“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.” —C.S. Lewis How are we supposed to explore uncharted territories if the terrain of English language teaching--and education in general--is already littered with maps, charts, rubrics, schemas, and learning outcomes statements? As useful as some of these might be, every time we structure our thinking in one way we tend to close off other routes to understanding. In this ten minute espresso shot, I’d like to walk through a few well-worn metaphors that we find underpinning research, papers, and classroom practice. How good are they really? Are these our best choices? Have we accepted judgements we might object to? And, might we do better by designating one or two to be, “considered harmful,” and long overdue for replacement? I hope to leave the ExcitELT participants ready to discard some baggage on the next journey. CC BY 4.0

1. The Same
Maps Keep
Taking Me
to the Same
Places
Exploring Uncharted Territories
ExcitELT Tokyo
Tokyo 3 June 2017
Ted O’Neill
@gotanda
ted.oneill@gakushuin.ac.jp
slideshare.net/tedoneill
CC BY 4.0

2. “The task of the modern
educator is not to cut
down jungles,
but to irrigate
deserts.”
― C.S. Lewis

3. “Education
is the most
powerful weapon
which you can use
to change
the world.”
― Nelson Mandela

4. “Education is not
the filling of a pail,
but the lighting
of a fire.”
― W.B. Yeats

5. Classroom Observation Rubric
Criteria 3:
Yeats
Bucket filled Minds alight Hellfire Learner combustion

8. The Project Learning Bicycle. Figure 7.1 in Trilling, B., & Fadel, C. (2009).
21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times. John Wiley & Sons.

9. I am ashamed
to admit that I
made this. But,
I had “help”.

14. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

18. Connections
Limited
Messy
Sequential hierarchy
And, just plain misused

19. Learning ≠ Teaching
According to Bloom's, teachers should aim to use higher
order thinking skills, where supposedly deep learning
takes place. However, my students thought they learned
the least during that part of the lesson.
I created a 4 part lesson on _____. They said the first part
of the lesson where they learned basic facts was the
best, where they learned the most. The fourth part where
they had to imagine a scenario where _______ was not a
tragedy. However, they said this was the least valuable,
saying they didn't learn anything new and "I was just
using my imagination. That's all." But they were using their
previously learned knowledge to create a new scenario.

27. Benjes-Small, C. (n.d.). Tales of the Undead…Learning Theories: The Learning Pyramid. Retrieved June 01, 2017, from http://
acrlog.org/2014/01/13/tales-of-the-undead-learning-theories-the-learning-pyramid/
Bloom, B. S.; Engelhart, M. D.; Furst, E. J.; Hill, W. H.; Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification
of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay Company.
Boughton, A. (2015, November 17). Yeats Boughton.jpg [Digital image]. Retrieved June 01, 2017, from https://
commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30647704
Jonsson, S. (2008, October 20). C. S. Lewis. Retrieved June 01, 2017, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/sfjalar/2959390042/sizes/o/
CC BY 2.0
Formal definition of "fractal" or standardized categories? (n.d.). Retrieved June 01, 2017, from https://math.stackexchange.com/
questions/1440230/formal-definition-of-fractal-or-standardized-categories
Gall, E. (2013, December 6). 2013-12 UK - London 04. Retrieved June 01, 2017, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/e_n_gall/
14659238348/sizes/l CC BY-SA 2.0
Hart, J.. (2013, May 22). Fern. Retrieved June 01, 2017, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/ipeguy/8816910648/sizes/l CC BY 2.0
High Expectations. (n.d.). Retrieved June 01, 2017, from https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2009/11/04/high-expectations-0
Knoco stories. (n.d.). Retrieved June 01, 2017, from http://www.nickmilton.com/2015/04/whats-different-about-facilitation.html
Maslow's hierarchy of needs. (2017, May 23). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved
04:03, June 2, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs&oldid=781816083
Meyer, O. (2010). Towards quality CLIL: successful planning and teaching strategies. Puls, 11-29.
Morshead, R. W. (1965). " Taxonomy of educational objectives handbook II: Affective domain" by D. Bloom, B. Bloom and BB masia.
Ondrejk. (2015, November 17). No Child Left Behind Act.jpg [Digital image]. Retrieved June 01, 2017, from https://
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:No_Child_Left_Behind_Act.jpg
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Fire. (1968). UK: Top of the Pops. Retrieved June 01, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Xi1FFsRCglI
Trilling, B., & Fadel, C. (2009). 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times. John Wiley & Sons.
[wakuwaku channel]. (2015, January 24). Amerika kūgun no gokuhi yūfō hōkoku-sho `purojekuto burūbukku' ga u~ebu ni kaikin! !
[Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25382MciJVE
Vandy CFT. (2016, September 6). Bloom's Taxonomy. Retrieved June 01, 2017, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/vandycft/
29428436431/sizes/o/ CC BY 2.0
Works Cited