I think that a person’s actual abilities be “worth more” than a person’s certificates? Yes. Do I know how to make this happen on a societal scale? Not a clue. How do we reward those who research and write books, educate the public with a formal education? How do we recognize the skills of those who lack formal education with recognition of their abilities based on experience and not letters after their name? This course is talking about the equity of information access and how we as teachers, and professionals, can take that information we learn to better our classrooms and develop intrigue and self-dependance in our students and in their abilities to find knowledge, to help further themselves, and their understanding, on a topic. So is it not time to redefine what education is, and what it is for, other than receiving marks and latent gratification towards security and financial independence? Welcome to my brain! You’re welcome!

 

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EDCI 571 Assignment #1B- Is it Really a Debate?

 

man and woman sitting on chair

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Remember when the earth was flat? Remember when the sun rotated around the earth? Remember when we used cocaine to treat psychological issues? The idea that new media, or media in general, has NO effect on learning is ridiculous. If the argument was, to what degree media aids in education? I could see some validity in this. However, to just have a stance, and then deny any meaningful attempt (through obvious data) to change that stance, is really representative of where we are as people right now, and oddly enough, media allowed for that (but I digress). I agree that when Clark was initially writing in 1983, his view had some validity. The technology, or vehicles, maybe was not as reflective to the learning of students at that time. The “book” used in teaching poetic devices, for example, would have little to do with the teachers actual ability to teach poetic devices. These are valid arguments and it seems to me that Clark’s irritation comes with the fad of the next-big-thing. It reminds me of what we deal with in schools today. One year it is “reading power”, and now it is “PM Benchmarks” or “corrective reading” or “SRA (Student Reading Assessment)”. Do they all help with reading? Yes. Does it depend on which is used, based on the teacher using it? Yes. Are these just vehicles? Yes. Therefore, one could argue, that Clark has a point. In my example, if a teacher can, and does, teach students to read, it is therefore not as important what vehicle is used, but the fact that the teacher is successful. Point for Clark. Unfortunately, this is where Clark goes off the rails. It is his clinging dogmatically to an idea, that is constantly shown to be not relevant anymore, that leads to people frustrations.

Just because something was “true” in the past, becomes untrue or less relevant, with the advent of new technology and knowledge, does not diminish what was once true. At the time Clark wrote, maybe media was not the reason for student success. However, to fully deny the implications, and gains, that technology and new media has on the learning of today’s students, is just asinine.  As Katrin Becker’s 2010 article states, “…discussing the effectiveness of media, potential or otherwise in 2007 using reports from more than 10 years ago is like discussing today’s traffic issues using data from 1820” (pg. 2). I could list all the ways new-media changes have helped students of various abilities, access the same knowledge in my school. I won’t (because who has time for that on a Sunday), but I could.  Kozma’s argument was, by-far, the easiest to make. It is obvious that both technology and media have a drastic effect on student learning and access to that learning. For example, students with life threatening illnesses, who for their own safety cannot attend school physically, can learn from a school online. Therefore, media has affected that student’s learning. Kozma wins. Thus, the basis for this debate, because Clark made it a dichotomy (either/or), is therefore laughable; the idea should be, that media use itself is not as effective as the teacher’s use of that media. That is, if a teacher is being forced to use a platform, or resource, that they are not comfortable with, than the students learning will not be better. 

Though Kozma acknowledges that, at the time of writing his response, the data needed to show the value of media was constrained by acceptable scientific practice. Kozma states in his 1994 article that, “[m]issing in these studies are the mentalist notions or descriptions of the cognitive, affective, or social processes by which learning occurs” (pg. 2). That issue speaks more to how science was run than what is effective. It is plain to see that the “debate” is really not a “debate” at all, but merely a moot point. The idea of what a good teacher is, and what an effective lesson is, greatly depends on the teacher’s ability. It would be as much a mistake to say that textbooks are bad, as it would be to say all media is good. The need to “pick a side” is so pervasive in our world, but one thing is clear; students need support, and not all students learn the same. Furthermore, not all media is the same. Therefore, to lump them together is non-functional. There are many different ways to access information today and it is incumbent as the teacher, and learner facilitator, to help students find the pathways that work for them. 

 Andrew Vogelsang

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515 Assignment#2- Phenomenology in Practice

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Max Van Manen, in his 2014 book, Phenomenology of Practice, states, “[phenomenology]….tries to grasp attentively the living sense of the experience before we have lifted it up into cognitive, conceptual, or theoretical determination or clarity.”(Pg. 27) What is being presented here is the idea of the depth of the experience that is lost in the attempt to describe or remember the experience itself. Furthermore, the experience, at the moment, is actually multiple experiences that have their own important qualities that lead to the understanding of thought, and cognitive presence, and how that pertains to what the experience was, not as you simply remembered it.

