2013.1.27 group presentation

Group Presentation: Learners and Learning
HOLLY FRASER, QUINCY KAMEDA AND XIAO YAN

MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2013

Learners and Learning

SUPPLEMENTAL READING SUMMARY FOR WEEK 3

SUPPLEMENTAL READING NO. 1
JOHN DEWEY‟S CONCEPT OF THE STUDENT, DOUGLAS J. SIMPSON

THE ALCHEMY OF THE MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM: INSCRIPTIONS AND THE FABRICATION OF THE
CHILD, THOMAS POPKEWITZ

CONSTRUCTIVIST PEDAGOGY, VIRGINIA RICHARDSON

THE HUNT FOR DISABILITY: THE NEW EUGENICS AND THE NORMALIZATION OF SCHOOL
CHILDREN, BERNADETTE BAKER

JOHN DEWEY‟S CONCEPT OF THE STUDENT
AUTHOR: DOUGLAS J. SIMPSON

KEY CONCEPTS FOR SUPPLEMENTAL READING NO. 1:

 Simpson examines Dewey‟s concept of the student through
Dewey‟s poetry and prose to demonstrate clarification of
philosophical anthropology (pp. 184-191) and pedagogical theory
(pp. 191-197) found in Dewey‟s poetry
 Dewey believed the major responsibility for education fell on
adults, teachers and others, and considered adults responsible for
creating learning conditions to promote educative experiences for
children, while encouraging teachers to ensure learners understand
their limitations and potentialities through critiques and feedback (p.
183)
 Dewey did place emphasis on the learner‟s initiative and
involvement, while expecting the student to adapt to curriculum just as
the educator should adapt material to the student (pp. 183-184)
 Dewey did not want his poetry published, yet his poetry
echoes, expands and clarifies his thinking on many subjects around


 Philosophical anthropology
 Dewey is frequently considered a child-centered educator, but
explicitly denied this label, stating he was best described as a
community-centered educator as he viewed learning as a “social
activity” and not an “individual activity” (p. 185)
 Community should be understood to include children, youth and adults
(p. 185)


 Philosophical anthropology: The Student‟s Nature
 Dewey believed when educators guide a student‟s growth, the student‟s
natural tendencies lead to educative experiences and a better functioning
society; 4 major instincts (impulses) educators use to educate (p. 185):
 Communicative: Manifests through saying and communicating
 Constructive: Manifests through making, playing, shaping
 Investigative: Manifests through finding out, inquiring
 Artistic: Manifests through creating, fashioning
 The “individual mind” as a function of social life; it is not capable of
operating or developing by itself, but requires constant stimulus (p. 185)
 The student is a feeling, purposive, intellectual being who needs to be
approached as a whole person, as a process (p. 185)
 Moving from impulses to desires is a “complex intellectual operation” and
educators should not suppress children‟s impulses as it can force schools to
be dull, disrupt learning and create behavioral problems (p. 185)


 Philosophical anthropology: The Student‟s Soul
 The soul or spirit as a social creation: The “self” was a social construct or
imaginative idea and it is crucial to unify self through what it
does, suffers and achieves—the self is always directed toward
something beyond itself, such as the “soul” (p.188)
 An active body created the self and you become himself or herself
(oneself) through living and making decisions; it is critical for
educational environments to guide the movement and involvement of
the child—they will one day create themselves and help create others
as an important part of the environment (p. 188-189)
 The self as human creation is a lifetime undertaking and educators
guide this creation as they guide impulses, assist in the conversion of
impulses to desires, and are co-partners with students in the
transformation of desires into reflective purposes (p. 189)


