An Educator's New Years Resolution!

Have you ever felt that wonderful, exciting, fresh, new feeling when the new school year starts in September? 

As an educator I often find that my yearly big rejuvenation moment happens at this time of the year when I begin my new journey as both an educator and student. I like to think that for educators, the first day of school in September feels more like the New Year than January 1st! 

Following a classic New Year's tradition, I have decided to make five New Year's resolutions for the upcoming school year. I encourage you to think of some resolutions for the new school year. Or this may be a great time (half way through the year) to revisit the New Year's resolutions that you made in January and check in on your progress! 

Monica's 2015/2016 Resolutions

1. Participate in an aspect of #edchat every day. Blogging, twitter, OSSEMOOC, pinterest, or writing content for Sakai or student websites. 
2. Carry a bottle of water wherever I go! I am more likely to drink the right amount of water daily if I do not have to go get it when I am thirsty. 
3. Respond to all e-mails and calls within 24 hours. 
4. Take as many teaching opportunities as possible! 
5. Work on my thesis research every day. Make at least one positive contribution to the project. 

What are your resolutions for this coming year? Please feel free to share in the comments below! 

Research Rant: Getting Started

Where to start... where to start?!

This seems to be a problem that my fellow full time Masters of Education colleagues and I have faced. When it comes to writing our masters research paper (MRP) or thesis (what I am doing), it can be hard to pick a place to start. More often than not, this uncertainty leads to major procrastination or unorganized research attempts.

I have personally found that rationally telling myself that I have already started... that I have already jumped from the diving board helps to keep me motivated. It is often my highly detailed mind that wants my first 'jump into the thesis pool' to be calculated and 'just right'. This often keeps me from jumping because I worry that I won't be able to create something wonderful or 'perfect' if I start off on the wrong foot.

Some times you have to realize you are ALREADY in mid air! The decision now is not where, when, or how to jump but how to land!

"COMMON!!! GET IN THE WATER!!!"

(Personal photo: Our sometimes-brave dog Dover jumping into the cottage water 1997)

I decided to begin writing with my SECOND chapter (literature review) instead of the intro chapter. I find this makes more sense for how I needed to start gathering my information. I like to call this literature review phase the 'while I am still in the air' phase. While I am here (and it feels like I have been hanging midair for a few weeks now) I can see my landing (writing the intro chapter) much clearer. 

Advice:

1. My advice to anyone out there writing.... well... anything, is to just start writing. Something! Anything! It is easier to edit, change, and add on to something that exists. It is hard to enhance and build upon a blank word document! 

2. My second piece of advice is to find a way to organize your research so you do not waste time going back to re-read or find accurate citations for the work you are doing. Be efficient. Be organized. More about this to come in an upcoming blog. 

New Year! New Research!

It is official! 

I have officially decided to pursue a MEd thesis instead of a major research paper. As a full time graduate student I have the privilege to complete research of my choice as part of my program exit requirements. I had the opportunity to decide during my first semester the topic and scope of my research interests by taking various master’s courses and speaking with members of the department. The master’s courses that I took in the first semester are as follows; (1) Teaching, learning, & development of education, (2) Introduction to Research Methodologies, (3) Innovative Practices in Curriculum/Assessment (K-16), & (4) Developmental and Educational Issues in Children and Adolescents. This semester I am taking (1) Qualitative research methodology, & (2) Theories of Literacy.

I had begun this program this past September knowing that the driving force behind the rationale for taking my Masters now was that I was passionately curious about the power and potential that dramatic playbuilding can have on Qualitative research literature available to researchers. I wanted to seize this opportunity to be academically encouraged and challenged to expand and explore areas of educational research that need some attention and TLC to bring it into 21^st century relevance for our students.

In order to frame the posts that will likely be occurring over the next two years about my research I would like to include a condensed version of my official research thesis plan!

Research Proposal: Monica Taylor

About the Study: Research Interests/Rationale

In collaboration with a local school board, a qualitative research study will be conducted to explore the elements of environmental literacy that currently exist in school communities. The study itself will be between 8-10 sessions in length, whereby secondary students workshop, rehearse, and create a play about the environment and students attitudes towards it (e.g., how do they feel about global warming, sustainability, eco-responsibility), as well as how the environment is perceived or talked about in schooled environments.  Once ready, this play will be presented to junior division students (e.g., grades 4-6) in order to gain access to a more comprehensive scan of students’ ideals around environmental issues.