Max Van Manen works as a professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, after retiring as a Professor from that same university in 2008 (“Max van Manen » Biography,” n.d.). He was born in the Netherlands and received his teaching qualifications before immigrating to Canada. He further received his Masters and PhD degrees at the University of Alberta. Van Manen’s experience in the Netherlands made him ask why there was a, “deep intellectual chasm that existed between the pedagogical approaches to education in the Netherlands and the strong behaviourism and systems analysis of North American education” (“Max van Manen » Biography,” n.d.). Van Manen’s later research was broken into 6 research phases on phenomenological understanding. 

Chapter Review

In the second chapter, Meaning and Method, of his book Phenomenology of Practice (2014), Van Manen goes into detail as to what is, and is not, phenomenological methodology, in research. He further talks about how most qualitative and quantitative methods can, and do, have issues with explaining phenomenon. That is to say, “…the phenomenality of human experience cannot be adequately captured with the clarity of analytic concepts, objectifying theme, the purity of philosophical prose, the laws of logic, the abstractions of theory, the codifications of scientific method, and the traditional rationalities of philosophical systems” (Van Manen,  2014, Pg 29). Van Manen further states that,” Some of these schemes [procedural methods of analysis] are periodically proposed in qualitative research literature, but they fail for the simple reason that…, there is no method to human truths” (Pg. 30). Furthermore, Van Manen makes the argument that in trying to ritualized, through experimental structure, the truth of experience leads only to miss grasping the actual experience (truth) one is trying to research. (Van Manen, 2014) In essence, life is reflexive and loses its power of experience when it becomes an objective structure to explain a past moment. Basically, we trivialize, and fail to explain the experience when we put it into packages of words, for communication, and understanding.

Van Manen sums up the chapter at the beginning with following points to help the reader:

  • Phenomenological research begins with wonder at what gives itself and how something gives itself. It can only be pursues while surrendering to a state of wonder.
  • A phenomenological question explores what is given in moments of prereflective, prepredicative experience—experiences as we live through them.
  • Phenomenology aims to grasp the exclusively singular aspects (identity/essence/otherness) of a phenomenon or event.
  • Phenomenological reflection and analysis occur primarily in the attitude of the epoche, the reduction, and the vocative-variously understood.

(Van Manen, 2014, Pg. 27)

If this reader were to attempt to summarize what Phenomenology is in practical terms, it would have to be by paraphrasing an example from Van Manen (2014). Imagine a book on a table. It is a book, objectively. In our shared lived experience, it is a book on the table. However, if we had both read that book (lived experience), the phenomena of us reading it would be seen as a different experience for each of us. One may have hated the book, where as another may have been transformed emotionally by it. Objectively, it is still the same book, and our lived experience is that we both read it, but our personal experiences of that book are very different. Therefore, both can say they read the book (language), but the book meant more to one than the other (experience) (Van Manen, 2014). Surprisingly, the book analogy can go further. Imagine that there is a book on the table and one person enters the room. That book is objectively there, however its meaning at that moment is subjective. Perhaps that person sees the book and reminds him/her of; reading it and how that felt, or that the book needs to go back on the shelf, or the book can be used a coaster for a cup of coffee. The use of that book is subjective to the needs and perceptions of that user at that time. (Van Manen, 2014) The question is then raised as to how this would be used in a research setting? This author feels that Van Manen sees Phenomenology as an introspective, and non-reflective look at the lived experience as it relates and feels to the person experiencing it.

Article Connection

The other journal article read for this paper was, A review of the risks associated with children and young peoples social media use and the implications for social work practice by Mark Willoughby (2019). This article is a literature review on the work done thus far, to inform social workers of methods and understanding of youth and their connections to social media. The literature review reveals 8 areas where  literature and research combine, thereby providing assistance to social workers in their practice.

