StFX presentation on Storming the Citadel
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
1 like•566 views
This is a truncated version of a presentation I gave to my M.Ad.Ed. class at StFX. After reading Stephen D. Brookfield's Storming the Citadel chapter in Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, I saw the light: studying educational theory is crucial to becoming a good teacher.
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Viewers also liked
Similar to StFX presentation on Storming the Citadel
Similar to StFX presentation on Storming the Citadel (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
StFX presentation on Storming the Citadel
- 1. Once upon a time…
- 4. “Critical teachers must be seen to be critical learners too.” - Stephen Brookfield
- 5. Stephen Brookfield, Chapter 9, Storming the Citadel, in Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher In this chapter: • Five reasons why teachers need to read theory (or How Reading Theory Helps Critical Reflection) • Four ways to evaluate it
- 6. Five reasons you need to read theory? 1. Helps us label our challenges or affirm our insights 2. Helps us think outside of the box 3. Can be as sounding board (contrasting perspectives) 4. Can preempt “groupthink” 5. Helps us see the big picture
- 8. Evaluate theory around four categories of questions 1. Epistemological questions—how author found his or her “truth” 2. Experiential questions—recognize risk of distortion in depictions based on author’s experiences 3. Communicative questions—check form, presentation, and style for political influence 4. Political questions—examine whose interests may be served by the article
- 9. Get it?
- 10. HOW NICE FOR YOU…
- 11. Stephen Brookfield understands my pain!
- 13. EPISTEMOLOGICAL
- 15. PEDAGOGIC
- 17. POLEMICAL
- 19. AXIOMATIC!
- 20. LIMITATIONS • SEVEN fancy words that make digesting the article difficult for new researchers • SIXTEEN pages to explain just four categories of questions for evaluating theory is too much for any new researcher to apply in practice
- 21. CONTRIBUTION TO MY LEARNING Helps me with my weaknesses: 1. Builds on my academic jargon knowledge 2. Reinforces my understanding that I need to study theory to become a better teacher 3. Provided me with a theorist that may provide some insight related to my interest area (the benefits of critical thinking)
- 22. “If we as teachers hope to encourage critical thinking in others, we must engage in it ourselves. Throughout our teaching careers we must participate in an ongoing, collaborative process of reevaluation of, and liberation from, our taken-for-granted views.” - Berlak, A. and Berlak, H. from Teachers Working with Teachers to Transform Schools
Editor's Notes
- A real task-oriented guy who loved to teach but hated reading theory because it was often so hard for him to get his head around…so he spurned educational literature in favour of learning by doing and through conversations with colleagues.Just tell me what to do, he would say.
- Just tell me how to get from A to Z. The WHY was usually obvious to him once the ACTION was explainedWhat the heck did Frank need theory for when he learned so much every teaching day anyway?
- BUT then this guy Stephen David Brookfield came along and turned Frank’s thoughts on educational theory upsidedown. Brookfield says that in order for us to be good teachers we have to be theorists as well as practitioners. Because in order to truly understand the work that we do, to work out problems and find solutions, we need to study theory. We need to read educational literature.
- Brookfield successfully argues…And to help us decide if we’re reading quality theory, he gives us four ways to approach evaluating it.
- Now you know why it’s important to study theory and to read formal educational literature
- Brookfield
- Epistemological—To what extent are the central insights of a piece of literature grounded in documented evidence?Experiential—What experiential omissions are there in a piece of literature that, to you, seem important?Communicative—How do metaphors and analogies reflect the writer’s ideology?Political Questions—Whose interests are served by a piece of literature?
- That’s because I made brookfield easy. but in actual fact, he took 16 pages to explain the four categories of questions to ask, which would mean that adopting this system would be a huge challenge for any novice researcherHaving said this, I have to say I was impressed with the fluidity of Brookfield’s prose and at his empathy towards the reader who feels that learners learn better by doing than through reading theory.
- So I was grateful for that and particularly his empathy for the novice theorist.Nonetheless, this chapter was still a tough goYou might have felt a little of my pain this past weekend as you translated your own presentation articles as this young man did
- I had to translate no less than seven words before I could begin processing the meaning of this article
- And frank was overwhelmed…
- Why not say “peculiar” instead of “idiosyncratic”?Why not say “academic” instead of “pedagogic”?Why not say “self-evident” instead of “axiomatic”?Why not say “conglomerate,” “agglomeration” or even “assemblage” instead of “aggregate”?Sorry: it’s the journalist in me. Why use 30 words when you can use 10? Why use six syllables when you can use three?
- So, before I leave you, let’s have a quick word from our sponsor:
- According to Ann and Harold Berlak, in their book Teachers Working with Teachers to Transform Schools … as quoted by …