Participating in DART 3F93 Social Issues Theatre for Community Engagement with Dr. Joe Norris allowed me to see the potential level of engagement and meaning-making of playbuilding and applied theatre techniques for participants and audiences alike. Using playbuilding as qualitative research method will provide student participants creative freedom to explore environmental literacy from a individualized, arts-based perspective.

With a boom in inquiry-based projects in the 21^st century, collective responsibilities to engage in a more environmentally active society are necessary.  This is particularly the case with notions of sustainability and environmental consciousness. My undergraduate degree in dramatic arts and geography lends itself to a curiosity about the effectiveness of literacy initiatives that can enhance students understanding themselves as active 21^st century agents of change for the environment. Additionally, discussions regarding literacy and effective literacy engagement initiatives have led me to a desire to research with students to actively explore current school environmental literacy initiatives.

Proposed Research Methodology

            The study methodology that will be used for this study is Playbuilding (Norris, 2009; Tarlington & Michaels, 1995) with case illustrations/vignettes. I chose this qualitative approach because: a) I have a background in theatre and studied this discipline in my undergraduate degrees (e.g., DART 3F93 Social Issues for Community Engagement); b) playbuilding allows me to work with two diverse groups of students and collect data on both; and c) an arts-based approach invites all voices and perspectives to be included. 

As mentioned above, I will work with secondary students in the Niagara region to develop and produce a 45-minute play that will be performed to a younger audience (i.e., junior grades). Data will be collected on both sets of study participants to get a wider understanding of environmental literacy in schooled settings. Data sources will include: a) interviews, b) surveys, c) focus groups, d) video of the devising and the play itself, e) photography, f) student blogs, and g) student work samples. Data will then be coded and categorized into relevant themes. Vignettes will be selected—those that highlight these significant thematic patterns in order to triangulate the data.

If you have any suggestions, questions, or comments about the proposal I would be overjoyed to hear from you! 

3 Profiles: Secondary School Student's Opinion on 21st Century Learning

As part of tutoring with the SSEN Learning Centre this month, we are focusing on understanding ourselves as active 21st Century Learners. 

We first worked on brainstorming and defining what we think 21st Century Learning looks like in the classroom today using mind mapping.

We then wrote individual mini-blogs to reflect on how the current education system in Ontario is providing 21st Century Learning opportunities and what else can be done to bridge an existing gap.

To begin, the students were each shown this tweet by Lester Laminack to spark their active minds for engaging with 21st century learning concepts. His website http://www.lesterlaminack.com/ was also used for reference.

 MINI BLOG PROFILES

(All information/images shared with permission)

MINI BLOG ONE: ERIC, GRADE 10, DSBN 

 Students from a century ago and students from 21st century are very different. Invention of electronics, such as smartphones and personal computers is the biggest difference between them. Students' learning style and the time period is different. We cannot have a class without collaboration and interactions between students and teachers, and we should remember that we are learning for our future. 

Teachers usually restrict students from using cellphones in a class, but technology can be a tool for students and teachers to make them learn better. Almost every students including grade 1 to grade 12 knows what smartphone is. They use smartphones to communicate with their friends, or playing games a lot, and these reasons make teachers to hate smartphones. However, if teachers can teach students using the smartphones, students will be motivated to learn, because they already are very familiar with the learning tool called smartphones. Electronic resources, such as ebooks or online learning videos actually help students to learn and remember them. 

Teachers in Korea are stuck in the old learning style, which forces students to memorize, not to learn, and actually have a beneficial effect to students for the future.  Students in a class must follow instructions that teachers give, and cannot have a discussion within the class. This method usually makes students to forget what they learned after a year or two because they didn't really understand what teachers were saying. What students did were just copying what teachers said. This is very inefficient way to get students to learn. There must be discussions and debate in the class, and students must share their own opinions and interact with their classmates and also the teacher. Collaboration is also important, but the old method prevents students to learn collaboration and confidence to speak up, and actually "learn". This is why we should have think about the future for the students that really can help them to "learn" something from the education system.

