Ken Robinson’s TED talk (TT): “How to Escape Education Death Valley” - TED: Ideas worth spreading, brought to light a number of issues that impact how we view the education process. Ken’s three principles on which human life flourishes; the fact that human beings are naturally different and diverse, the inherent curiosity which drives human life and the reality that humans are inherently creative can really help inform the teaching discipline that has focused on standardization as a way of measuring students, not necessarily teaching them.  Our classrooms are blessed with students who are diverse, curious and creative’.” Ken’s call for an educational revolution in his TT, made me see myself as being a Joan of Arc of education who rails against the established, antiquated views of teach (obviously without being burned at the stake). In my version Joan of Arc, I am picturing myself wearing an armor, riding a horse, holding a book not a sword, going against the educators who are effectively standardized test meter readers, basically “non–educators” who make the rules in some offices in Albany. Oh, if I could only be as brave as Joan!  I think about Ken’s syllogism of the seeds on the desert floor waiting to be awakened by some miraculous rain and I feel a sense of powerlessness but at the same time, I remember the beautiful quote below. 

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop”. – Mother Theresa of Calcutta

Are teachers like drops in a large ocean? How can a small drop make a difference? Can we individually start an educational revolution in our small classrooms?

Do Teachers Today Make a Difference?

In order to answer the question above, we have to take a deeper look into past studies to discover the intrinsic meaning of teaching. If we have enough empirical and theoretical tools to determine how, why and when a teacher plays a vital role in a student’s educational path, how can teachers be assisted in this endeavor? This is such a broad question.  I would say that the Finnish got it right. Teaching is one of the most sought after professions in Finland.

In Finland, entry into teacher education is one of the most competitive among any field in higher education. Since all teachers must hold advanced academic degrees and they are therefore relatively well-paid and protected professionals, teaching is an attractive career choice among young Finns. And yes, teachers in Finland also have good working conditions in schools and a moderate teaching load by international standards. According to the recent Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) by the OECD, middle school teachers in Finland teach, on average, 21 hours and work 32 hours a week. (The Washington Post, February 12, 2015) 

What can America do to be the next Finland?

First and foremost, if we really need to test our students, we cannot let self interested organizations and corporations subjectively manufacture tests and impose them on our students or buy their way into legitimacy with grants and other means of funding. Have you asked yourself where the Common Core Curriculum comes from?

NPR.Org on May 27,2014writes:

The major groups involved in developing the standards include a nonprofit called Achieve, which was founded by a group of business leaders and governors in 1996 (long before Common Core). Among its contributors are many of America's largest corporations, such as Alcoa, Exxon Mobil and Microsoft, as well as many large foundations, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (also a funder of NPR Ed), and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

In 2009, Achieve partnered with the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to begin developing the standards. They were initially released in 2010, and most states began the process of adopting them that year.

When we leave it up to subjectively interested non-educators to dictate how and what our children learn, teachers feel powerless as they have to follow conventional testing and forget about the magic word “diversity”. Going back to our TT and Ken Robinson, whose speech reflected a need for change, I felt somewhat defeated while reflecting on the complexity of bringing about an educational revolution. A safety zone for teacher are our classrooms, because we know that we can make a difference one student at a time. I refuse to feel like a lost drop of water in a large ocean, I want to feel like part of the ocean is many drops of me, and for that I thank my predecessors, my professors and fellow teachers. I know that I can be part of that student’s life for the future by following the teachings of great minds.

EBPP (Evidenced-Based Practice in Psychology.

EBPP are “Practices that integrate the best available research with the insights of expert praticioners and knowledge of the characteristics, culture, and preferences of the client”. (Woolfolk, 2013)

The knowledge that there is a myriad of studies, psychologists and educators who believe in the teachings of Vygotsky, Piaget, Hunt and many and others, allows me to feel empowered and look at my classroom as the beginning of what Ken’s call an “education revolution”.  

Allow me to share a true moment of glory in my ESL teaching experience, a problem with a solution I found on EBPP.

Teaching how to read to a non-native adult.