 Philosophical anthropology: The Student‟s Significance
 Dewey believed all nature was of one kind and in the process of time
becomes significant and evolves (p. 189)
 Dewey explained that nature is “the whole complex of the results of
the interaction of man, with his memories and hopes, understanding
and desire, with that world to which one-sided philosophy confines
„nature‟” (Dewey, 1934/1962, p. 152)
 Values, significance and importance are distinctively human constructs
and specific values come from the student‟s individual situations—
cultural circumstances, historical context, community, personal/social
growth—values grow as society learns and matures (p. 190)
 The idea that logic is fertile when socially or publicly developed and
tested and not simply validated on a personal level (p. 190)


 Pedagogical theory
 Dewey‟s pedagogical theory grew from his thinking on philosophical
anthropology and his related viewed of child development; he
developed a natural learning theory and experimentalist philosophy in
education—he claimed learning as it occurs in a good home should be
the model for school learning and that school should learn from the
student‟s natural activities (p. 191)
 Concept that school environments must take a child from raw impulse
into maturing youth and progressively develop the child into an
individual with plans and selected ends to ultimately create a
“desirable environment” and illuminate the student view so they may
go on to teach future generations (p. 191)


 Pedagogical theory: The Student‟s Environment
 The most important responsibility of an educator is to create and foster
an ongoing process of creating constructive educative environments
for students
 In order for students understand the subject matter of an adult—
pushing past raw impulse and maturing—educators should be guided
by “the starting point” and not always “the goal” (p. 191)
 Educators must create environments that connect children‟s common
means of learning or with natural learning theory (p. 192)


 Pedagogical theory: The Student‟s Education
 Dewey was concerned traditional education often became
detrimental to the growth of children through 3 experiences (p. 192):
 Noneducative experience: An educator having no impact on the
immediate or future growth of the child or society
 Miseducative experience: Intentionally or otherwise directing a
person away from personal and social growth
 Antieducative experience: One that exploited children or stunted
their tendency to inquire
 Dewey urged educators to create, develop and sustain learning
environments in communities where these problems often arose (p. 192)
 Dewey described education as calling and seeking the child (p. 192)
 Educators cannot build walls between the child and educative
experiences or hide students from rich experiences (p. 192)


 Pedagogical theory: The Student‟s Thinking
 Child should be viewed as a natural and multitalented learner who
harnesses a plethora of activities and the educator must direct these
activities and inquiries to foster growth (pp. 193-194)
 Dewey states a child immersed in an oppressive culture is essentially
“dead” and unable to dream:
 The correlation to a student‟s thinking being that educators cannot
smother learners but must create environments that offer authentic
problems that cultivate stimulating opportunities for thought, inquiry
and problem solving (pp. 194-195)


 Pedagogical theory: The Student‟s Teacher
 Dewey‟s ideal educator is the “seasoned teacher” who is (p. 195):
 Liberally educated
 Pedagogically competent
 Content-loving
 Student-sensitive
 Community-understanding
 Scientifically thinking
 In his poetry and prose, Dewey likens the teacher to (p. 195):
 A learner, leader, partner, guide, wise parent, navigator, engineer, social
servant, prophet, salesperson, pioneer, artist, researcher, orchestral
conductor, farmer, watcher, director, organizer, mediator, interpreter
 Teaching is “the supreme art,” a demanding undertaking requiring
continual development and open-mindedness, reflection and inquiry on the
past and present—allowing educators to remain “intellectually alive” (pp.
196-197)


 Conclusion (pp. 197-199)
 When compared to his prose, Dewey‟s poetry offered new insights, fresh
meaning and powerful expressions furthering his thoughts and often
changing ones idea of his original assertions
 Growth is an interactive process involving
educators, students, knowledge and the broader community
 The means of education is as important as the outcomes of education
 The environment, culture and social growth are extremely important in
fostering student learning and these themes directly affect student
thinking, both positively and negatively
 Acquiring an “adult mind” is a large theme throughout—though there
are negative implications to “adult mind” when discussing student
disability


