reflection on 12470-00004 facilitation

it’s been 3 weeks since the course started on 2/6. this is the first time Clinic is conducted with 3x face-to-face. an additional f2f session’s added in between based on our own reflection of the past runs, and participants’ feedback.

this time round, we have 7 participants who came. 1 MIA-ed, while 1, prior to the first f2f, was advised to sign up for the next run as the teacher couldn’t make it for this afternoon’s f2f, and the final f2f. during the first f2f, i learnt that another of the 7 belongs to this case. would have advised the teacher similarly if we were to know that in advance.

in the past 3 weeks, i observed 3-4 active participants. there were only 4 帖子B, and 3 weekly reflection piece from 2 participants. 2 reminder emails were sent, and only 2 echoes returned. not sure what happened to the rest. my guess is that our friends could have returned to PRC during this sch hols, and they faced difficulties accessing OPAL, ICON and/or fb due to the Great Firewall. will need to learn the real reasons behind if they were to turn up.

based on the 4 帖子B, i observed 3 of the participants were actively integrating ICT into their teaching and learning activities. except one, the awareness of conceptions of SDL appeared to include only incidental SDL along the SDL spectrum. consequently, the use of ICT to facilitate SDL reflects that understanding.

in the session later, my plan is to facilitate discussions to deepen the conceptions of SDL of participants. along with this, the affordance of ICT to facilitate SDL. would need to see how i could tie in what i have planned with their individual 5-10 minutes sharing.

looking forward to a fruitful session later. if time allows, we could even explore the design and use of rubrics as self-monitoring and self-management of learning cannot do without this important scaffold/tool.

sunrise photo(acknowledgement: jinsngjung)

小男孩、学校、画画

以下这则小男孩的故事取自《人性的优点故事全集》之第20章保持自己的本色。这本电子书可到百度阅读上免费下载全文。

从前有个小男孩要去上学了。他的年纪太小,而学校看起来却是那么大。 小男孩发现进了校门口便是他的教室时,他觉得很高兴。因为这样学校看起来就不再那么巨大。

一天早上,老师开始上课,她说:“今天,我们来学画画。”那小男孩心想:“好哇!”他喜欢画画。他会画许多东西,如:狮子和老虎,小鸡和母牛,火车以及船儿。他开始兴奋地拿出蜡笔,径自画了起来。但是,老师说:“等等,现在还不能开始。”老师停了下来,直到全班都专心看着她,老师又说:“现在,我们来学画花。”那男孩心里高兴。他喜欢画花儿,他开始用粉红色、橙色、蓝色蜡笔,勾勒出他自己的花朵。但此时,老师又打断大家:“等等,我要教你们怎么画。”于是她在黑板上画了一朵花。花是红色的,茎是绿色的。“看这里,你们可以开始学着了。”小男孩看着老师画的花,又再看看自己画的,还是比较喜欢自己的花儿。但是他不能说出来,只能把老师的花园在纸的背面,那是一朵红色的花,带着绿色的茎。

另一天,小男孩进入教室,老师说:“今天,我们用黏土来做东西。”男孩心想:“好棒。”他喜欢玩黏土。他会用黏土做许多东西:蛇和雪人,大象及老鼠,汽车、货车——他开始捶揉成球状的黏土。 老师说:“现在,我们来做个盘子。”男孩心想:“嗯,我喜欢。”他喜欢做盘子,没多久各式各样的盘子便出笼了。但老师说:“等等,我要教你们怎么做。”她做了一个深底的盘子,“你们可以照着做了。”小男孩看着老师做的盘子,又看看自己的。他实在比较喜欢自己的,但他不能说,他只是将黏土又揉成一个大球,再照着老师的方法做。那是个深底的盘子。很快的,小男孩学会等着、看着,仿效老师,做相同的事。很快的,他不再创造自己的东西了。

一天,男孩全家人要搬到另外一座城市,而小男孩也只得转学。这所学校甚至更大,教室也不在校门口边,现在,他要爬楼梯,沿着长廊走,才能到达教室。

第一天上课,老师说:“今天,我们来画面。”男孩想:“真好!”他等着老师教他怎么做,但老师什么也没说,只是沿着教室走。老师来到男孩身边,她问:“你不想画吗?”“我很喜欢啊!今天我们要画么?”“我不知道,让你们自由发挥。”“那,我应该怎样画呢?”“随你喜欢。” 老师回答。“可以用任何颜色吗?”老师对着他说:“如果每个人都面相同的图案,用一样的颜色,我怎么分辨是谁画的呢?”于是,小男孩开始用粉红色、橙色、蓝色画出自己的小花。

小男孩喜欢这个新学校,即使教室不在校门口边。

感想阿宝老师与我分享了这则小故事。
你若果是名教师,这则故事引起了你的任何感想,或是有所共鸣?(:

150521-nanhaidegushi

12592 studio quick recap

today, later in the afternoon, marks the closing f2f session of Studio. as this is the first run, there’s a lot of trial-and-error. a recap of:

1. things/processes that i have put in place or created before & during
– a shared google spreadsheet for individual to track and update their own progress
– a shared google drive folder to pool resources
– provided feedback in google spreadsheet using Comment function
– weekly mass-email updates
– individual email/fb im to lend support, if needed
– created a Blogger HOWTO