 As a non-native American, I can relate to many of my students from Saudi Arabia who struggled enormously in reading and comprehension.

Have you ever tried putting yourself in their shoes? Well, try reading in Arabic.

Our brains have been imprinted with specific symbols as we experience the world around us and it is not an easy task for an adult to change this imprint, hence difficulties with reading in English for an Arabic student. The same principal extends to students who have non mainstream cultural experiences who are expected to conform to certain standards.

The struggle of reading experienced by my Arab students was impeding them and others to great lengths, therefore I soon realized that among other strategies, I had to apply the teachings of prominent researchers or the including ways of having them relate to topics and lessons by using techniques such as reading out loud.

The Magic of Reading Out-Loud.

The following excerpt describes benefits of the reading out loud method.

“The read-aloud process has enormous benefits to literacy learning. Read-aloud is an instructional practice where teachers, parents, and caregivers read texts aloud to children. The reader incorporates variations in pitch, tone, pace, volume, pauses, eye contact, questions, and comments to produce a fluent and enjoyable delivery. Reading texts aloud is the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for successful reading (McCormick, 1977). 

Klesius and Griffith (1996) concurred and explained that the read-aloud experience increases students' vocabulary development and comprehension growth. They also noted its potential to increase motivation to want to read while building the knowledge necessary for the successful acquisition of reading and writing. Trachtenburg and Ferruggia (1989) agreed after they examined the impact of oral language development through the shared book experience with high-risk beginning readers. Both claimed their students developed a rich language base and came to understand the power of words by listening to stories, reading stories, and responding to stories through a variety of engagement activities.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

Looking back at my aforementioned reading experience, I have to admit that I did not spend unpaid hours reading aloud with my students, sometimes one-on-one because I believed in the “No Child Left Behind” policy.

The truth of them matter is that, I truly wanted to create a positive relationship with my students.

 “Good teaching is residual and cumulative” (Woolfolk, 2013).

I have learned that one of the several aspects of the importance of diversity teaching (no matter how energy-draining it can be), lays in the research and understanding of finding the right tools and use them correctly in class. I know that my good teaching will resonate in my students’s minds, may be forever.

“There are three sorts of people in the world:

A) Those who are immovable, people who don't get it, or don't want to do anything about it;

B) There are people who are movable, people who see the need for change and are prepared to listen to it;

C) And there are people who move, people who make things happen. (Benjamin Franklin

This wonderful quote was mentioned in Ken Robinson’s TED Talk mentioned at the very beginning of the blog. I ask myself:” As a teacher, which group do I belong to: A, B or C? Do I tend to categorize my students into these three categories? I believe that this quote can help me in strategizing on how to create a “movable” class, by this I mean a class, which wants to move towards learning by engaging curiosity and creativity. Throughout this week, I was pondering on the question: “How do I activate a desire of learning in those student who are lethargic about learning? We know that the human being’s creative nature calls upon us to move, create, remodel and provide. Teachers and students naturally strive for betterment and teachers are the facilitators.

Knowing How and When to Apply Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

“Critics may argue that allowing a researcher to play in interpretative role during a study is likely to introduce bias. Indeed, in the inquiry frames most commonly used in Ed Psy., methodological strategies have been developed with the express purpose of protecting against researcher perspectives influencing data collection and analysis. Yet, all researchers act as interpreters instruments at some point during the inquiry process”. (Frames of inquiry in Educational Psychology: Beyond the quantitative and qualitative divide, 2^nd Edition).

Quantitative and qualitative research in the context of education ultimately leads to methods that can be applied to the teaching process. We need to be positioned to use both. Can I use qualitative research? I think that now I truly see the importance of this research, I can understand its importance. Although I still believe that it is challenging to separate the researcher’s human factor and bias from the research itself, I have a sense of trust.

If had to concentrate the concept of qualitative research using some key words, I would say: descriptive, inductive, natural settings, conversational style, social processes, and if I may add, “organic”. The quantitative side involves measuring the result in the context of the desired learning objectives.