MINI BLOG TWO: BRIAN, GRADE 9, DSBN

 

I often think about technologies settled in our school sometimes needs to be changed or improved. And this comes to my mind very often when I look around my school. When I am looking at slow computer, I think about how should they improve this computer's speed. It's not that I am uncomfortable with these technologies we have in my school, instead, of course if my school is going to expand the level of technologies in learning, they could start putting some more thinking into it. For instance, they could put more classwork into technologies and do some classwork with computers and taking notes with computers to prevent sore arms and hands by writing a stack of notes and make it easier to access their work and so on. They should have more serious rules about electronics and doing other things on computers instead of finishing their classwork. A lot of things should be changing soon and specifically technologies in schools.

EDUC 5P42 - Genius Hour Presentation

Genius Hour Idea: Exploring educational uses of USD - Understanding by Design
using www.StoryboardThat.com

CLICK HERE FOR FULL PREZI

Genius hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom. It provides students a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school.

Storyboard That! is the world's best story board creator! 

• Simple & Fun Interface:The storyboard creator uses a familiar drag and drop interface that users of all ages pick up in seconds. Our creator allows you to fully customize numerous aspects of your storyboard; from coloring in your own character, to adding text, we have everything you need to get the story straight!


• Detailed Image Library:Creating a beautiful and expressive storyboard is easy with our extensive and well curated library of over 325 characters, 225 scenes, and over 45,000 images in search. If that still isn’t enough we offer another powerful tool; the ability to upload your own images!


• Focus is on The Story: By using a storyboard like a graphic organizer it helps structure students work into a linear and concise story. Although it feels easy at first, breaking down ones thoughts into just a few cells works critical skills in prioritizing the right information and creating a good story flow.

 To learn more about how StoryboardThat! works and how educators can incorporate this tool into their classroom and project based learning activities - explore the PREZI presentation I have created by clicking HERE. 

EDUC 5P42 - Effectively Warming Up

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A method for enhancing the ability to communicate in the classroom that can be easily over looked by teachers is daily warm up activities to begin the class. The benefit of the warm up, besides the fun consistent addition to any lesson plan is the opportunity for classmates to interact together in a non-threatening manner. One of the most useful warm up activities is the ones that involve improvisation. Examples of warm ups that include the method of improvisation are; charades, blob machine and I’m going on a picnic. Including improvisation allows students to feel comfortable bringing up personal impulses and thoughts in a safe, inclusive space. The warm up allows students to openly communicate with each other at the beginning of every class. This is exceptionally helpful to a teacher, for the rest of the class the students will feel more like a community and more likely to continue communicating between themselves.

The book Free Play written by Stephen Nachmanovitch delves into the importance of free play within any social situation, especially school. Nachmanovitch describes how “Improvisation is intuition in action, a way to discover the muse and learn to respond to her call. Even if we work in a very structured, compositional way, we begin by that  always surprising process of free invention in which we have nothing to gain and nothing to lose”(Nachmanovitch 41). This is the key component to improvisation, allowing the students to feel like they are having fun and making their own decisions in such a structured and somewhat hindering environment that high school can be.

When I was in high school I did the best in the classrooms where I felt like my opinion was heard and accepted. The classrooms (not just drama) that allowed a period of time at the beginning (or end) of the class to work on a small task with the class were the places where I felt the strongest in academics. As a future teacher, I want to enable my students the opportunity to feel heard, accepted, and safe in their academic and social endeavors. I will use warm up activities in all of my classrooms not just my drama classrooms.

Over my dramatic and academic journey I have been able to learn different methods in which to communicate with students about important topics. The method of workshopping a scene is an incredibly effective way in which to give your students a venue to speak their mind without feeling scared. The environment that the teacher must create in the classroom/workshop space is the key component to having work shopping work. The teacher must describe the process fully to the class and the class will have to agree on rules for the process. Examples of rules could be; waiting your turn to talk, never say “no” but instead say “yes, but let’s try adding this, or taking away this.” Once these parameters have been communicated the open communication can begin.
Helpful links for warm up activities:
1.  Warm up & Cool Downs Grades 5-11
2.  Improvisation related warm ups 
3.  Games Booklet - 39 Pages

EDUC 1F95: Sociology of Education – Seminar 8

Developing a framework for studying The Sociology of Education in Canada

This post is the beginning of many posts for my EDUC 1F95 – Foundations of Education course I am a Teaching Assistant for this FW 2014-2015 school year. My students will be exploring the sociology of education using Terry Wotherspoon’s book The Sociology of Education in Canada: Critical Perspectives, 4^th Ed. for lecture and seminar readings.

