Among the students you know, think of a student who often forgets what you taught and struggles academically. What are the possible social and personal issues related to the struggles? What kind of help can you give as an educator? One of my former students from an adult ESL class comes to mind. This student’s English was slightly higher than the majority of her classmates, but she wasn’t improving, wasn’t doing the homework, wouldn’t participate in class, and spent the majority of her time on the phone. As we were the same age, I wondered if she simply didn’t take me seriously. I began moving her to sit with new students, directing her to put her phone away, and calling her out when she was off-topic. This did nothing to help. I thought that she might be bored in class, so I began creating more challenging activities and homework to target her skill level. I prepared homework just for her, using articles and materials that I thought she would find more interesting and engaging than the textbook. She completed the more challenging homework, but was still resigned in class. One day I gave an assignment that would require the students to give an informal mini-presentation to the class on any historical event that they chose. She outright refused to participate; she did not begin doing any research and told me explicitly that she would not complete it. I sat down with her and we began talking about the purpose of the task and how she had the English skills to set a great example for other students. Through talking with her, I realized that her confidence in English was extremely low. Although to me her skills were higher than many of her peers, she did not view it that way. While living in the U.S., she had encountered many situations with Americans where she was unable to understand or contribute to the conversation. She had become so discouraged that her feelings of inadequacy had permeated into the classroom. I tried to raise her confidence, but also empathized with how frustrating it must be to not fully express yourself and fear being perceived as “stupid” simply because you don’t have the English words to clearly articulate yourself. I acknowledged this frustration and began offering affirmation during our interactions that I understood her and viewed her as intelligent and capable. She began to participate more in class and was able to befriend many of her peers, making her even more comfortable. As an educator it is important not to assume that a student is feeling or thinking a particular way, but to engage in conversation and begin to understand the personal and social influences on that student’s beliefs and behaviors.
In your educational practice, do you tend to use the reductionist approach or a more holistic approach to improve your practice? How could you overcome the limitations in each approach?
In my educational practice, I tend to use a more reductionist approach. I am not sure if this is because I have been raised with this type of thinking or if my learning style leans more towards this approach. I am thinking that the former is probably more accurate. I find that when I reduce a theory or a method not so much to its components to a generalization, I think that you can use whatever approach allows you to understand the concept to its fullest extent. In the classroom, I think that using a holistic approach is more logical. The classroom is such a natural environment that it is almost impossible to compartmentalize and segment all of the contributing factors. A student may come to the class with emotional baggage, which can then effect their classmates, their own attitude that day, and even your own attitude. The classroom is such a tight web of influences, that sometimes I feel that I am forced to look at the whole picture in order to understand it's parts. Personally, I don't believe that either approach is more desirable that the other. I would like to gain more skills in viewing my own education more holistically but for now am content with my own study practices.
If an educator is to acquire takumi as a traditional carpenter does, what would the process look like? And if you want a student to acquire takumi in the subject area you teach, what would the process look like?
I believe that both processes – of a teacher and a student acquiring takumi - are very similar. In my opinion, I would even say that the process of acquiring takumi, is likely to be similar regardless of the area it encompasses: observation, hypothesizing, testing (hands-on) and experimenting, discussing the outcomes with counterparts and/or superiors, giving and getting feedback, reflection and interaction, and practice. It is as if it were a fragmented process at the beginning, with ‘steps to follow’ until the desired objective is achieved, but with time and practice these become routinized procedures that eventually lead to fluency and automaticity.
I also believe that elements such as aptitude, motivation, interest and other psychological factors, may play important roles even though they are often hard to perceive and to measure. Someone that has great aptitude for learning a certain task may need less repetition, or less intensity, or less exposure to the stages mentioned above to acquire his/her takumi in this specific area.
Referring to the carpenter example, I can imagine him having gone through an apprentiship with his master, who will have taught and passed on the secrets of the trade to him. The master probably did not teach him how to hold a hammer – the apprentice watched and learned by observing. His involvement with wood and all the tools necessary for its manipulation were absorbed by him and became his takumi. It is a most pertinent example, because wood and the crafts surrounding it are known to be especially involving – so much so that many people have carpentry as a hobby. But the important element to perceive here is that there is an apprentice and a master (analogous to a student and a teacher). Much of the carpenters’ way of being and of handling his material is his takumi– the same thing can be said for the teacher in a class setting, and by extension, his student.
