Ritchhart, et al. MTV Chapter 2
“It is easy to think of the job of teaching as delivering the prescribed curriculum to students.” I chose this sentence because that is what comes first to the minds of most. In all honesty, prior to commencing my journey to become a more effective communicator and educator of environmental concerns, I too viewed teaching as something simple that took little effort. My eyes have been opened, but we have a long way to go when it comes to opening the eyes of those that have not had a chance to dip their toes in the pool of knowledge. “Thus, we create a distorted view of teaching that is self-reinforcing and divorced from what we know about supporting effective learning.” I chose this sentence because our current educational system places so much emphasis on the importance of standardized testing, which as the author states, focuses on the degree of absorption by the student, that it has lost sight of what really matters in education, knowledge and the ability to apply it. “We need to make thinking visible because it provides us with the information we as teachers need to plan opportunities that will take students’ learning to the next level and enable continued engagement with the ideas being explored.” I chose this sentence because it reminded me of a talk I watched by Sir Ken Robinson and a blog I read that spoke about curiosity. When we make thinking visible we are igniting curiosity which is what enables continued engagement with ideas that are being explored and can go even further to notions that have yet to be explored. “Absorption of material”. I chose this phrase because the notion of a child being like a sponge is usually mentioned in a positive tone. In reality, simply absorbing content like a sponge leaves little to be admired. Maybe this analogy should be changed to “children are like sea sponges” as a way of describing how we should want our children to learn. Sea sponges do not just merely absorb water. They process it. They utilize its content to provide themselves with sustenance. They improve their surroundings and the life of those that exist around them. This is what we should wish for our children to do as they learn. “Learner at the center”. I chose this phrase because so often focus is placed on teachers and their abilities to teach that students become left behind. When looking at the way our government and educational institutions plan for schooling, it is often heard that teachers are being pressured to ensure that scores are high and schools earn high testing grades. Sure, they want the learners to earn these high scores, but they are not vested in how those scores are produced.“Casting the learner in a passive role”. I chose this phrase because ensuring that our learners are broken from this passive role and placing them in more active ones will provide them with a sense of control and contribution to what they are learning. Providing this sense of empowerment will allow their learning process to flourish. “Struggle, agonize, dangerous, distorted”. I chose these words because they best describe the current situation in which education finds itself. Teachers and students alike are struggling to perform as they are made believed is necessary to do so. Going to school and sitting through a class at times becomes agonizing for our students as they are having information thrown at them, but they are not being allowed to process it and expand on it. This path of always being first and working alone that is being taught is a largely dangerous one for the future of our students and society since it distorts how the habits of minds we should be striving to cultivate. Managing impulsivity allowed me to better understand this reading by reminding me that in order to fulfill the ideas put forth by this chapter such as those of placing the learner at the center, listening, etc. require a sense of deliberateness. If we do not visualize our learning process prior to attempting it, we may miss some critical faults in our strategy that may lessen the positive outcomes we are striving for.
Is it possible to ask authentic questions in an age where information is so easily accessible and subconsciously thrown at us?
How can we ensure, as teachers, to actively practice, listening for answers and prevent students from playing “guess what is in the teacher’s head”? (Reggio Emilia pedagogy of listening, showing respect and interest)