SYNTHESIS FOR SUPPLEMENTAL READING NO. 1

 Synthesis between Simpson and Addams
 1. Both agree there is a pressing need for educators to create an environment that
embraces the student home-life and that connects children‟s common means of learning or
is consistent with natural learning theory (Simpson, 2001) and that schools must do more to
connect children—specifically immigrant children in Addams article—with the best things of
the past, to make them realize something of the beauty and charm of the language, the
history, and the traditions which their parents represent (Addams, 1908)
 2. The teacher as facilitator: Simpson and Addams understand the need for the student to
be approached as an individual who is part of the greater environment, thus requiring to be
nurtured in their environment for the greater good:
 The student is a feeling, purposive, intellectual being who needs to be approached as a whole person, as a
process (Simpson, 2001)
 The self as human creation is a lifetime undertaking and educators guide this creation as they guide impulses, assist
in the conversion of impulses to desires, and are co-partners with students in the transformation of desires into
reflective purposes (Simpson, 2001)
 The immigrant child cannot make this demand upon the school [what they need to be move from raw impulse to
maturity] because he does not know how to formulate it; it is for the teacher both to perceive it and to fulfill it
(Addams, 1908)
 3. What is the business of school?
 Simpson asserts that Dewey believed when educators guide a student‟s growth, the student‟s natural
tendencies lead to educative experiences and a better functioning society, thus education directly
impacts economic and social conditions and future outcomes. (p. 185)
 Addams asserts “It is the business of the school to give each child the beginnings of a culture so wide
and deep and universal that he can interpret his own parents and countrymen by a standard which is
world-wide and not provincial (p. 26)”

THE ALCHEMY OF THE MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM: INSCRIPTIONS AND THE
FABRICATION OF THE CHILD
AUTHOR: THOMAS POPKEWITZ

THE ALCHEMY OF THE MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM: INSCRIPTIONS
AND THE FABRICATION OF THE CHILD, THOMAS POPKEWITZ

 Beginning with the analogy between pedagogy and
alchemy, Popkewitz examines and challenges the mathematics
educational policy and research in the political context, arguing
that modern pedagogy as a set of governing practices excludes
and divides children from participation

 Alchemy
 School subjects are formed through a kind of alchemy (p. 4)
 Alchemy makes the child a tourist and/or a consumer in the world of
mathematical propositions that seem to beckon as many enticing
paths, but in the end, lead to a single destination (p. 22)
 The governing principles of alchemy are those of pedagogy (p. 4)
 The pedagogical alchemy is a normalizing practice (p. 13)


 Inscription devices
 Inscription devices are intellectual tools or types of maps produced by
educational research; examples include:
 Problem solving: Demarcates, preserves and makes administrable
what is perceived as salient features of a child‟s inner characteristics
and capabilities (p. 4)
 Community: Places the individual in particular cultural spaces (p. 17)
 Pedagogical: Orders and classifies the objects of teaching—the
categories that classify the child‟s thought process and the “nature”
of disciplinary knowledge organized (p. 4)
 Psychological: Focuses on the interior of the child, the rules and
standards of “reason” that enable human progress and self-
betterment (p. 8)


 Human kinds
 Human kinds are how the intellectual tools of pedagogy produce
certain types of individualities for pedagogical action; some types
include (p. 13):
 Child as a problem solver
 Disadvantaged child
 The phrase “all children” functions as a pivoting point to distinguish 2
human kinds in the standards of research—the child who has all of the
capacities to learn, problem solve and achieve in schooling, and the
child who is of a “different human kind” or known as the disadvantaged
(p. 23)


 Fabrication
 Fabrication directs attention to how linguistic categories and distinctions
of educational research are both fictions and creators of “things” (p.
13)
 The double meaning of fabrication, as a fiction and a maker of “things,”
is a quality of social science (p. 14)
 Educational research and pedagogy are fields whose categories and
distinctions produce fabrications of human kinds (p. 14)

 Problem solving
 Problem solving creates a mapping of the individual who does not “fit”
or act as a problem solver and is inscribed as the child left behind (p. 5)
 The problem solving strategies taught in school subjects may actually
reduce the spaces that are open for participation and action as
scientific expertise is viewed as constituting social realities for children to


