Premise reflections

23
Premise reflections Francis Gilbert – Goldsmiths, PG Cert

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A lecture for Goldsmiths PG Cert students on "Premise Reflection" and emancipatory learning

Transcript of Premise reflections

Page 1: Premise reflections

Premise reflectionsFrancis Gilbert – Goldsmiths, PG Cert

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MODULE 1

LO4 Demonstrate professional values of

commitment to participation in learning communities and to

continuing professional development, including increasing self-awareness

and reflective learning.

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Free Writing

Write for THREE MINUTES without stopping.

No rules EXCEPT you must NOT stop writing.

You can write what you want. Share your thoughts on the process

with the person sitting next to you. How did you find it?

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BENEFITS

“Thinking writing”: we think differently when we write. http://www.thinkingwriting.qmul.ac.uk/

You can get “stuff off your chest”. You can think “out of the box”. “I don’t normally get the chance to write

what I want. I like it.” Can provide good “source” material for

discussion/essays. THIS IS RELEVANT TO ‘PREMISE RELECTION’!

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Vital questions

What is learning? How do we measure it?

What is “reflection”? What role does reflection play in learning?

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Vygotsky

The social cognition learning model asserts that culture is the prime determinant of individual development. Humans are the only species to have created culture, and every human child develops in the context of a culture. Therefore, a child’s learning development is affected in ways large and small by the culture–including the culture of family environment–in which he or she is enmeshed.

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Implications

Learning can’t be separated off from culture.

Therefore cultural assumptions and norms that frame learning have to be examined and interrogated as much as “what is being learnt”.

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Three models

When discussing the ‘scholarship of teaching model’ Kreber (2004, p. 31) highlights three main areas of knowledge that are relevant to the teacher:

Instructional = delivery modes, eg PowerPoint, worksheets

Pedagogical = devising effective learning

Curricular = aims and purposes of curriculum

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The instructional mode can DOMINATE, eg you’re given a text book, a lecture, a worksheet, and you “dish it out” to the students -- particularly if you’re not confident, in a rush, keen to impress your superior

The tutor becomes a “tool” for a higher authority – ie whoever devised the instructional materials…

You’ve at least got some material to teach! You won’t ‘run out’! You have the security blanket of a worksheet, a PowerPoint; you have a path, a road, a map…

You’re “on message” – doing what you’ve been asked to do. You may well “please” your managers etc.

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Emancipatory learning

Kreber goes on to outline another model of teacher-reflection which involves considering “emancipatory” learning. He writes:

“important aspects of learning do not occur on the basis of subjective understanding and consensus within a given social context but involve a critical analysis of how certain norms and conditions have come about. This is the nature of emancipatory learning.” (p. 32)

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Premise reflections for you…

FREE WRITING EXERCISE Why is it important to study your

subject? Why is your subject being studied at

degree level and other levels? Who sets the agenda in your subject

and why? What core values underwrite your

pedagogical approach when teaching your subject? (Teacher = authority, student = novice)

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MOre questions

Why exactly were we studying this text/material? What gave it its canonical status? What shared assumptions had caused it to be perceived as so important? These are the sorts of questions that Snapper (2009) feels need to be asked more on English Literature courses.

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More questions

Why are you teaching the texts/material you are? Have you chosen them? If yes, why? If not, why not?

What norms and underlying assumptions are suggested by their place on the curriculum?

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Report back

How did you find the exercise? Share with a partner. Report back: Write/think, pair, share…

You are beginning to do what Kreber calls “premise reflection”.

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Transformative learning

Kreber puts forward the argument that in order for learning to be transformative, the teacher needs not to reflect upon their practice after the event, but to reflect upon why they are teaching a subject before they teach it.

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“It seems that when we critically question whether it is important to learn about PowerPoint, or to incorporate (planned) humour in the classroom, we need to engage in premise reflection. Learning about teaching, then, may sometimes need to begin with premise reflection in order to be meaningful. Interestingly, premise reflection, however, was the least often identified form of reflection in the first study. Indeed, we may be successful self-regulators in our learning about teaching, but all we ever do when setting our learning goals is to engage in content reflection. This is to say, that we proceed from assumptions we take for granted about what constitutes important learning. (p. 42)”

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Reflection and CPD

Interestingly, ‘premise reflection’ does not feature as a model for reflective learning at all in Clegg et al when they investigated the link between Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and Reflective Practice (2002). They used a model outlined in Figure 1, which examined Immediate and Deferred Reflection and Action; an important issue that they highlighted was that it can be difficult to unpick what is reflection and action in the CPD context, because the two are inextricably linked.

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CPD practice

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CPD

“What is clear from our study is that the ways in which individuals engage with professional development involve a complex negotiation of the relationship between reflective and active components. If we are to better understand this relationship, then we need to take full account of the contexts within which such engagement takes place. At a structural level, issues that drive policy development, such as notions of professional competence, and the need to develop new skills and technologies, influence the relationship between reflection and action (p. 145)”

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Pedagogy of the oppressed

Implicit pedagogical models in many universities/depts are very much a “top-down” paradigm, which Friere characterises as viewing learning as a form of “banking” (1992). There was a clear hierarchy of power involved; the lecturer was the expert, the most important mediator of knowledge, and the students were supposed to “bank” his knowledge in their notebooks and minds before attending a seminar which would re-inforce the fundamental lessons of the lecture. The seminar was supposed to involve a more “active” approach to the material, but without careful planning could easily turn into a replication of the “banking” model instituted by the lecture.

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Student researchers

The English department at the University of Gloucester encourage their students to be involved in the international research community. One of their activities is cited in Linking Teaching and Research (2007):

Arran Stibbe allows his students to take on the identity of a researcher right from the start of their time at university. He encourages his students to think of themselves as contributors to the research community, actively exploring the texts which surround them and sharing insights with the community. (p. 48)

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Bibliography Bibliography Bibliography

Sue Clegg, Jon Tan & Saeideh Saeidi (2002): Reflecting or Acting?Reflective Practice and Continuing Professional Development in Higher Education, Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 3:1, 131-146 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623940220129924

Friere, P (1992) The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Penguin. Jenkins A, Healey M, Zetter R (2007), Linking Teaching and

Research (April 2007), Linking teaching and research in disciplines and departments. http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/LinkingTeachingAndResearch_April07.pdf 

Kreber C (2004) ’An Analysis of Two Models Of Reflection And Their Implications For educational Development.’ International Journal for Academic Development 9 (1): 29-49

 Vygotsky, L, (1962) Thought and Language. (MIT Press)

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Plenary -- Reflection

What have you learnt from this session?