These are my reflections on the paper on "Model of Domain Learning (MDL)" by Patricia A. Alexander.
To answer why some people never think of quitting the mastery of the unkown probably roots in themselves, in the form of motivation. Definately, without understanding the motivational dimension, educators cannot explain why some individuals persist in their journey toward expertise, while others yield to unavoidable pressures and change their fleeting interest to something else.
It is relevant to consider the importance of of learner's interest on the possibility of gaining expertise. The sustained interest leads to subtle and significant transformations occurring between a novice and an expert.
Few components that I can relate with the transformation of a novice to an expert in academic domains can be stated as knowledge acclimation, competence, and proficiency.
Model components as per MDL theory:
The MDL distinguishes between two forms of subject-matter knowledge: domain and topic knowledge. Domain knowledge represents the breadth of knowledge within a field. Where as topic knowledge is about depth; how much an individual knows about specific domain topics.
MDL tracks two forms of interest in expertise development: individual and situational interest. Individual interest is the investment one has in a particular domain or some facet thereof.
Forms of Interests:
The two forms of individual interest evident in expertise: general and professional. Through general interest, the individual engages in domain-related activities more available in everyday experiences. Professional interest is a more specialized, goal-oriented interest aligned with vocational activities. The situational interest is tied to the "here and now." It is an arousal or piquing of attention sparked by events or features of the environment. Because it is bound to the immediate situation, such interest is fleeting
I am sure one can relate to this fact that individuals care more about domains for which they know more and know more about domains in which they are individually inrerested. Making it a circle which perhaps is not closed!
The Stages of Expertise Development:
Acclimation: The initial stage in domain expertise. Within acclimation, learners have limited and fragmented knowledge.
Competence: Competent individuals not only demonstrate a foundational
body of domain knowledge, but that knowledge is also more cohesive and principled in structure.
In general these stages of knowledge and strategy changes in competent learners are linked to increases in individuals' personal interest in the domain
and less dependence on situational features of the environment.
Expertise: Not only is the knowledge base of experts both broad and deep, but the experts are also contributing new knowledge to the domain. To create new knowledge, experts must be well versed in the problems and methodologies of the domain and actively engaged in problem finding. These experts are posing questions and instituting investigations that push the boundaries of the domain.
Who knew that problem finding is also an expertise, well I know it now. Most important being individuals' investment in their learning and development. Schools can do much to nurture emerging competence by allowing students
to pursue topics and tasks of interest and by immersing them in meaningful learning experiences that are fertile ground for the growth of enduring interest.
Finally, The truth is that the journey toward expertise is well a journey that does not end. Even those who have attained the knowledge, strategic abilities, and interests indicative of expertise cannot sit idly by as the domain shifts under their feet. Keep running cause its good!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Reflection on the teaching perspectives
After a weekend at Georgia International Leadership Conference (GILC) (here), it came back to me that not all the learning contents are to be taught using same methodology. Neither one size fits all students nor all subject contents are meant to be taught in one way. From my in-class experiences at EDHI classes, I gathered that for a subject like management information systems (which essentially rests on the knolwledge of certain principles which have been optimized for applications), such content is best taught in the "Transmission mode" and the teacher needs to focus on transferring the content to the students. Making sure that students can implement the taught content on "as is presented" basis.
This ofcourse sharply contrasts with the content that focuses on encouraging the students to start thinking independently. Topics (including business, management, sciences, math, engineering, etc) by nature grow based on independent thoughts of the learner.
This ofcourse sharply contrasts with the content that focuses on encouraging the students to start thinking independently. Topics (including business, management, sciences, math, engineering, etc) by nature grow based on independent thoughts of the learner.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Teaching Perspectives
I am a part of over ninety percent of teachers who share same thoughts as far as teaching is concerned. According to "Teaching Perspectives Inventory" (Pratt and Collins, 2000) over ninety percent of teachers holding only one or two perspectives as their dominant view of teaching.
The Developmental Perspective:
The primary goal of education or training is to develop increasingly complex and sophisticated ways of reasoning and problem solving within a content area or field of practice. With that information teachers try to build bridges from the learners’ way of thinking to better, more complex and sophisticated ways of thinking and reasoning. The assumption behind this strategy is that learning brings about one of two kinds of change inside the brain: First, when a new experience fits with what someone already knows, it builds a stronger and more elaborate pathway to that knowledge. Second, if a new experience or new content doesn’t fit the learner’s current way of knowing, s/he must either change the old way of knowing or reject the new knowledge or experience. The goal is to change the way learners think, rather than increase their store of knowledge
Developmental teachers employ two common strategies: first, the judicious use of effective questioning that challenges learners to move from relatively simple to more complex forms of thinking; and second, the use of examples that are meaningful to learners. Indeed, from this perspective, sometimes less (telling) means more (learning).