When I think of Japanese carpenters or carpenters in general this is a job where it is very technical, and need lots of practical knowledge. Takumi relates really well to this occupation, and I can see the skills involved in it. This takumi must have been acquired through learning, training, and practice. As an ESL teacher I believe that to get to where I am with the inspiration, and skills it was quite a process. Since I lived in Japan the opportunity to teach English kind of came naturally. However, being able to speak English and teaching English is a different thing. I learned early on that I wanted to teach ESL, but I need some training in it. This is where my inspiration and skills came together.
For students there must be omoi and takumi together. We talked about intrinsic motivation and I believe that this is the most important thing. The skills can be acquired through practice, but if the student does not have the motivation he will not learn. This comes back to how does a student acquire motivation? There may be lots of ways, and for me to catch the student`s attention through fun engaging classroom is very important.
Study Question: Among the students you know, think of a student who often forgets what you taught and struggles academically. What are the possible social and personal issues related to the struggles? What kind of help can you give as an educator?
When I read this question one student that I had last year came to mind. This was a young girl about 16 years old, in a 10th grade geometry class. On a daily basis I would have to show her how to plot a point on a graph. That is if she would even show up to school, and then if she did, if she would even show up to my class. I became extremely frustrated with her as a student. I couldn’t understand if she was having so much trouble in class, why was she not showing up to improve. I learned that this girl was having a lot trouble at home and with the law. That she was battling a lot of personal things outside of school that hindered her to truly learn inside the classroom. After I learned of her struggles, I became more understanding and patient with her. I figured out different ways of explaining it to her and my relationship with her grew. I needed her to know that I was not only her teacher, but someone she could depend on as well. Amanda, started to show up to school more often and she came in more relaxed. She was no longer scared to be in the classroom, because she knew that I was there for her in whichever way she needed. She didn’t show up regularly while I was there, but her efforts did improve. To me that was all that mattered.
Q: Could education become an area of human engineering based on the assumption of learning as information processing? What would you like "learning research" to look like as an educator?
R: So this question is a bit unfair, since I have already had an Action Research class, but coming from an engineering background this is till an interesting question. I think there is a place for parts of "human engineering" in education research. In fact, I think it is unavoidable -- when gathering data on a large scale to measure the effectiveness of an education system, for example (I think I wrote on this last week). When we take a broad look (and when the numbers get large enough to make the statistics work), we can see affects in a human system. This includes an educational system. (And when politicians and taxpayers are spending billions on education, they want to know the money is being well spent!).
More to this week's question is the diagram on pg. 45 (just after this Study Question). It shows feedback. In engineering terms, this can be seen as a feedback control system. I don't claim that this type of system is any better at modeling human behavior than any other, but there are some engineering terms that are part of control theory that are interesting in this context. First, observability. The system has things going on "under the hood" (in the diagram, just imagine what that is in the "Thinking" stage!). Observability of a system says that some or all of that parts under the hood are observable -- we can tell what they are -- from the outputs. The other is controllability. This says that some or all of the parts can be controlled (e.g., changed to a desired state). For human systems, I believe there are some useful things that are observable, but I also believe that there are some things that are not controllable.
So what does this mean for my view on education research? I think "big data" can generate statistics for somethings that are meaningful measures of how the education system works, and I think there are some things we can do at a high level to improve the education system. But I also think there is a pitfall in thinking that everything is controllable (in a control theory sense). I believe parts are not controllable, and attempts to change some things through policy will likely fail in frustration. Education research should have a "fine stoke" element to complement the "broad brush" ("big data") research. This should focus on where big data fails -- either because the numbers are too small, because we feel an element is not controllable (motivation?), or because it is too complicated to be modeled. This last point is important. People are complicated, and social interactions between complicated people compound the problem of modeling behavior or distilling causal factors or whatever...it's just too complicated. "Fine stroke" education research, IMO, should include a personal touch -- recognition that we are teaching people, not subject matter -- and that it is OK for this to be interpersonal (and outside what we would call traditional science) since classroom teaching is interpersonal.
Study Question: If an educator is to acquire takumi as traditional carpenter does, what would the process look like? And if you want your student to acquire takumi in the subject area that you teach, what would the process look like If an educator is to acquire takumi in the same way a traditional carpenter does, it is necessary that the educator have a mentor educator/teacher. The educator-in-training will need to observe the mentor teacher in the classroom to learn and understand how they teach. It is important for the educator-in-training to ask a variety of questions and observe the mentor teacher in a variety of situations. It would also be helpful for the educator-in-training to be observed by their mentor. By doing so the mentor can provide the educator-in-training with critical feedback and suggestions about their teaching. This can be a relationship in which both parties are able to grow from each other and further develop their takumi. If an educator wants a student to acquire takumi in the subject area that they teach, it would be necessary for the educator to immerse the student in the subject area. Giving the student optimal exposure and hands on experience where the student can do and learn at the same time.