The Brain, Points of View of Development

Exhausted after hours of over-thinking whether I will ever be able to improve my teaching thanks to the new material I have engulfed in a short week, I reflect upon this statement:

”Educational psychology has not yet come of age. Indeed, we remain quite young, arguably in adolescence” (Projecting Educational Psychology Future from its past and present: a Trend Analysis, Alexander, Murphy, Greene.

I am trying to find a link between the adolescence stage of Educational Psychology, and the structure of the adolescent brain. This infant brain has billions of neurons…one neuron has the information processing capacity of a small computer. That means that the processing power of a 3-pound human brain is likely greater than all the computers in the world”. (Woolfolk, 2013)

While thinking about this, I question whether this approach is holistic enough. Does it take into account influencing environmental factors? I wonder if indeed Educational Psychology’s objective with respect to the brain is still to develop the pre-frontal lobe. It may sound odd, but it is in my creative nature to find a correlation between brain development and our studies in Educational Psychology. The mesmerizing power of the brain from the very initial stages indicates that we have still have a lot to learn.

In contrast to Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk, Michael Merzenich’s, TT. “Growing Evidence of Brain Plasticity” left me somewhat confused. In his opening statement Michael calls the newborn brain “stupid”. I prefer to think of it as a “tabula rasa”. If our infant brain has the ability of trimming millions of “unnecessary neurons during the first few months of our life, or even better enhancing the number of neurons needed to compensate for a deficiency (i.e., blind child who develops excellent hearing), then how is this inherently “stupid”?  What Michael Merzenich’s TT did however was confirm and reinforced my belief that the brain and the human body is like an engine, which requires daily fuel, maintenance and exercise and avoidance of environmental toxins. The infant brain is therefore not “stupid”.

The Luminaries

 Jean Piaget – Biologist, Psychologist, (1896-1980)

The point of view of Piaget has enlightened me once again; I came across his teachings while in high school. Piaget’s view of the Formal-Operational stage (12 years old and up), during which we learn to think hypothetically is somewhat an eye opener. Piaget indicates that formal-operational thinking may not be part of everyone, even an adult, hence some people may only be able to memorize complex hypothetical concepts rather than understand them. For this reason, we need to train our brain to think hypothetically. Teachers can help students through this process by using rule-assessment, or challenging students in their current thinking and allowing students to change the rules to overcome the challenge.

 Lev Vygotsky, Psychologist (1896-1934)

Some Vygotsky’s theories directly apply to my area of interest, which is teaching English as a second language. Vygotsky explains that children by mastering the use of language develop higher thinking. In his theory, language is the most important tool, which helps create other tools. I am also intrigued about Vygotsky’s acknowledgment of the importance of “private speech”, Piaget calls is “collective monologue”. I personally experience the power of taking to myself in various occasions. We all do it, we just think it is not appropriate, I wish we became more open to this concept in our schools. I have actually tried in my classroom, where students had to prepare a sandwich while “thinking out-loud” and describe every single step. It was quite amusing.

 Earl Hunt, Psychologist (1933-2016)

A great concept presented by Hunt is “The problem of the match”, meaning that students must be presented with the right amount of dis-equilibrium in order to learn. It has been my experience in the classroom in more than one occasion. For instance, we were working on pre-fixes (pre, un, non, etc.,) and my students were presented with a set of cards with pre-fixes and words to be matched. I structured it as a competition between groups and although I saw the challenge in completing the task, they absorbed the new material quickly and retained it longer.

Knowledge Workers

Gregory Shaw

Gregory Shaw does a wonderful job illuminating the various aspects of knowledge throughout the years (Knowledge: Structures and Processes, 2^nd edition):

1)           Positivist view, knowledge is learning objectively through experience. Galileo Galilei, although not considered a positivist followed the empirical observations of a positivist. In the positivist mind, Knowledge is true because it is derived from empirical observations.

2)           In the post-positivist view, knowledge is subjective therefore it is neither universal nor completely true. The linguistic theory of Noam Chomsky, which I will outline further below is a major component of this view.