The Apprenticeship Perspective:
Learning, therefore, is a matter of developing competence and identity in relation to
other members of a community of practice.
Developmental teachers employ two common strategies: first, the judicious use of effective questioning that challenges learners to move from relatively simple to more complex forms of thinking; and second, the use of examples that are meaningful to learners. Indeed, from this perspective, sometimes less (telling) means more (learning).
The Apprenticeship Perspective:
Learning, therefore, is a matter of developing competence and identity in relation to
other members of a community of practice.
The Nurturing Perspective:
The Nurturing Perspective assumes that long-term, hard, persistent efforts to achieve
come from the heart, not the head. People will become motivated and productive learners when they are working on issues or problems without fear of failure. Learners are therefore nurtured by the knowledge that (a) achievement is a product of their own effort and ability, rather than the benevolence of a teacher; and that (b) their efforts to learn will be supported by their teacher and their peers. To do this they promote a climate of caring and trust, helping people set reasonable but challenging goals, and supporting effort and achievement. Above all else, they are cautious not to sacrifice self-efficacy in favor of academic achievement.
Nurturing teachers provide a great deal of encouragement and support, along with clear expectations and reasonable goals for each learner. And, their assessment of learning often considers individual growth or progress, as well as absolute achievement. caring does not negate having high expectations.
Texts and practices are interrogated for what is said, what is not said, what is included and what is excluded, and who is represented and who is not represented in the dominant discourses of practice.
come from the heart, not the head. People will become motivated and productive learners when they are working on issues or problems without fear of failure. Learners are therefore nurtured by the knowledge that (a) achievement is a product of their own effort and ability, rather than the benevolence of a teacher; and that (b) their efforts to learn will be supported by their teacher and their peers. To do this they promote a climate of caring and trust, helping people set reasonable but challenging goals, and supporting effort and achievement. Above all else, they are cautious not to sacrifice self-efficacy in favor of academic achievement.
Nurturing teachers provide a great deal of encouragement and support, along with clear expectations and reasonable goals for each learner. And, their assessment of learning often considers individual growth or progress, as well as absolute achievement. caring does not negate having high expectations.
Texts and practices are interrogated for what is said, what is not said, what is included and what is excluded, and who is represented and who is not represented in the dominant discourses of practice.
Teaching Paradigm
Today was a MLK holiday and I was sitting in my office trying to understand some new research finding I had stumbled upon last Friday. I would like to state that just last week I saw some new result I was then not sure if the data obtained by me had supporting science. I am in the process on looking for an understanding of the results, thats what a scientist does. I've had similar 'new-findings' often times where I feel exhilirated, this prmopts me to first make sure that the data is repordiucible and secondly look for a scientific explanation.
On Monday (today) I came back for seeing some more related data and the conclusions that I made onlast Friday did not seem to be 'facts'. Now, its my job to see what is the logical story that binds the results that I get and hopefully present it to the peers through scientific journals. This exercise after all gives me a Ph. D!
This probably means that learning is not a destination but the journey itself. It must be very difficult to 'pass on' the way-to-learn through teaching! Nice finding I must say. I know its not new. I will have to dwell on the teaching paradigm on my other blog, I have experienced a long textual communication often misses its goals.
On Monday (today) I came back for seeing some more related data and the conclusions that I made onlast Friday did not seem to be 'facts'. Now, its my job to see what is the logical story that binds the results that I get and hopefully present it to the peers through scientific journals. This exercise after all gives me a Ph. D!
This probably means that learning is not a destination but the journey itself. It must be very difficult to 'pass on' the way-to-learn through teaching! Nice finding I must say. I know its not new. I will have to dwell on the teaching paradigm on my other blog, I have experienced a long textual communication often misses its goals.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
First class of EDHI9040; but why now?
Was going through a couple of friend's blogs on teaching issues and wondering what is the thing I will take home with this class.Why were we sitting in this class was something that made me realize that similar theme based classes probably didn't exist. There must have been a need among the academicians that led to the creation of this course EDHI9040 and now that I am taking this course does count for something.
