Category Archives: Learning Environments

Learning Environments – Week 10 – Assignment

A little late but here is my response to Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Opressed”


“In order for this struggle to have meaning, the oppressed must not, in seeking to regain their humanity (which is a way to create it), become in turn oppressors of the oppressors, but rather restorers of the humanity of both” p. 28

The idea that the oppressed become the oppressors is a powerful one and evidenced throughout history. It is actually happening now in Brazil with the workers party which when finally got into power, became corrupt themselves and geared all their efforts to stay in power as opposed to attempting to regain the country’s humanity. “Their ideal is to be a man; but for them, to be man is to be oppressor.” 

Yet the problem is deeper and engrained in the educational system which has been lowering standards to enable children to “progress” within the school system without effectively progressing in learning – similar to the “No Child Left Behind” here in the US. Critical thought must be taught to the students, which implies you must teach the educators to do so as well, or else it simply fails. By lowering standards, you perpetuate an oppressed workforce who is incapable of thinking critically and therefore deprived of a chance for instigating change. 

“The pedagogy of the oppressed is an instrument for their critical discovery that both they and their oppressors are manifestations of dehumanization.” 

“Education as a practice of freedom – as opposed to education as the practice of domination.”

Learning Environments – Week 10 – Reading Czar group meeting

Met with Cody and Nikita at Columbae – a living coop – different from a fraternity/sorority – a communal house. Great vegetarian food.

Worked out the mechanics of the activity we’re going to lead tomorrow:


Freire Pitch Night 

We will split the class into 6 groups.

Each group is going to create a Freire School who’s guiding principle is the quote received.

20 minutes to create a 2 minutes long pitch to a panel of investors and parents (the rest of the class)

Deliverables

  1. Name
  2. Logo
  3. Moto / slogan
  4. Brief description of their strategy

Twist:

Halfway through the process we will announce that the investors demand that another theorist is included in their strategy.


Quotes / Theorist

Group 1

”… a pedagogy which must be forged with, not for, the oppressed (whether individuals or peoples) in the incessant struggle to regain their humanity.”

Brown

Group 2

“Education as a practice of freedom – as opposed to education as the practice of domination.”

Skinner

Group 3

“The teacher is no longer merely one-who-teaches, but one who is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach.“

Montessori

Group 4

“Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication.”

Hutchins

Group 5

“Liberating education consist in acts of cognition, not transferals of information”

Lave & Wenger

Group 6

“In order for the oppressed to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation, they must perceive the reality of oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit, but as a limiting situation which the can transform”

Dewey

 

Learning Environments – Week 10 – Reading Czars Meeting 1

Met with our professors Shelley Goldman and Roy Pea (via phone) and the other 2 members of the team: Nikita Michael Bogdanov and Cody Oliver Karutz

Talked a little about Freire’s big ideas and how might we propose an activity that will make people think about it, engage with it and come back with ides for a discussion.

We are going to divide the class into smaller groups and hand each group a main idea from the readings. Each group will have to design a school based on this main idea, giving it a name and creating a 2 minute pitch of their idea. Halfway through the process we announce that each school must have a link to one other reading.

Meeting up tomorrow night again to work out the mechanics and topics that we will present.

 

Learning Environments – Week 10 – Reading Notes

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“Pedagogy of the Oppressed” Paulo Freire 1972