 Modern pedagogy
 Modern pedagogy speaks about the governing of the conduct,
personality, relationships and emotions of the child (p. 5)
 Modern pedagogy as historically related to the art of governing the
modern state (p. 6)
 The function of pedagogical knowledge as a governing practice that
also orders exclusions; the various practices assembled in the alchemy
product the standards of reform (p. 25)


 Problem-solver and community
 The relationship between the problem-solver and community is:
 The problem-solver is expected to learn thinking skills by participating
in a classroom community, such as (p. 16):
 Community of discourse
 Community of learners
 Community of mathematicians
 The classroom community is though of as a “participation structure” in
which communication theories are concerned with the ongoing
processes that create identity (p. 16)
 The notion of “community” in pedagogy is also a governing practice
(p. 17)



 Synthesis between Popkewitz and Gutierrez
 1: Both are concerned with the issues of equity rooted in educational enterprise
 There is urgency in developing a new educational discourse and analytical framework
that makes visible the persistence of inequity and supremacy in educational policy and
practice (Gutierrez, 2005)
 Contemporary reform and research lack analytic tools to engage in self-reflective
examination of rules and standards that constitute questions of equity and justice
(Popkewitz, 2004)
 2: Both raise the following questions in educational research:
 What‟s the ideological position at work in the constructs and the frameworks?
 What‟s the historical context?
 What‟s been taken for granted and naturalized?
 What analytical work is already implicit in certain cases?
 What dimensions of a community, group or individual were normalized in the language?
 3: They agree on how “tools” affect the educational processes and outcomes:
 Tools (i.e. interventions, remedies, theories, ideologies, language practices, technologies)
have both enabling and constraining properties, and thus, have varying consequences
both for individuals and groups (Gutierrez, 2005)
 School and mathematics education are the “modern” social answer to the need to
enable children to become citizens who are empowered with intellectual and emotional
tools to face problems within the workplace and everyday life (Popkewitz, 2004)

CONSTRUCTIVIST PEDAGOGY
AUTHOR: VIRGINIA RICHARDSON


 Constructivism is a theory of knowledge (epistemology) arguing
humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction
 Richardson‟s article begins with a description of the historical
developments of constructivist theory, its association with
education and implications on teaching and learning; followed by
a comparison of 2 distinct forms of constructivism according to
Denis Phillips
 Social constructivism: All bodies of knowledge are human constructs
determined by political, economic, religious, social and other factors
that affect the ways in which a group of people form understandings
and formal knowledge about the world they inhabit (p. 1624)
 Psychological constructivism: Individual learners actively construct
meaning around phenomena and is dependent in part on the learner's
background knowledge (p. 1625)


 The author moves from social and psychological constructivism to a
description of why there is so much interest in constructivism as
learning theory, along with a breakdown of some of the
characteristics of constructivist pedagogy

 The article then delves into a discussion on 4 unresolved issues
concerning successful implementation of constructivism as a theory or
practice of teaching:
 Actual impact on student learning: More research needed
 Effective constructivist teaching: A need for a theory that more clearly
describes what is effective and not effective constructivist teaching
 Limitations in teacher subject-matter knowledge: The difficulty, particularly
for elementary school teachers, in implementing constructivist teaching due
to limitations with content knowledge in the various disciplines
 Cultural differences: The appropriateness of using constructivist pedagogy
with minority students who are not part of a dominant culture



 Synthesis between Richardson and Gutierrez
 1: Social constructivism is a body of knowledge determined by
political, economic, religious, social and other factors that affect the ways in
which a group of people form understandings and formal knowledge about
the world they inhabit—Gutierrez believed in the urgency to develop new
educational discourse and analytical framework that makes visible the
persistence of inequity and supremacy in educational policy and practice
 As Gutierrez believed it was necessary to present these topics, it correlates
with the argument that humans generate knowledge and meaning from
interaction and that learners actively construct meaning around
phenomena (Richardson)
 “The most critical area of work in constructivist pedagogy is determining
ways of relating teacher actions in a constructivist classroom to student
learning, and theory building (pp. 1635-1636).” This is aligned
with Gutierrez's developing new educational discourse and analytical
framework to guide the future educational research and practice.

