(Week 10) My own teaching philosophy

In this post, I would like to share some of my own teaching philosophy and, where possible, make connections to what I have learned so far this semester.

At Algoma, I find myself in a very unique situation because our university was the former site of the Shinwauk Residential School which closed it's doors in 1971.  Because of this history, and our northern location, part of our university's mandate is to cultivate cross-cultural learning between aboriginal communities and other communities.

Over the past 4 year's, I have learned a lot about the experiences of the residential school survivors, and, every chance I get, I go out of my way to honour the history of our campus.  As part of AU's commitment to providing a respectful, inclusive and innovative education environment for Anishinaabe (First Nations, Metis and Inuit) students, the university has entered into a Covenant with the Shingwauk Education Trust.  As stated on our university website, "The Covenant is a document through which both parties pledge to work together for the furtherance of Anishinaabe education and research."

For the English for Academic Purposes Program (EAPP), I have worked hard to shape our curriculum so that it reflects the historic roots of our campus and is culturally relevant to indigenous culture and traditional values.  One of the central ideas or themes is the following aboriginal medicine wheel:

There are many depictions/variations of the medicine wheel but most have the same central concepts or themes.  The circular shape represents the continuous interaction of the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual realities and the inter-connectivity of all aspects of one being, including the connection with the natural world.  It typically has a clockwise direction or follows the direction of the sun. The directions can also represent the stages of life, season of the year, aspects of life (spiritual, emotional, intellectual, physical) animals (eagle, bear, wolf, buffalo), four directions (north, south, east, west) etc. Each of these have meaning separate from the other sections but when taken together, they are even more powerful.  Many of the aboriginal teachings and practices are based on the inter relatedness between these elements and keeping a balance in mother nature.

In the center of the wheel, are the important concepts of the "creator" and "me".  Individuals (i.e. students) have to understand themselves before they venture outwards on their journey to learn more about the interconnectedness and interrelatedness of all things represented by the medicine wheel. 

As I reflect on what I have learned in this course, I see a lot of connections to the medicine wheel. The emphasis put on student-centered learning, the different kinds of learning (ex. somatic), the tacit knowledge that one brings with them through life, the role of the surrounding environment etc. I feel that the Medicine wheel is a great model to guide the development of pedagogy at Algoma where all parts of life may be represented equally.  In this light, it is also extremely important for teachers to understand themselves before venturing out from the center and part of this realization can be achieved through the process of critical reflection. 

(Week 8) Building on the work of Schon and discovering gaps

For Week 8, I was partnered with Vicki as the lead discussants for the article by Ben Kotzee entitled "Private practice: exploring the missing social dimension in 'reflective practice'". I had worked well with Vicki in the past so I was very happy to work with her again .  We met on several occasions to discuss the article and I have to say I was surprised by the amount of discussion/collaboration we had in preparation for our lead discussion.  We discussed Schon's 'reflective practice' and whether or not it effectively explains how people learn professionally.  We talked about how Schon leaves out the social nature of practice (Ben Kotzee's main criticism), the role of tacit knowledge plays, the concept of expert vs. novice, and Schon's concepts of reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action.  Lastly, we discuss Schon's views of teaching reflection-in-action as artistry.

Out of all our conversations, I would have to say that Schon's expert versus novice was the most interesting especially when talking about his notion of the "architect's studio.  Schon explains "the different abilities of the architect and his student to design a building as a difference not in what the student and the architect can know or say but in what they can do almost without thinking and saying - the architect's mastery compared to the student's inexperience can be explained in terms of the architect's more extensive and fluent 'reflection-in-action'".  Vicki and I didn't buy into this theory because how can you then explain the likes of Joey Alexander, the gifted piano prodigy from Indonesia.

How at the age of 12 could he become such an expert?  How could he be better than other professional piano players who have played for 30 or 40 years?  How is Joey able to have such a feel for music?  I agree with Schon that being an expert comes down to "artistry" or a sense of "intuitive knowing" but I think the amount of time a person has to build up the store of tacit knowledge needed to become and expert is not a defining factor.

After our presentation, one of the main takeaways is that I had a much deeper reflection on the article and came away with a lot more knowledge because of the social dimension which existed during my group work with Vicki. In this sense, I feel that Kotzee was on to something about how Schon may have overlooked the social nature of refection.

(Week 3) Reflection-in-action!

In my last post, I reflected on real-life example of how Schon's idea of the high-ground vs. swamp in my local context here at Algoma University.  In this post, I would like to reflect on Schon's  "reflection-in-action".

While I was completing my education undergraduate degree at Lakehead, my two teachables were Geography and Physical Education.  I remember taking this one course in Kinesiology (also known as human kinetics), where the professor asked me to explain to the class how to "perform a free throw".  Having played basketball my whole life, I quickly, and confidently, accepted the challenge.  However, at that time, I didn't realize that I had never really thought about the mechanics behind the movement and I simply wasn't able to verbalize the motion much to my embarrassment.   The professor then used my failure to explain about tacid knowledge and knowing-in-action. It was a powerful learning moment for me and it taught me, through my own ridicule, to think more from the body, not just the mind.  

In the one of Schon's articles, he gave the example of refection-in-action with the crooked fence.  I relate to this description, because woodworking is one of my favorite hobbies.  I agree that there is a lot of problem solving and reflection-in-action involved within this trade. The whole expression "measure twice, cut once" is a great representation of how a woodworker goes about any project constantly reflecting on each measurement and how the project will all finally fit together in the end.  My father, a seasoned carpenter, always tells me that the real secret to good woodworking is covering up all your mistakes as you work on any project.

The woodworking example, above, is a great representation of how a typical layman might go about refection-in-action. In Schon's article, the Crisis of Professional Knowledge", he explains how many teachers, as practitioners, have a hard time describing what they know and do not know and, as such, might view reflection-in-action as a threat or sign of weakness .  However, Schon's sees this reflection-in-action as part of competent practice and that it is of critical importance.  Can teachers be taught to have a capacity for reflection-in-action or invent on the spot to help students before them?  This is a good question which was posed in class which resulted in a great discussion for Week 3.  I believe that refection-in-action comes intuitively because I've met very few teachers, who don't want to improve their practice.  To do so, there has to an inbuilt system of checking and/or reaffirming that what you are doing at the moment, as a teacher, is meeting the needs of your students.   In this sense, it is like an internal set of checks and balances.