Kory: OH EM GEE! The Industrial Revolution was SOOO two centuries ago!

The premise of my blog is based off of Situated Learning and the animated YouTube video “Changing Education Paradigms” inspired by a talk given by Sir Ken Robinson.

Robinson discusses how the educational system was created during the Industrial Revolution and also in the image of it. Students were separated into categories; “academic” and “non academic”. Children were (and are) educated, separated by age group with subjects taught separately. It’s based on conformity and a production line mentality.

LLP offers the idea of learning in a different way. Instead, learning is seen as “participation in the sociocultural practices of a community”. Immediately, there is an evident contrast between the mentality of exclusion and the mentality of inclusion. Rather than learning (successfully) as a skill a person either has or doesn’t have, it’s seen as a natural and imperative part of functioning in society.

It’s kind of beautiful in its simplicity and range of possibilities. Unfortunately, its application to the American school system is anything BUT simplistic.

I will say that we have come a long way in the past two centuries. It’s more evident to me in language learning than other subjects. I’d venture to say mathematics is still on the more archaic end of the spectrum. Language learning has evolved to encourage group participation, student-centered learning, and application of knowledge OUTSIDE of the “glass house”. Even just in the past ten years, there has been a huge change in how learning a language takes place. Still, it’s not as close to “natural” as Krashen would deem ideal.

The Industrial Revolution mentality also hasn’t affected all countries equally. I remember how foreign and strange it was chatting with Italians while I studied there. To an extent, they still have a Renaissance mentality. Rather than subjects being separated, Italians see them as interconnected. It’s completely natural to talk about a single subject in terms of science, art, history, AND political science. For instance, a building is a work of art, a piece of history, a mathematical and engineering feat, and a cultural icon. Seems pretty simple, but they think that way ALL THE TIME about EVERYTHING. I always thought our conversations were richer because of it.

I love the description of LPP as “a way to speak about the relations between newcomers and old-timers, and about activities, identities, artifacts, and communities of knowledge and practice”. It’s so similar to the Standards for Foreign Language Learning created by ACTFL!

Here’s part of ACTFL’s Statement of Philosophy:

“Language and communication are at the heart of the human experience. The United States must educate students who are linguistically and culturally equipped to communicate successfully in a pluralistic American society and abroad.”

THIS IS WHY I WANT TO BE/AM AN ESL TEACHER!!! I come from a long line of teachers in my family. I always swore that I would never be a teacher because the public education system has too much yellow tape and teachers aren’t appreciated or supported enough. Then, I went to Italy and tutored English privately to a 10 year old boy named Tommaso and I saw education in a different way. Tommaso and I chatted. We talked about soccer and food and life! We compared our cultures/communities and bonded over similarities and gained new perspective over differences. I didn’t feel like I was teaching a subject. I felt like I was spending time building a new community for the two of us.

So… in short, I feel like I have a fairly good grasp on the idea of LPP and how powerful it can be in terms of ESL/EFL. I’m a big fan. *waves large “#1″foam finger*

My difficulties and worries arise when I think of how it could possibly be applied to the rest of the academic world. I can see the benefits and grasp the idea on an individual basis, but changing a giant INSTITUTION is daunting to say the least. How do we make LPP part of our social construct of “education”?

Obviously, it’s not a change that can happen overnight. It also has to be addressed on multiple levels. Standardized testing is stupid. Politicians don’t know what they’re talking about. Divergent thinking is being educated OUT. But maybe if we get people to teach subjects who are TEACHERS (and ballsy); if we can offer an alternative form of learning (successfully), we can make progress. I really hope so. Otherwise, my future children will be in private school and I’ll need to find a more lucrative career to pay for it.