14.07.2010
Source http://www.clt.uts.edu.au/Scholarship/A.Model.html
Scholarship of Teaching: A Model
Authors:
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Keith Trigwell
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University of Technology, Sydney |
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Elaine Martin and Joan Benjamin
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Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology |
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Michael Prosser
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La Trobe University |
Categories of description of approaches to scholarship of teaching
An analysis of the data collected in the present study resulted in the following five categories of description of approach to the scholarship of teaching:
A. The scholarship of teaching is about knowing the literature on teaching by collecting and reading that literature.
B. Scholarship of teaching is about improving teaching by collecting and reading the literature on teaching.
C Scholarship of teaching is about improving student learning by investigating the learning of ones own students and ones own teaching.
D. Scholarship of teaching is about improving ones own students’ learning by knowing and relating the literature on teaching and learning to discipline specific literature and knowledge.
E. The scholarship of teaching is about improving student learning within the discipline generally, by collecting and communicating results of ones own work on teaching and learning within the discipline.
The relations between these categories of description in terms of what is focused on (what the intentions are) and how the approach is carried out (strategy) are shown in the outcome space in Table 1.
In Category A, scholarship is described as the intention to know the literature on teaching, and to achieve this through the strategy of collecting and reading this literature.
In Category B the approach to scholarship is still built on the strategy of collecting and reading the teaching and learning literature, but in this category, unlike Category A, the intention is not only to know the literature, but to use that knowledge to improve teaching.
Table 1: Outcome space of approach to the scholarship of teaching
| Intention /Strategy | Know the literature | Improve teaching | Improve student learning | Improve student learning generally |
|
Collect and read literature |
A | B | ||
|
Investigate own teaching and student learning |
C | |||
|
Relate discipline knowledge to teaching and learning literature |
D | |||
|
Communicate results of own work and existing literature |
E |
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12.07.2010
This is a simple and profound quote from Socrates. It is such an open ended question, yet it deals with the fundamentals of how learning necessitates teaching in some circumstances. I am thinking now of how necessary a teacher is when I am setting out to learn something new, that I know nothing about, say, a new yoga posture, or fixing the brakes on my bike. Although I began by trying to work out these problems myself, when somebody showed me how to do it I learned and had confidence in that knowledge – I felt not only that I had personally learned something but also that I had tapped into a community of knowing – that I sharing some knowing with all the people who know something (not much, but a little something!) about bicycle brakes, and that I knew what other yoga practitioners knew about that pose, thus holding yoga knowledge in the world with other people… in a small way, but somehow it came to me through the process of learning with somebody teaching me.
“A person can only learn that which he doesn’t know, but if he doesn’t know it, how does he know what he is seeking to learn?”
Socrates. as quoted by Jack Mezirow in essay ” Adult Education and Empowerment for Individual and Community Development”, p.10, in “Radical Learning for Liberation 2″, Brid Connolly,Ted Fleming, David McCormack, Anne Ryan Editors.
Transformative Learning.
A theory propounded by Jack Mezirow, which seems to me to be a very useful way to think about the way in which adults do things, although it does not allow for unconscious learning so much… is all learning and theory somehow connected to ‘becoming conscious’? What does that even mean? I am mow thinking of Eckhart Tolle ” The Power of Now” and the deep path to things like higher consciousness and happiness that he outlines through a questions and answers format… and somehow the way that adult education relates to ideas of consciousness. ‘Critical reflection’ is a term that has come up time and again, and yet I distrust this phrase profoundly! It emerges in the practices of contemporary artists, and in academic theory and research, and with teaching practice, and it assumes an ability that I am not sure that individuals really have! We might aim to be critical, and attempt to be critical in reflecting on what we do, but there is a huge thing necessary in criticality – distance – and that is something that is always relative…. and there are qualities in the present – the immediate – that deny criticality but provide opportunity for other kinds of things that have their own important qualities… it is always important to remember that there is always a blind-spot in critical reflectivity… and that that is not bad, but exciting and filled with potential… and something unknown, which is really valuable too… and is part of this process and I wish to acknowledge it, yet academic practice often, in the process of academisation of things that are unorganised in that particular way, can flatten out experience into theory and then live in the field of the theoretical… this seems to have occured in much of art theory. If experience cannot be entirely theoreticised then that is a good thing, and there must be room for the unsayable – the unreflectable…
Be all that the theory named transformative learning is very interesting and I am intrigued by it.
“Transformation Theory… a theoretical model of how adults learn that…has particular relevance for adult education, for community development and for demystifying Socrate’s learning paradox.”
p.10.
“Transfromation Theory suggests that we ‘learn what we seek to learn’ as the result of transforming our frame of reference. By redefining or reframing the problem we come to see our learning needs from a different perspective. This transformative learning occurs when we find that our old ways of understanding are no longer working well for us. Transformation Theory is an explanation of how our frames of reference influence the way we make meaning and how they may be transformed to empower adult learners and to foster community development.”
A diagram of what I took from the concept of transformative theory (p.11-12)
FRAME OF REFERENCE
a “structure of assumptions” (p.11) through which experiences are interpreted
societal/personal/cultural/educational/learned
/\
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
dimension 1 dimension 2
/ \
HABIT OF EXPECTATION POINT OF VIEW
filtering codes meaning schemes
socio-linguistic / psychological / epistemic beliefs /judgements/feeling
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“The process of transforming our frames of reference begins with critical reflection. What I mean by critical reflection is the process of assessing one’s assumptions and presuppositions. Through critical reflection we can change the way we see the content of a problem or see our processes of problem solving. This can result in transforming our meaning scheme or point of view. we may also become critically reflective of the premises upon which the problem is posed, how the problem is framed or defined. Premise reflection can lead to a transformation in our meaning perspective of habit of mind. It is easier to change our point of view because we can ‘try on’ a different point of view and see its relative advantage, but we cannot do this easily with our habits of mind.”
P.12.
Mezirow on “Collaborative Discourse”
“There are only four ways to establish the validity or justification of a problematic belief or an interpretation – by turning to tradition, to authority, (the courts, politics, or religion), to brute force, or by turning to discourse.
Unlike ordinary everyday discussion of dialogue, collaborative discourse involves an exclusive focus on the content – deliberately weighing the evidence, assessing arguments or reasons advanced in support or opposition, examining alternative viewpoints and on critically examining assumptions in order to reach a best judgment on the justification of a belief. An institutional model of collaborative discourse is the university seminar.”
p.14.
Mezirow on Community Development
” Adult educators concerned with community development encourage learners to become aware of community problems and to participate actively in collective community problem solving efforts. This involves two areas of practice. One involves fostering critical reflection on social conditions. practices, institutions, systems and traditional frames of reference that distort communication and constrain learning. In the context of families. educational institutions, organisations and in the broader community the adult educator’s role is the same. It is to develop true communities of collaborative discourse leading to action. This will often involve providing protective learning environments and helping learners to discourse effectively.”
p.16
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09.07.2010
Roger Harrison, Fiona Reeve, Ann Harrison & Julia Clarke Eds. “Supporting Lifelong Learning. Volume 1. Perspectives on learning.” 2002 Routledge, London.
Rogers outlines three learning theories: cognitive, humanist and behavioural. On Humanist theory he writes:
“The humanist views … see learning as part of a process of conflict in which the learners are seeking to take control of their own life processes. It is the engagement of the learners with the world around them and with themselves that creates the learning milieu. The material on which they exercise their learning skills is less important than the goals they have set themselves. The role of the teacher is to increase the range of experiences so that the student participants can use these in any way they please to achieve their own desired learning changes.”
p.12 (“learning and adult education”, Alan Rogers.)
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