We’ll use Perusall to annotate and read together. The Ever Interesting Haley!
Hello you lovely people! My name is Haley Hansen (remember, the really cool girl that works at a bank…). I am a junior/senior, I’m not really sure what I am actually. Anyway, I’m an English Education major with a minor in Linguistics. Upon graduating I will receive my TSOL certificate (Teaching Students of Other Languages) and then I will be taking a couple years off with the hopes of joining the Peace Corps and teaching in South America. Afterward I will return to the beautiful campus of CSUC and work on my teaching credential. I love spending time with my family and spending time outdoors so I’m having a great day if I’m doing both!
” Insofar as learning really does consist in the development of portable interactive skills, it can take place even when coparticipants fail to share a common code. The apprentice’s ability to understand the master’s performance depends not on their possessing the same representation of it, or of the objects it entails, but rather on their engaging in the performance in congruent ways. Similarly, the master’s effectiveness at producing learning is not dependent on her ability to inculcate the student with her own conceptual representations. Rather, it depends on her ability to manage effectively a divsion of participation that provides for growth on the part of the student.”
So then this is basically saying that learning really isn’t the teacher trying to get a specific point across to the student, what learning really is is the student (through participation) coming to their own representations and conclusions which could be completely different than what the teacher was trying to convey in the first place. The common code being- “are you picking up what I’m putting down” from a teachers point of view. Just because a student doesn’t “pick up” the exact point that a teacher is “putting down” does not mean that the student isn’t learning. I think that is quite an idea, and I can definitely see where that could be the case.
2 Replies to “The Ever Interesting Haley!”
Hi Haley! I actually looked into the Peace Corps as well; I was looking into somewhere in Eastern Europe or South America as well. I believe it’s a challenge that has endless rewards. But, I don’t think I’m brave enough to be away from home for so long.
I can’t stand when a teacher tries to convey to the student what they believe is right based that they think “they know everything”. I feel it could put a student down because they feel they can’t hold an opinion, which could bring down their confidence and give them the feeling that they don’t want to learn anything. I agree with Wenger when the argument is that this train of thought needs to change.
I like the sound of your plan, Haley! It seems we share a similar dream of teaching in South America. It’s always been an enticing idea to me too. I find linguistics fascinating, but perhaps only because I am so baffled by it. I tried to read some of Noam Chomsky’s work in that particular field one time, but it went way over my head! I put it down within a few minutes.
I really like the way you stated this- “what learning really is is the student (through participation) coming to their own representations and conclusions,” and I agree. It is definitely a noteworthy point that learning is something that happens within the student himself/herself. Instructors can plant seeds as best as they can, but ultimately it is the student that must grow the plant.