  • Dehumanization of the opressed
    • False generosity – false charity -> true would be to teach them to work and transform the world
      • “And this fight, because of the purpose given it by the oppressed, will actually constitute an act of love opposing the lovelessness which lies at the heart of the oppressor’s’ violence, lovelessness even when clothed in false generosity.” p. 29
    • “The pedagogy of the oppressed is an instrument for their critical discovery that both they and their oppressors are manifestations of dehumanization.” p. 34
    • For opressor, to be is to have
    • Self-depreciation – internalization of opinion oppressors hold of them.
  • Opressed as opressors
    • Rebel not by becoming the oppressor of the oppressors but rather restorers of humanity of both
      • “In order for this struggle to have meaning, the oppressed must not, in seeking to regain their humanity (which is a way to create it), become in turn oppressors of the oppressors, but rather restorers of the humanity of both” p. 28
    • Their ideal is to be oppressors themselves because that is the world view they are fed – identification with the opposite pole – the context does not change – only roles are changed
      • “Their ideal is to be a man; but for them, to be man is to be oppressor.” p. 30
      • “It is a rare peasant who, once ‘promoted’ to overseer, does not become more of a tyrant toward his former comrades than the owner himself.” p. 46
  • Opressed’s change
    • “In order for the oppressed to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation, they must perceive the reality of oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit, but as a limiting situation which the can transform” p. 34
    • Only oppressed can make the change – only them can understand what it means to be oppressed
    • Fear of freedom and how it will affect the whole group – everyone has to be on board.
      • “They prefer gregariousness to authentic comrade­ ship; they prefer the security of conformity with their state of unfreedom to the creative communion produced by freedom and even the very pursuit of freedom.” p. 48
    • Fear of authentic existence – responsibilities, decisions, consequences, accountability
      • “They discover that without freedom they cannot exist authentically. Yet, although they desire authentic exis­ tence, they fear it.” p. 48
    • Oppressed must confront reality critically or it will not lead to transformation of objective reality
      • “To achieve this goal, the oppressed must confront reality critically, simultaneously objectifying and acting upon that reality.” p. 52
    • If goal is for the oppressed to become fully human, can’t simply reverse poles
    • Oppressed have to internalize both their image and the oppressor’s in order to be able create true change.
    • Oppressed aspires to the oppressor’s way of life.
  • Pedagogy must be forged with, not for, the oppressed
    • “This book will present some aspects of what the writer has termed the pedagogy of the oppressed, a pedagogy which must be forged with, not for, the oppressed (whether individuals or peoples) in the incessant struggle to regain their humanity.” p .48
    • “Functionally, oppression is domestication” p. 51
    • Educational Projects vs. Systematic Education – With oppressed vs. For the oppressed
  • How this happens
    • Stages of transition:
      1. Oppressed unveil the world of oppression and commits to transformation.
        • Change how oppressed see the world
      2. Pedagogy becomes for for all men
        • Expulsion of myths
    • Oppressor class must disappear
    • Critical reflection must become action
    • Propaganda is packaged and sold – conviction must be reached by a totality of reflection and action.
    • Co-intentional education – oppressors in committed involvement instead of pseudo-participation
  • Banking concept of education
    • Deposits from the ‘oppressors’, who know it all, into the alienated receptacles
    • Negates them of the process of inquiry
    • Welfare recipients
    • Good students fit into the this skewed version of the world – they adapt.
    • Necrophilic – transforms the students into receiving objects inhibiting their creative power.
  •  Conscientização
    • Interest of oppressors lies in changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation with opresses them (critical thinking would do that)
    • Person is merely in the world, not with the world – not a corpo consciente
    • “Liberating education consist in acts of cognition, not transferals of information”
  • Content relevance to real life – socal learning
    • “Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication.” (Legitimate Peripheral Participation)
    • Teacher-students and student-teachers. “The teacher is no longer merely one-who-teaches, but one who is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach.“
    • Joint responsibility of learning and growing together.
    • “Education as a practice of freedom – as opposed to education as the practice of domination.”

Learning Environments – Week 10 – Mind Map

Got all the post its from our group meeting, typed them up and created some mind maps… grouping is coming along but I’m thinking about applying the learning theories to the environment I was observing previously.

