Chapter+06+-+An+Anthology+of+Learning+Stories

School has a preference for things that are “testable, delimitable, and listable” (p. 107) but Papert would like learning or knowledge building to relate the new knowledge to each individual’s interest. The School’s love for testing is continuing a fragmentation of subjects. The way we teach also encourages this lack of interconnectedness. With the onset of NCLB, this preference has almost turned into obsession. It is unfortunate that our students are viewed as results and that schools are judged by these results. I wish I could further explore every single tangent an individual in my class has. I wish we could have passionate examinations of things through the lens of art without the worry of standards. But without standards how could I know a student has learned enough? How could I know I was doing a good job? Sometimes I wonder if the human mind is meant to be dissected and measured the way that it is done in school. Epistemologic moral is that we all use concrete forms of reasoning but the mathetic moral is that in doing so we demonstrate we have learned without instruction. Instruction for life is something I wonder if school can do. School seems so removed from life but in the same breath it is school and life as well. I mean we are living it. Empowerment to change is to reshape what we believe we can or cannot know. What a powerful way of understanding limitations. In school at times, I see the truck story being played out but without the flexibility of including variations such as the house. It is desirable in elementary to have what is produced in the art room look the same. And I have always told my students if they can figure out how to include all of what I want them to learn in their project they can make it look any way they want. We determine our own limits so let us encourage our students to be their best. Are the state standards the measure of humanities abilities? Maria felt she could not or did not want to build a truck as everyone else was doing but she did want to build a beautiful house. However, building the house led to bartering and improvements which led to the same learning that building the truck would have allowed. Learning should evoke our passions. I am going to think about how I am evoking passions in my class. I wonder if I am doing a good enough job?---T.D.

Chapter 6: An Anthology of Learning Stories Does technology improve teaching? Technology can improve teaching when students are using their thinking skills and thought processes to complete task. Technology is not as useful without the part of exploration and problem solving on the part of the learner.  ﻿ • Even though this book was written 20+ years ago, its application relates to address on today by.. Now, everyone has probably seen Dirty Dancing as it has become a classic, but that is the learning story that stuck out the most to me and was able to put this all into perspective for me. I believe educators are still trying to make things relevant and figure out the best way for the students to explore and learn on their own with a little prompting but mainly individual and group problem solving to get results and to learn. I think this chapter also said a lot of teaching one way and knowing that some students will be able to find their own thinking strategies to get the right answer. It is important to know that this is still a very crucial part of education today. This book is proving to me that there haven’t been huge breakthroughs in teaching and education in the last 20 years because the things we are reading about in this book are still things we are trying to accomplish with the students today.  ﻿. This chapter ties into the TPCK model by.. The TPCK model would tie in to this chapter because the model likes to include technology, pedagogy and curriculum to learn. The model likes the learner to use thinking strategies to learn the information and explore the concept that is described in the curriculum. The learning stories in this chapter did just that. The students were given a task that was in the curriculum and they used different medias to explore, and discover well beyond the confines of the curriculum. Practical uses for this site? info in my classroom... Hands on applications and getting the students to explore and discover is important. Also getting the students comfortable enough to realize there are different ways to explore and learn and discover answers. Having the students be comfortable in sharing the different ways they thought about and solved the problem, or what they explored and discovered in the process of coming to their answers. Helping the students realize it’s okay to find a different way to solve the problem and that all students may learn a little differently but as long as they come up with correct results it doesn’t matter how you get there!

I again will refer back to my teaching 6th grade math -- I would invite students to show how they got their answers -- it wasn't always the way the textbook said to get the answer, but they got the right answer nonetheless. I was letting them think in their own way, but I wasn't allowing them to do whatever they chose. Papert almost seems extreme to me in his quest to allow the children to choose their learning. I'm not sure that all students would be able to do that. Also, I wonder why he doesn't ever mention Montessori. I could be missing his point completely, but it seems to me that his ideas align closely with the Montessori framework.

I am having an internal struggle with this book because Papert's ideas sound so refreshing, lively and inspiring. However, I have to side with Trista on this -- I'm not sure I'd know what to teach them if I didn't have standards to follow. In fact, I can't even fully follow the standards in my classroom because I don't have the technology that would allow me to do so, and that frustrates me. I'm not sure teaching and learning without some sort of guide (standards) would progress in an educationally sound direction -- I'd really have to see it in long-term action. I'm also struggling because I used to really be against all of the testing; however, most recently I've gotten involved in professional development of data driven instruction and assessments. I'm so torn between Papert's ideas, project based learning and data driven instruction. I guess this means I personally still have much learning to do in order to figure out which philosophy I follow. On the one hand, the data driven instruction provides a clear map of where to go -- the assessments are formative and the concepts that are missed are retaught. On the other hand, who says this map is the way we should be going. But where would it go otherwise? I think there can possibly be a happy medium between project-based learning and data driven instruction. Perhaps the concepts that are driving the instruction can be retaught in project-based form. I don't think Papert would be a fan of data driven instruction, but I find it hard to imagine all teachers (including myself) being able to carry out a constructive and successful classroom in which learners choose their mode of learning. Papert does have some very telling examples of his philosophy of teaching and learning, but are these the norm or are they just anomolies? The truck vs. the house topic is a great example, but I wonder how you'd carry this over into all subjects.

Trista -- I thought your example was great about offering the younger students the opportunity to create their choice as long as they covered the elements. That's a good example of choice while still covering the standards. I'm more comfortable with that than just letting the students decide what they can create without any standards in mind. I'm guessing though that most of your students do exactly like the example. I find with my students when I give them too much choice, they have anxiety. They seem to want to know exactly what do to -- what are the expectations? Is it because that's what they're used to or because that's what they truly want -- limited choice and more direction? Hmmm, something to ponder (perhaps I should just ask them!)

-Carol

This chapter is a collection of antidotes about people and how they have learned various different subject. On page 123, Papert, writes about how motivating this kind of learning can be as a result of the learner having some choice in the subject to be studied. He goes on to write about how the learning is more meaningful when learners get to approach problems from their own direction as opposed to being shoe-horned into what I think is best. I like the theory behind this type of education, but it gives me headaches trying to figure out how I approach teaching American history with this of mind set. Do I give students a general overview, with some hints about where the good stories may lie, or do I just provide a little freedom within a given unit. We are studying Native Americans, now you figure out what part of that equation intrigues you and how you are going to share your findings with the rest of us.