Study Question: If an educator is to acquire takumi as a traditional carpenter does, what would the process look like? And if you want your student to acquire takumi in the subject area you teach, what would the process look like?
The path to takumi would be full of bumpiness and uncertainty. It’s like climbing a mountain. Takumi is on the top of the mountain. Whatever you see in the middle of the path is part of the truth. Your view is limited by where you stand. Only when you reach the top of the mountain, you can brace the whole view. The mountain road will diverge somewhere. You may take a wrong turn, keep still for a rest, or even the road is blocked that you have to go backward. In teaching’s perspective, you should be brave enough to take the adventure of teaching. And keep observing your Shifu/Mentor, as a traditional carpenter learns from his/hers, be ready to take risks and make errors, then reflect on these errors and change another way of practising. I think all the process to acquire takumi is the same, no matter which subject area the student is in. So in summary, keep learning and keep practicing is the way to takumi.
Study Question: Among the students you know, think of a student who often forgets what you taught and struggles academically. What are the possible social and personal issues related to the struggles? What kind of help can you give as an educator?
Last year I worked for a tutoring organization that was in partnership with Sweetwater Union High School District. That year I was assigned to a couple of 8th grade students at different locations, and in that group I was having a hard time with one student. Every session she was 15-30 minutes late or she would cancel a session right when we were supposed to meet. On top of that, every time we meet she wouldn't remember what we went over. Over time I was really getting frustrated not only with her but I was wondering if I was doing anything wrong. I wasn't getting feedback from her if I just wasn't explaining well or if it was something else. Eventually, I don't decided to talk to her mother about it. This led to me finding out that her mother worked late and my student had a hard time keeping track of variables in math problems. We ended up changing where we met, which was her house, and I ended up using colors for different variables. As a result she remembered more information and her math grade went up.
Among the students you know, think of a student who often forgets what you taught and struggles academically. What are the possible social and personal issues related to the struggles? What kind of help can you give as an educator?
ReplyDeleteOne of my former students from an adult ESL class comes to mind. This student’s English was slightly higher than the majority of her classmates, but she wasn’t improving, wasn’t doing the homework, wouldn’t participate in class, and spent the majority of her time on the phone. As we were the same age, I wondered if she simply didn’t take me seriously. I began moving her to sit with new students, directing her to put her phone away, and calling her out when she was off-topic. This did nothing to help. I thought that she might be bored in class, so I began creating more challenging activities and homework to target her skill level. I prepared homework just for her, using articles and materials that I thought she would find more interesting and engaging than the textbook. She completed the more challenging homework, but was still resigned in class. One day I gave an assignment that would require the students to give an informal mini-presentation to the class on any historical event that they chose. She outright refused to participate; she did not begin doing any research and told me explicitly that she would not complete it. I sat down with her and we began talking about the purpose of the task and how she had the English skills to set a great example for other students. Through talking with her, I realized that her confidence in English was extremely low. Although to me her skills were higher than many of her peers, she did not view it that way. While living in the U.S., she had encountered many situations with Americans where she was unable to understand or contribute to the conversation. She had become so discouraged that her feelings of inadequacy had permeated into the classroom. I tried to raise her confidence, but also empathized with how frustrating it must be to not fully express yourself and fear being perceived as “stupid” simply because you don’t have the English words to clearly articulate yourself. I acknowledged this frustration and began offering affirmation during our interactions that I understood her and viewed her as intelligent and capable. She began to participate more in class and was able to befriend many of her peers, making her even more comfortable. As an educator it is important not to assume that a student is feeling or thinking a particular way, but to engage in conversation and begin to understand the personal and social influences on that student’s beliefs and behaviors.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIn your educational practice, do you tend to use the reductionist approach or a more holistic approach to improve your practice? How could you overcome the limitations in each approach?