These blogs titled EDUC 1F95: Sociology of Education – Seminar # will provide a place for my interpretations, thoughts, critiques, and comments on the assigned readings each week. These blogs will be in part for myself to conceptualize my thoughts for seminar discussion and also for students in my seminars to expand their thinking and inquiry about the content provided each week. These posts are NOT to supplement or replace existing seminar material and content.

Each post will include the guiding questions and material for the seminar each week, followed by a brief overview of the chapter material and followed by comments or thoughts. Please feel free to comment on any of these blog posts to add your own comments, thoughts, revelations from class, or to pose questions!

Here we go!

Seminar 8 – Friday November 7, 2014

Readings:

Chapter 1 - The Sociology of Education in Canada

Chapter 7 - Making Sense

Guiding Questions:

1. What is sociology? What do sociologists study?

2. What are the characteristics of the different sociological perspectives?

         a) Structural functionalism 

         b) Interpretive analysis

         c) Critical sociologies  

3. How do they compare to one another? What are the key contrasts in sociology?

4. Is sociology in Education a science? Why or why not? What about educational research? Is it a science and why or why not?

5. Review the four critical approaches to the analysis of Education. 

        a) Critical pedagogy 

        b) Feminist pedagogy

        c) Anti-racism education

        d) Political economy

Goals & Discussion:

1. Students should understand how structural functionalism, interpretive analysis and critical sociologies are conceptual frameworks that view society differently.

2. How do educators use sociology to understand and improve education?

3. Reflect upon how students used the ideas or arguing and writing with style in assignment 1 (connection to Making Sense Chapter 7 )

Let's explore the following:

Sociological perspectives:

1. Structural functionalism: this form of analysis examines social institutions and other elements of society in relation to the social system as a whole. It is sometimes known as the order perspective because it is concerned with factors that ensure the maintenance of social stability.

2. Interpretive analysis: an approach to understanding social life that emphasizes the role played by meanings and inter-subjective relationships in social activity

3. Critical sociologies: engages in a critique of social structures and practices by probing beyond descriptions of the status quo

Critical approaches to the analysis of Education:

1. Critical pedagogy: an approach oriented to progressive educational change by linking educational practices and experiences with social critique and a vision of educational alternatives

2. Feminist pedagogy: an approach to educational analysis grounded in a critique of gender inequalities in education and the factors that give rise to them, and committed to practices to change those inequalities

3. Anti-racism education: an approach to educational theory and practice oriented to identifying and changing attitudes, policies, and practices that discriminate on the basis of race

4. Political economy: an approach that emphasizes the interrelationships among social, economic, and political factors in social life; critical political economy examines the causes and consequences of deep-rooted forms of social and economic inequality

Notable definitions and concepts from Chapter 1

1. Agency: Recognition that human beings act on the basis of various degrees of choice and free will

2. Positivism: A philosophical approach that emphasizes sensory experience as the basis for all knowledge, applied as a scientific framework that seeks to derive and test laws based on empirical evidence from systematic observation and measurement

3. Sociology: An academic discipline concerned with the nature and organization of societies and the relationships that exist among individuals and society

4. Social structure: Elements of social life that are relatively patterned, interconnected, and enduring, often understood with reference to the rules and boundaries associated with different forms of social action

Weekly Words of Wisdom (5P30/5P42/5P37/1F95)

November 6, 2014 

Radiate // “Find ecstasy within yourself. It is not out there. It is in your innermost flowering. The one you are looking for is you.” - Osho

The Twenty-First-Century Teacher - Revisiting the Story Model (5P42)

THE STORY MODEL 
 
 The story model describes a change process in expanding contexts from the personal to the social, cultural, global, and universal. The frames of the Story Model represent ways of knowing. The first three frames suggest our knowing is informed by individual or social differences; the universal frame also informs out ways of knowing and speaks to the aspects that connects us to others. 

- Our knowing is filtered first through a frame informed by our personal experiences. The students in your class will all learn a bit differently because they will connect new knowledge with their unique past experiences. Your personal frame will also affect your own learning.
- The second frame is a cultural frame; culture is defined as a set of values and beliefs that drive group life in the particular culture we live in. 
- The third frame is the global frame. In the twenty-first century, we are all connected to and affected by global conditions, and the global frame is evident in education. Students in classrooms around the world collaboratively engage in tasks ranging from peer editing to sharing ideas about solutions to global problems. 
- The outer frame is the universal frame. This frame reminds us that, regardless of our differences, we are all human beings with similar needs, drives, and emotions. 