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Watson

No divide between man and brute

Locke

Experience Sense Perception
Blank slate
Association
“Smoothing of paths” – learning
Learning with the World
Embodied cognition
Learn through senses
Experiential learning

Montessori

Student centered teaching
Clock metaphor – wind it instead of moving its arms
Play
Very precise language: long-thick
Self-directed
Don’t force it. Don’t correct it.
Natural curiosity
Stimuli
Make “spontaneous observers”
Guidance needed
Sense training
Experience their senses
Experiential learning
Intrinsic motivation
Mixed age grouping

Dewey

Experiential learning
Thoughts are creative & novel – can’t be communicated
Are you learning the right thing? Correct answer & actually knowing
Extrinsic – Intrinsic
“Is there anything but a problem?”
No grades
Relevance
Materials
Play
Constructivism

Piaget

Social speech – communication
Student self-discovery
Egocentric speech – useless
Children – no real social life
Teacher = guide
Developmental stages
Law of nature – universal
Peer to peer learning
Mixed age students
Elder to younger
Master – apprentice

Basso

Immersive, experiential, embodied
People learn from physical spaces
External vs internal cognition
Knowledge passed from elders
Emotional Intelligence
Wisdom from reflection and hard work
Culture, language, and physical space
Study -> Smooth <- Resilient
Exterior to Interior

Vygotsky

It was Piage himself who demonstrated “logic of action precedes logic of thought”
Egocentric speech IS useful
MKO more knowledgable other
Human and nature
ZPD
Egocentric speech – intellectual tool
Social scaffolding
Motivation to Learn
Intrinsic
Extrinsic

Lave & Wenger

Legitimate peripheral participation (LPP)
Knowledge lives outside of us / amongst us
Newcomers need old-timers.
For COP, LPP to be optimal, newcomers must have access to meaningful tasks
Technology must be invisible but visible
No center, COP alway evolving – knowledge is more complex
Formal vs. informal indoctrination
Old timers must be open to newcomers perspective

Skinner

Behavioral Engineering
Walden Two – “self-control”
Operant Conditioning
Mixed age grouping
Extrinsic to Intrinsic motivation
Relevance
Metacognition
Reinforcement
Rapid feedback
Social
Priming
Metacognition
Developmental readiness
Language
Content relevance
Teacher’s role

Cole & Griffin

Relevance
Language is a technology of mediation
Social, interpersonal
Language gives you the world twice

Hutchins

Literally external cognition
Embodied cognition
Collective intelligence – social education
McDermott & Ralley

Gestures and Intelligence

Ingenuity
Students vs readers – disconnect – good at the wrong thing

Brown

Active constructors
Multple ZPDs
Reciprocal teaching
Community of learners
Cross-age teaching
Comprehension monitoring device
Metacognition
Jigsaw
Group’s learning achievements are greater than individuals
Impoverished artificial learning environments conflicts with natural instincts

Gilmore

Creation
Children are capable linguistically
Spontaneous language creation
Learning is social
Play
Anti-Piaget

Learning Environments – Week 9 – Class Notes

Very fruitful discussion about situated learning and Legitimate Peripheral Participation.

Reading Czar’s activity was to to learn Slovenian. Half the group went outside to learn by speaking. I stayed in the group that was not allowed to talk and had only text to study from.

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Second half of the class we hear from Shuli Gilutz, LDT & PhD from Tel-Aviv University, Israel about her journey.

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Learning Environments – Week 9 – Reading Assignment

Assignment

“Situated Learning” by Jean Lave & Etienne Wenger – dense!

Response

“Viewing learning as legitimate peripheral participation means that learning is not merely a condition for membership, but is itself an evolving form of membership. We conceive of identities as long-term, living relations between persons and their place and participation in communities of practice. Thus identity, knowing, and social membership entail one another.” (Lave & Wenger, Ch. 2)

This conceptual lens of viewing learning as a social practice remits to the concept of collective consciousness (Durkheim, E., 1893) and collective intelligence. It places knowledge in the ether between practitioners and apprentices, within their interactions, and along their life cycle. Learning should not to be viewed as a mechanical process of internalization, but as a social and interactive process within a space and context.

When thinking about education technologies, one might want pay closer attention to social interaction affordances their product might offer. How can a newcomer begin to interact with older members. What are the norms and rules of engagement made available to promote learning as a communal process? How can the learner interact with others in novel ways that will promote legitimate peripheral participation?

Learning Environments – Week 8 – Class Notes

We drew mind maps of all the learning theories we read in class – amazing peek into how other people think and organize their cognition.

Here’s mine followed by Matej’s.

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Reading Czars ruled again today – great group activity – Group pictionary

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