ReplyDeleteIn my educational practice, I tend to use a more reductionist approach. I am not sure if this is because I have been raised with this type of thinking or if my learning style leans more towards this approach. I am thinking that the former is probably more accurate. I find that when I reduce a theory or a method not so much to its components to a generalization, I think that you can use whatever approach allows you to understand the concept to its fullest extent. In the classroom, I think that using a holistic approach is more logical. The classroom is such a natural environment that it is almost impossible to compartmentalize and segment all of the contributing factors. A student may come to the class with emotional baggage, which can then effect their classmates, their own attitude that day, and even your own attitude. The classroom is such a tight web of influences, that sometimes I feel that I am forced to look at the whole picture in order to understand it's parts. Personally, I don't believe that either approach is more desirable that the other. I would like to gain more skills in viewing my own education more holistically but for now am content with my own study practices.
If an educator is to acquire takumi as a traditional carpenter does, what would the process look like? And if you want a student to acquire takumi in the subject area you teach, what would the process look like?
ReplyDeleteI believe that both processes – of a teacher and a student acquiring takumi - are very similar. In my opinion, I would even say that the process of acquiring takumi, is likely to be similar regardless of the area it encompasses: observation, hypothesizing, testing (hands-on) and experimenting, discussing the outcomes with counterparts and/or superiors, giving and getting feedback, reflection and interaction, and practice. It is as if it were a fragmented process at the beginning, with ‘steps to follow’ until the desired objective is achieved, but with time and practice these become routinized procedures that eventually lead to fluency and automaticity.
I also believe that elements such as aptitude, motivation, interest and other psychological factors, may play important roles even though they are often hard to perceive and to measure. Someone that has great aptitude for learning a certain task may need less repetition, or less intensity, or less exposure to the stages mentioned above to acquire his/her takumi in this specific area.
Referring to the carpenter example, I can imagine him having gone through an apprentiship with his master, who will have taught and passed on the secrets of the trade to him. The master probably did not teach him how to hold a hammer – the apprentice watched and learned by observing. His involvement with wood and all the tools necessary for its manipulation were absorbed by him and became his takumi. It is a most pertinent example, because wood and the crafts surrounding it are known to be especially involving – so much so that many people have carpentry as a hobby. But the important element to perceive here is that there is an apprentice and a master (analogous to a student and a teacher). Much of the carpenters’ way of being and of handling his material is his takumi– the same thing can be said for the teacher in a class setting, and by extension, his student.
apprenticeship - sorry for the typo in my previous answer.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of Japanese carpenters or carpenters in general this is a job where it is very technical, and need lots of practical knowledge. Takumi relates really well to this occupation, and I can see the skills involved in it. This takumi must have been acquired through learning, training, and practice. As an ESL teacher I believe that to get to where I am with the inspiration, and skills it was quite a process. Since I lived in Japan the opportunity to teach English kind of came naturally. However, being able to speak English and teaching English is a different thing. I learned early on that I wanted to teach ESL, but I need some training in it. This is where my inspiration and skills came together.
ReplyDeleteFor students there must be omoi and takumi together. We talked about intrinsic motivation and I believe that this is the most important thing. The skills can be acquired through practice, but if the student does not have the motivation he will not learn. This comes back to how does a student acquire motivation? There may be lots of ways, and for me to catch the student`s attention through fun engaging classroom is very important.
Study Question: Among the students you know, think of a student who often forgets what you taught and struggles academically. What are the possible social and personal issues related to the struggles? What kind of help can you give as an educator?
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this question one student that I had last year came to mind. This was a young girl about 16 years old, in a 10th grade geometry class. On a daily basis I would have to show her how to plot a point on a graph. That is if she would even show up to school, and then if she did, if she would even show up to my class. I became extremely frustrated with her as a student. I couldn’t understand if she was having so much trouble in class, why was she not showing up to improve. I learned that this girl was having a lot trouble at home and with the law. That she was battling a lot of personal things outside of school that hindered her to truly learn inside the classroom. After I learned of her struggles, I became more understanding and patient with her. I figured out different ways of explaining it to her and my relationship with her grew. I needed her to know that I was not only her teacher, but someone she could depend on as well. Amanda, started to show up to school more often and she came in more relaxed. She was no longer scared to be in the classroom, because she knew that I was there for her in whichever way she needed. She didn’t show up regularly while I was there, but her efforts did improve. To me that was all that mattered.
Q: Could education become an area of human engineering based on the assumption of learning as information processing? What would you like "learning research" to look like as an educator?
ReplyDeleteR: So this question is a bit unfair, since I have already had an Action Research class, but coming from an engineering background this is till an interesting question. I think there is a place for parts of "human engineering" in education research. In fact, I think it is unavoidable -- when gathering data on a large scale to measure the effectiveness of an education system, for example (I think I wrote on this last week). When we take a broad look (and when the numbers get large enough to make the statistics work), we can see affects in a human system. This includes an educational system. (And when politicians and taxpayers are spending billions on education, they want to know the money is being well spent!).