If one were to look at research stemming from the questions raised in Willoughby’s article through a phenomenological approach, there are many possibilities. If the focus was, “Social workers must develop their understanding of different social media platforms to enable them to identify risks and maximize the opportunities” (Willoughby,  2014, Pg. 136), one would have to look, for example, at social media as a medium that means different things to the person using it. Furthermore, the phenomenological approach would look, not only at the medium itself, but the way the medium, and the message, affects the individual reader (experience). How does the reader’s past/present mental mindset and experiences aid in shaping that experience? Also, what they experience, at the moment, without reflection, when they are engaged in social media use. I would employ a journal technique that would require the person to document immediately, their response to the message they are receiving. One could pair that with descriptive interviews to look deeply at the moments, with the diary there, to take the person back to the emotions of the moment and therefore limiting their unintentional downplaying of the experienced feelings. This method is also encouraged by Arthur Sloan and Brian Bowe in their 2014 article, Phenomenology and Hermeneutic Phenomenology: the Philosophy, the Methodologies and Using Hermeneutic Phenomenology to Investigate Lecturers ‘ Experiences of Curriculum Design. Sloane and Bowe state that, “[w]hether using descriptive or hermeneutic phenomenology as a methodology, data are often found by using the techniques of personal interviewing, analyzing written accounts such as documents or diaries and/or by making observations of subjects in contexts or environments” (2014, Pg. 12).  Therefore, one needs to find out how they felt right then, not ask them what they thought after they could incorporate it into their schema of understanding.

If the social workers were to become savvy to the social media platforms, then they would have a better understanding and ability to meet the client with a shared lived experience mindset and look at a situation and discuss the differing interpretations. As Christine Greenhow and  Beth Robelia talk about in their article, Old Communication, New Literacies: Social Network Sites as Social Learning Resources, allowing for, “[u]nderstanding better how such identity develops and how learning occurs in the social and technical contexts young people currently inhabit—e.g., how and with whom expressions are crafted, displayed and utilized, and ideas evolved and distributed through interaction and negotiation—might suggest improvements to instructional designs in formal education” ( 2009, pg. 1136).  The idea behind this article is understanding the world and experience of young people is important to understanding them as educators. Moreover, if this is applied in the field of education, would it not, logically, cross over to the field of social work?

In this way of research, the research and the the researcher, are in essence, the researched. Not only does the methodology and structure change with every situation, but every situation is it’s own piece of research. Furthermore, the reader, would be the people directly effected; that being the person and the social worker. The end goal of the research would be micro in scope as it will lend to understanding for both the social worker and client as having shared lived experiences.

Phenomenology is a deep dive into the experience of people at a level far beyond cursory. It takes into account not only what is objective (happening) and goes into the subjective (experience of the person) to increase the understanding of the non-reflective response. As van Manen mentions, though some other qualitative disciplines aim to catch and describe experience, it is through the lens that they capture the experience that forces them into a paradigm locker, that negates the true experience of the person.

References:

Greenhow, C., & Robelia, B. (2009). Old Communication, New Literacies: Social Network Sites as Social Learning Resources. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14(4), 1130-1161. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01484.x

Max van Manen » Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.maxvanmanen.com/biography/

Sloan, A., & Bowe, B. (2013). Phenomenology and hermeneutic phenomenology: the philosophy, the methodologies, and using hermeneutic phenomenology to investigate lecturers’ experiences of curriculum design. Quality & Quantity, 48(3), 1291-1303. doi:10.1007/s11135-013-9835-3

Van Manen, M. (2014). Phenomenology of Practice: Meaning-Giving Methods in Phenomenological Research and Writing. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.

Willoughby, M. (2018). A review of the risks associated with children and young people’s social media use and the implications for social work practice. Journal of Social Work Practice, 33(2), 127-140. doi:10.1080/02650533.2018.1460587

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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515 Week 3 Post- Research as Practice.

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As a teacher, I am a researcher. I research myself, and my methods, as well as the learners, and their output, in my room (not for public consumption but my own edification). Wow, that sounded clinical; and it is. Reflection is merely the vehicle that allows for understanding and improvement. I would call this an action research approach. In the chapter, Getting to Grips with Perspectives and Models in the book, Action Research in Education by Mary McAteer (2013) it was discussed how the method of action research is a cyclical entity that always loops back to the redefinition of the question, and moving into a new phase of the research. McAteer goes on to describe this in an educational setting by saying, “that action research has a very specific purpose, ‘enabling professionals to understand their practice better, and use that enhanced understanding in order to effect changes in practice’” (2013, Pg. 3).

At the end of the day we all want to improve. I do not believe that there is an educator in my building that believes they have it all figured out, and that nothing that needs to change in his/her practice. We are always doing research on our methods: in every lunch room discussion of a lesson, every talk in a department meeting, every interaction with students, and the environment of the school (one could call this a literature review, but I digress). We see faults in ourselves and our practices, not because we are self-deprecating, but we want to improve the learning of our students. It is futile to believe that we do not reflect, so why not give ourselves the credit that we are engaging in research.