3)           The post-modern view of knowledge is best summarized in my opinion with Foucault’s idea the “ knowledge is power”. Isn’t this what we tell our children when we stress the importance of education?

Noam Chomsky

Going back to Chomsky's linguistic theory, I felt the need to look into it further as it directly applies to my area of interest. Chomsky states that language is “innate” and it is a function of the brain. He further explains that children learn language during “an optimal stage, between the age of 3-10”. This is why he claims that we should teach languages in elementary school. He also states that children will spontaneously speak on their own by imitating the parents. In addition children will make the same mistake over and over while speaking until they pass that particular stage. (This was the case of my daughter who at the age of 3 kept saying “sangwich” instead of sandwich). Chomsky also claims that children follow the same stages while learning a language, not matter which country they come from, Chomsky’s claim is based on neurological observations. While much of the above is subject to debate, it forms the foundation of our understanding of communication.

A key question for me is the following: How could anyone possibly learn enough about the English language to possess the rich and exotic grammatical knowledge that we all seem to possess by the time a native speaker is five or six years old? Chomsky’s answer: the knowledge is built in. You and I can learn English, as well as any other language, with all its richness because we are designed to learn languages based upon a common set of principles, which we may call universal grammar. Put differently, universal grammar is the inherited genetic endowment that makes it possible for us to speak and learn human languages.

The concept of “Episodic Memory” described by G. Schraw has shed the light on how memories get distorted especially due to what he calls “Flashbulb memories”. We have all experienced quick and traumatic events, which we recollect with certainty, however the details are not very accurate, this concept is often seen in movies during a court trial.

To properly discuss knowledge as presented by several masters of psychology, we would need to engage in an extensive conversation. In my opinion when we look at knowledge as a way of solving problems, of performing tasks, simple and complicated, as a way of learning, I do understand why knowledge cannot be simply classified under the simplistic definitions of: understanding and awareness.

Skill Acquisition 

Skill acquisition as it relates to knowledge is my favorite topic of this reading from Gregory Schraw. As a certified coach of Track and Field (T&F), I have attended several conferences held by highly trained coaches and researches, who have studied the human bodies at great length with the use of biomechanics and technology. Anyone who is familiar with T&F, knows the world’s fastest man, Hussein Bolt, a Jamaican sprinter who has run at a speed never seen before. Bolt’s is taller than other sprinters and to an untrained eye Bolt may seem to have an advantage over other runners because of his longer legs. To a trained eye, instead, Bolt is not at an advantage rather he is a well trained runner, who had to learn how to manage his long legs in order to keep his center of gravity lower to the ground and exert his energy horizontally not vertically. The same concept may be applied to children born to mathematicians, musicians, etc., we assume that they were born with these innate qualities derived from their parents, therefore they will be highly skilled at math, music etc. The innate aspect is an advantage, however their skills are dormant and need to be trained to become exceptional. I was thrilled to learn that Educational Psychology is in line with the findings of our coaches and researchers in the athletic field:

30 years of research suggest that intelligence and talent provide initial advantage, but that high levels of expertise are due primarily to sustained systematic effort on the part of the learner. Ability alone is not sufficient for high levels of expertise. Ability and sustained practice are ideal. Sustained practice even without pronounced native ability may be sufficient for very high levels of skill development. (Ericsson, 2003).

I believe that the key word is “initial advantage”, Hussein Bolt has an advantage, that is his long legs, however if not trained extensively his talent would be lost.

In my view, the positive relation between biomechanics and athletics has created a necessary symbiosis, which has enhanced the performance of our athletes. Likewise, it is my hope that in the near future neuroscience and education will find the means to support each other and to collaborate rather than compete. We have evidence that education can contribute to neuroscience and vice versa. Referring to Piaget’s cognitive theory, could we attempt to say that the relation between neuroscience and education is at the sensorimotor stage?

“Education and neuroscience can inform each other, but within limits which we have yet to discover” (Varma, McCandliss, Schwartz research 2008).

Ciao,

Cecilia