More to this week's question is the diagram on pg. 45 (just after this Study Question). It shows feedback. In engineering terms, this can be seen as a feedback control system. I don't claim that this type of system is any better at modeling human behavior than any other, but there are some engineering terms that are part of control theory that are interesting in this context. First, observability. The system has things going on "under the hood" (in the diagram, just imagine what that is in the "Thinking" stage!). Observability of a system says that some or all of that parts under the hood are observable -- we can tell what they are -- from the outputs. The other is controllability. This says that some or all of the parts can be controlled (e.g., changed to a desired state). For human systems, I believe there are some useful things that are observable, but I also believe that there are some things that are not controllable.
So what does this mean for my view on education research? I think "big data" can generate statistics for somethings that are meaningful measures of how the education system works, and I think there are some things we can do at a high level to improve the education system. But I also think there is a pitfall in thinking that everything is controllable (in a control theory sense). I believe parts are not controllable, and attempts to change some things through policy will likely fail in frustration. Education research should have a "fine stoke" element to complement the "broad brush" ("big data") research. This should focus on where big data fails -- either because the numbers are too small, because we feel an element is not controllable (motivation?), or because it is too complicated to be modeled. This last point is important. People are complicated, and social interactions between complicated people compound the problem of modeling behavior or distilling causal factors or whatever...it's just too complicated. "Fine stroke" education research, IMO, should include a personal touch -- recognition that we are teaching people, not subject matter -- and that it is OK for this to be interpersonal (and outside what we would call traditional science) since classroom teaching is interpersonal.
Study Question: If an educator is to acquire takumi as traditional carpenter does, what would the process look like? And if you want your student to acquire takumi in the subject area that you teach, what would the process look like
ReplyDeleteIf an educator is to acquire takumi in the same way a traditional carpenter does, it is necessary that the educator have a mentor educator/teacher. The educator-in-training will need to observe the mentor teacher in the classroom to learn and understand how they teach. It is important for the educator-in-training to ask a variety of questions and observe the mentor teacher in a variety of situations. It would also be helpful for the educator-in-training to be observed by their mentor. By doing so the mentor can provide the educator-in-training with critical feedback and suggestions about their teaching. This can be a relationship in which both parties are able to grow from each other and further develop their takumi. If an educator wants a student to acquire takumi in the subject area that they teach, it would be necessary for the educator to immerse the student in the subject area. Giving the student optimal exposure and hands on experience where the student can do and learn at the same time.
Study Question: If an educator is to acquire takumi as a traditional carpenter does, what would the process look like? And if you want your student to acquire takumi in the subject area you teach, what would the process look like?
ReplyDeleteThe path to takumi would be full of bumpiness and uncertainty. It’s like climbing a mountain. Takumi is on the top of the mountain. Whatever you see in the middle of the path is part of the truth. Your view is limited by where you stand. Only when you reach the top of the mountain, you can brace the whole view. The mountain road will diverge somewhere. You may take a wrong turn, keep still for a rest, or even the road is blocked that you have to go backward. In teaching’s perspective, you should be brave enough to take the adventure of teaching. And keep observing your Shifu/Mentor, as a traditional carpenter learns from his/hers, be ready to take risks and make errors, then reflect on these errors and change another way of practising. I think all the process to acquire takumi is the same, no matter which subject area the student is in. So in summary, keep learning and keep practicing is the way to takumi.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteStudy Question: Among the students you know, think of a student who often forgets what you taught and struggles academically. What are the possible social and personal issues related to the struggles? What kind of help can you give as an educator?
ReplyDeleteLast year I worked for a tutoring organization that was in partnership with Sweetwater Union High School District. That year I was assigned to a couple of 8th grade students at different locations, and in that group I was having a hard time with one student. Every session she was 15-30 minutes late or she would cancel a session right when we were supposed to meet. On top of that, every time we meet she wouldn't remember what we went over. Over time I was really getting frustrated not only with her but I was wondering if I was doing anything wrong. I wasn't getting feedback from her if I just wasn't explaining well or if it was something else. Eventually, I don't decided to talk to her mother about it. This led to me finding out that her mother worked late and my student had a hard time keeping track of variables in math problems. We ended up changing where we met, which was her house, and I ended up using colors for different variables. As a result she remembered more information and her math grade went up.