Action research steps are as follows (McAteer, 2013, Pg 7):

  • Plan: I make my lesson.
  • Act: I do it in the classroom.
  • Observe: be aware as to how the message is being received, understood and acted on.
  • Reflect: think of how it went and then readapt for the next lesson.

And the cycle goes on.

I would argue that we are not doing that research for each lesson but in-lesson as well. We have all started with a planned activity and observed that it is not effective for a variety of reasons. We, as professionals, will then reflect and re-plan, on the fly, to take the class (researched and readers), and/or learners individually, where they need to go. That reflection and pre-planning may be for only a few students in the room as the rest are doing fine. Therefore, you start to realize that each class is a mini-research project and each individual is its own plan.

So if we go into the steps laid out above, we can see that the natural flow of learning, and being, is represented in action research. It is the process of life. For example, I make a plan as to how I am going to replace the radiator in my truck. I order the parts and act on replacing the parts. I observe how the process is going, while I am experiencing the unforeseen issues of hose connections and worn bolts. I reflect on the process once finished and make a better plan for the next time I have to replace a part in my truck (check hose connections and for stripped bolts). I have learned how to better do that action. Therefore, I will assert, that life, no matter the situation, is action research.

In short we are all researchers in our professions and personal practice. That is not clinical at all: That is real life.

Andrew Vogelsang

 

 

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568 Week 3 Post- Paradigm Shifts in my Classroom.

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In the Ted X talk by Jeff Hopkins, founder of the Pacific School for Innovation and Inquiry,  he discussed the paradigm shift that he felt was essential to the future of education. I would agree. I would also posit that it is already happening. The new curriculum in BC is leading to the differentiation of learning as both a teacher and a learner. The outcomes are not limiting; in fact they are freeing. The problem is that some educators, in both training and experience, are having issues seeing this new method as valid, as it does not allow for the acknowledgment that we have done our job by checking all the boxes. Any step, no matter how small, is a step forward.

I was told when starting my teaching career, that the best way to do this was to have a list of the prescribed leaning outcomes for each discipline I teach printed out so I can check off when one has been completed, and therefore know that I have worked through all the needed “material”. However, what is the ”material”? Has anyone really learned the material fully or merely assimilated it for a short time and then dumped it? The problem is, the way I was taught to teach, was not preparing me to see the validity of this new, and sometimes messy way of inquiry based practice. Fortunately, I was trained to think and operate in a very dynamic and messy world; restaurants, which allowed me to transfer the adaptability I learned there into my practice as a teacher. But what about the teachers who are 20 years in, and have been told to change the way they do everything? What about the parents who want to see the kids “prepared for university”? A paradigm shift is called a paradigm shift for a reason, because we are fundamentally shifting what education is. We are doing more than merely converting from gas to electric, we are blowing up the idea of transportation as a whole, metaphorically that is.

The system needs a redesign and that is never more evident than in a  my computer classroom. Hopkins spoke to sparking the flame, however doing that in a traditional form of teaching in a classroom that holds all the computer disciplines at one time, can be challenging. I started off trying to do the stand and deliver method, everyone doing the same thing, and that did not work for a variety of reasons. The main reason being, variety. I had a diverse group of students in that room, wanting to learn very different aspects of computers and software.  For example: some wanted to film videos and edit, others wanted to program, others worked on graphic design, others concentrated on game creation, others developing architectural skills, and the list can go on. Basically, I got sick of looking at bored faces because I was trying to check boxes, but they were checking out.  I decided, as a course of shear functionality, that I had to change the way I taught. So 5 years ago I streamed my class.

A stream is a software choice and flow. In grade 8, I introduce the students to most of the options and when they come in grade 9 they, hopefully, have an idea as to what they wanted to focus on. Grade 9 is a year of adventure and trying new things to find that spark. Most students will eventually find where they want to focus on in the future during that year. I have students picking different software every year for an eclectic look at potential technology fields they may wish to pursue.  It is messy. It is fluid. It is full of growth and mistakes for both me as a facilitator and them as learners.  Moreover, it is working well most of the time. Every day, week, semester, I tweak and play with what is happening to make sure more and more learners are captured in the room. I am still not done expanding my classroom and pedagogy but it has been a great journey.

At the end of the day we are all looking for learning. I love to see the lights turn on in a student’s eye when they “find that spark”. I am glad that the new curriculum for the technology classes allows for the fluidity and flexibility to give the students a chance to find their passion and not just check a box.

Andrew Vogelsang