THE HUNT FOR DISABILITY: THE NEW EUGENICS AND THE NORMALIZATION OF
SCHOOL CHILDREN
AUTHOR: BERNADETTE BAKER

THE HUNT FOR DISABILITY: THE NEW EUGENICS AND THE
NORMALIZATION OF SCHOOL CHILDREN, BERNADETTE BAKER

 Eugenics is the science of improving a human population by
controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable
characteristics

 Baker‟s article suggests how eugenics has been, and still continues
to be, implemented in public school systems

 Work begins by providing an overview of what eugenics is and its
historical developments from the old to the new; throughout the
readings it provides examples of impact on education through its
implementation in schools


 The Old Eugenics
 Roy Lowe identifies 5 areas of educational policy and practice that were
deeply influenced by eugenic ideas for much of the 20th century
 1. Testing
 2. Differential treatment
 3. Quality of home life and mothering
 4. Transmission of opinions through children‟s books
 5. The planning of educational buildings

 The New Eugenics: (Dis)ability and Education
 A discussion of the mysteriously increasing trend of schools classifying and
grouping students by labeling them with disabilities, (i.e.
ADD, ADHD, BD, SBD, CD, LD, OD, etc.) and the strong emphasis now on
special education
 Steven Tomlinson observed that some labels are more likely a result of
personal clashes between a teacher and a student, and concludes that the
determination of academic disability is often culturally biased and not


 Other topics
 The paper segways to the discussion of looking at multiple views and
perspectives from all stakeholders of a school community on the use of
disability labels in grouping and classifying students
 The final paragraph asks the reader to reconsider what is happening in
school environments
 Are examinations and other forms of classifying of students that take
place in schools really what schools should be doing to promote
human diversity?



 Synthesis between Baker and Addams
 1: What is happening in our environment?
 In both articles, the question is posed to ask the reader to take a closer look at what
is occurring in school environments and to utilize education as a means for
understanding, equity, patience and even assimilation
 2: Baker‟s article mentions The Old Eugenics, with “differential treatment” and “quality
of home life and mothering” as themes that resonate with Addams‟ article:
 Theme of differential treatment: “The ignorant teacher cuts them off because he
himself cannot understand the situation, the cultivated teacher fastens them
because his own mind is open to the charm and beauty of that old-country life.
(Addams, 1908)”
 Theme of quality of home life and mothering: “I should begin to teach the girls to be
good mothers by teaching them to be good daughters. Take a girl whose mother
has come from South Italy. The mother cannot adjust herself to the changed
condition of housekeeping, does not know how to wash and bake here, and do the
other things which she has always done well in Italy, because she has suddenly
been transported from a village to a tenement house. If that girl studies these
household conditions in relation to the past and to the present needs of the
family, she in undertaking the very best possible preparation for her future
obligations to a household of her own (Addams, 1908)”


DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

 Points for discussion:
 Popkewitz speaks about “human kinds” with the child as a problem
solver and the disadvantaged child…
 How would you connect this to Baker‟s theme of the new eugenics
and “labeling?”
 When comparing Addams to Simpson‟s article on Dewey, what key
concepts and comparisons do you draw?
 How do you feel their key concepts are situated in historical context?
 Dewey was often considered a child-centered educator, yet preferred
being labeled as community-centered…
 What is your view and how would you connect this theme to Baker?
 How can you connect this theme to Addams?
 How can you compare Richardson‟s constructivist theory to Gutierrez‟
urgency for developing new educational discourse?

2013.1.27 group presentation

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