2. things that could have been put in place
– a course specific fb group to contain conversations (used a mass mailing list instead)

will need to find out how these things have worked (or failed to work) later.

crap detecting

next week, we’ll be having a major internal PD for our teaching staff, counted 29 assuming full attendance. although i will not be a ‘participant’, i’m still reading the pre-readings chosen to get participants thinking and discussions going.

the post’s title is title for Chapter I of Postman, N., & Weingartner, C. (1971). Teaching as a subversive activity. Penguin Books.

from pg.10 onwards, the metaphor of a clock face is invoked. 1 min on the clock = 50 yrs; 60×50=3000 yrs of human history. some quotes that caught my attention:

“change isnt new; what is new is the degree of change…abt 3 mins ago there developed a qualitative difference in the character of change. Change changed.” (p.10-11)

“in just the last minute, we’ve reached the stage where change occurs so rapidly that each of us in the course of our lives has continuously to work out a set of values, beliefs…that are viable, or seem viable, to each of us personally. And just when we have identified a workable system, it turns out to be irrelevant because so much has changed while we were doing it.” (p.11)

“… you are a walking encyclopedia of outdated information.” (p.11)

“(citing John Gardner) there is usually no shortage of new ideas; the problem is to get a hearing for them…The ageing society develops elaborate defenses against new ideas…As a society becomes more concerned with precedent and custom, it comes to care more abt how things are done and less abt whether they are done…body of customs, convention, …exercises such an oppressive effect on creative minds that new developments in a field often originate outside the area of respectable practice.” (p.12)

“We are not ‘against’ bureaucracies, any more than we are ‘for’ them. They are like electric plugs. They will probably not go away… This is why we ask that schools be ‘subversive,’ that they …providing the young with a ‘What is it good for?” perspective on its own society… generals… politicians… ‘intellectuals’…, for they do not have access to the majority of youth. But schoolteachers do, and so the primary responsibility rests with them.” (p.13)

“The trouble is that most teachers have the idea that they are in… the ‘information dissemination’ business. This was a reasonable business up to abt a min or two ago… The signs that their business is failing are abundant, but they keep it all the more diligently. (citing Santayana) … a fanatic is someone who redoubles his efforts when he has forgotten his aims. In this case, even if the aim has not been forgotten, it is simply irrelevant. But the effort has been redoubled anyway.” (p.13)

“…some teachers who think they are in the ‘transmission of our cultural heritage’ business, which is not an unreasonable business if you are concerned with the whole clock, and not just its first 57 mins. The trouble is that most teachers find that last 3 mins too distressing to deal with…their students find the last 3 mins distressing and confusing too, esp. the last 30 secs…While they have to live with TV film… communication satellites, and the laser beam, their teachers are still talking as if the only medium on the scene is Gutenberg’s printing press. While they have to understand psychology and psychedelics…, their teachers are teaching “subjects” that mostly don’t exist anymore. While they need to find new roles for themselves as social, political, and religious organisms, their teachers are acting almost entirely as shills for corporate interests, shaping them up to be functionaries in one bureaucracy or another.” (p.13-14)

Future shock occurs when you are confronted by the fact that the world you were educated to believe in doesnt exist… There are several ways of responding to such a condition, one of which is to withdraw and allow oneself to be overcome by a sense of impotence. More commonly, one continues to act as if his apparitions were substantial, relentlessly pursuing a course of action that he knows will fail him” (p.14)

reviewing the above quotes again, i ask, “how many of our CL teachers see themselves in an ‘information dissemination’ business?”, and “how many of us are in a state of ‘Future shock’?”, and among these, “how many are overcome by a sense of impotence, and how many are pursuing a course of action that s/he knows will fail her/him, or her/his students? as a teacher educator, how am i going to facilitate a shift in beliefs (esp. epistemic) of CL teachers?

150407-aloha_changi_chalet_d

thoughts on post-workshop reflection

yes, we’ve completed our first round of ICT for SDL and CoL Clinic for primary school teachers (TRAISI code: 12541, or 12541-00001). was reading wj’s facilitator reflection, and it just occurred to me that we have missed an excellent teachable moment!

“我比较不解的是-其实他们之间分享了很多实例了,老师要的是什么实例?……”

some teachers have indeed voiced during the first f2f, that they would like to learn and see 实例。 yes, in the 1-month online discourse, many tried-n-tested examples have indeed been surfaced by fellow course participants. so what are they exactly looking for? wj’s hypothesis is they may be looking for technical hands-on (knowledge). my guess is it stems from their less sophisticated epistemic beliefs. some do not see that ‘learning’ has occurred if ‘learning’ does not take place the way s/he may have 预期ed.

as the self-proclaimed mentor to wj, her performance is a reflection of my hand-holding. there’s much to learn cos i am just more experienced by 2 workshops *hahaha* *oops*. there’s quite a number of things to take note, many of which i have previously noted down. after reading wj’s reflection, one key takeaway for me is the key influence of the facilitator’s paradigm. not mine, but that of whoever i am hand-holding. the “struggle” could be a great one, for s/he will need to manage two sets of paradigm shifts — participants, and oneself.

that’s all for now. perhaps “more later” (Wu, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015) (:

150304-macro-reflection_640(acknowledgement: ibangfotografi )