It has given us an opportunity to most importantly listen and understand other folks including ones from varied backgrounds and academic levels. Thats one of the unique thing about this class, I am sitting in a class with students from sociology, plant-biology, MIS, chemistry, social work, some academic fields I haven't heard of before. Hey remember we all live together and there is a need to talk with each other and the opportunity to take advantage of synergy that could have been caught.
Best part, I feel is that the I get an opportunity to present my views and to see how they fair with my peers and in general with people who are not me.
It has given us an opportunity to most importantly listen and understand other folks including ones from varied backgrounds and academic levels. Thats one of the unique thing about this class, I am sitting in a class with students from sociology, plant-biology, MIS, chemistry, social work, some academic fields I haven't heard of before. Hey remember we all live together and there is a need to talk with each other and the opportunity to take advantage of synergy that could have been caught.
Best part, I feel is that the I get an opportunity to present my views and to see how they fair with my peers and in general with people who are not me.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Teaching Philosophy
Fortunately teaching philosophies are not written in stone and I believe that is what
makes them interesting and make it easier in adapting it to the student-audience.
Learning, in my opinion is a personal experience that vastly depends on the way how information is presented. To the same information taught to a group of students, the amount of learning that it leads to depends on the factors such as their current level of understanding, ability to correlate information, enthusiasm in the class, ability to be open to new ideas and active thinking about the taught content. If any one of the above stages encounters a bottle-neck, it eventually is reflected as perceived difficulty in learning process which can mistakenly be attributed to teaching methodology. Of course, as most of the academic learning (until college) occurs in a class-room set up aided by a qualified teacher, there some amount of subjectivity introduced in the learning process at the source itself.
In my experience teaching becomes most effecting when the process of learning becomes spontaneous as student's curiosity and inquisitive nature. The advantage of teaching is that student’s curiosity can be stimulated by the teacher. I believe that a teacher can enhance learning by presenting the course information as a natural extension to the student's existing knowledge. While presenting a new content I think, enough time needs to be given in the student firstly, to promote logical thinking about its need and application, and secondly to promote student’s thinking and understanding to correlate and processes the taught content.
I understand that the best way to learn is to implement the acquired information in
practice such as experimental labs, real-world examples etc. However, in many cases that might not be feasible, for such topics learning can be enhanced by revisiting the topic frequently, by connecting the new information with existing knowledge, by sharing the knowledge with peers, making journal entries of a personal point view about the learnt topic. Having known about the learning process, in my teaching I would like to makes sure that the teaching style I choose preferable involves a student-oriented approach to revisit the newly gathered information.
Keeping all the above in mind, I do not underestimate the role of keeping the learning environment open to criticism and constructive feed-back from my students. After all learning is best if it is done in a peer-like environment with an ‘experienced’ peer (teacher) besides them to facilitate the learning.
makes them interesting and make it easier in adapting it to the student-audience.
Learning, in my opinion is a personal experience that vastly depends on the way how information is presented. To the same information taught to a group of students, the amount of learning that it leads to depends on the factors such as their current level of understanding, ability to correlate information, enthusiasm in the class, ability to be open to new ideas and active thinking about the taught content. If any one of the above stages encounters a bottle-neck, it eventually is reflected as perceived difficulty in learning process which can mistakenly be attributed to teaching methodology. Of course, as most of the academic learning (until college) occurs in a class-room set up aided by a qualified teacher, there some amount of subjectivity introduced in the learning process at the source itself.
In my experience teaching becomes most effecting when the process of learning becomes spontaneous as student's curiosity and inquisitive nature. The advantage of teaching is that student’s curiosity can be stimulated by the teacher. I believe that a teacher can enhance learning by presenting the course information as a natural extension to the student's existing knowledge. While presenting a new content I think, enough time needs to be given in the student firstly, to promote logical thinking about its need and application, and secondly to promote student’s thinking and understanding to correlate and processes the taught content.
I understand that the best way to learn is to implement the acquired information in
practice such as experimental labs, real-world examples etc. However, in many cases that might not be feasible, for such topics learning can be enhanced by revisiting the topic frequently, by connecting the new information with existing knowledge, by sharing the knowledge with peers, making journal entries of a personal point view about the learnt topic. Having known about the learning process, in my teaching I would like to makes sure that the teaching style I choose preferable involves a student-oriented approach to revisit the newly gathered information.
Keeping all the above in mind, I do not underestimate the role of keeping the learning environment open to criticism and constructive feed-back from my students. After all learning is best if it is done in a peer-like environment with an ‘experienced’ peer (teacher) besides them to facilitate the learning.
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