(Drake, 2014, p. x-xi)

 Chapter 6 - The Twenty-First-Century Teacher in Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment written by Susan Drake, Joanne L. Reid & Wendy Kolohon provides a look at how teachers can educate and engage with students effectively in the twenty-first-century. 

A Canadian Education Association study called Teaching the Way We Aspire to Teach: Now and in the Future (2012) asked teachers what they valued. The teachers identified the following:

• passion for teaching and learning
• caring and commitment for students
• creativity, flexibility, and willingness to take risks
• knowledge and drive for self improvement 
• energy, enthusiasm, and engagement
• trust, collaboration, and connectedness 

As a complementary view, when asked what engaged them, 220 students wanted teachers who love their work, who believed in students, and who acted like human beings (Wolpert-Gawron, 2012). 

A close match existed between how teachers aspired to Be and how students wanted their teachers to Be. 

I was curious to see how other twenty-first-century educators are predicting and preparing for fast changing educating practices in the upcoming years in North America. While poking around on wordpress blogs I came across one blog called Rliberni's Blog - Radical Language that posted about his predictions for teaching and education in 2060 and the journey we have to get from here to there.

He proposes that classrooms will be radically different. We will shift completely away from passive learning where students sit in rows and they copy information (image on left) to active/creative/meaningful discovery (image on right).

Image citation: From video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiKrFcgVSIU

This shift, he explains in his video, comes from the changing needs of the society for different kinds of labor and economy players. He proposes that there are three kinds of thinkers and industry players in society that ensure the stability of our economy and society. Yellow represents physical labor (which he suggests is the most prominent and needed component of the work force today). Pink represents mental labor which makes up a good chunk of today's work force. The small blue box in the stack on the left represents the amount of art/innovation/creative/active/discovery labor that exists currently in society. 

If we compare these three types of labor to the existing model of education, we can see how the stack of labor on the left is representative of what exists today in the work force. If educators and students alike have identified the need to shift from the existing story model of education to one representative of twenty-first-century thinkers and innovators, we can see the need for teachers to shift their practices too. Educators need to be responding and assisting the shift from passive learning to active discovery learning to keep up with the predicted shift in societal and labor patterns.

Letter of Intent - Journey from Intent to Proposal - Part 1

Monica Taylor
Masters of Education Application
Letter of Intent
February 5, 2014

Drama in Education: Facilitating the Integration of 21st Century Literacies and Concepts
in the Classroom

As a dedicated student of Brock University's Faculty of Education, my work as
both an educator and a researcher has manifest an eternal respect and wonder for the craft
of teaching. I have found my passion as both an educator and researcher. Studying
education as a concurrent student has ignited my interest in alternative ways of teaching
and learning, using drama techniques to develop life long learning and meaning-making
skills. My studies in the concurrent program have unequivocally kindled a genuine
curiosity in alternative ways of teaching and learning. My courses have allowed me to
explore the creation of standards-based interdisciplinary curriculum and 21st century
literacy skills. Through my practicum experience while in Brock’s Faculty of Education I
have created lesson plans and activities that embody critical literacy skills while infusing
them into applied drama lessons that aids students in discovering, in their own way, how
they can put life together as something that means a lot to them.

Through the "Teaching, Learning, & Development" stream, I will fulfill my
passion and vision for the craft, using my practical experiences and knowledge of the
field as a catalyst for further investigation. I would like to research and examine the
contributions that drama education and drama-teaching techniques can have to the
cognitive, social, kinesthetic and problem-solving strategies used by students in the
pursuit of meaningful and lifelong learning. I believe the most appropriate methodologies
to research the benefits and challenges of using drama as a medium to promote life long
learning and meaning-making is through action research, or living-theory research
(Whitehead, 1993; Whitehead & McNiff, 2006).

My unique flair for teaching and learning has invited several leadership
experiences into my personal life, allowing me to become recognized as a leader within
my St. Catharines community. For example, I was very fortunate to work for The United
Way ‘After School Matters’ program as a Drama Drop-In Facilitator for student groups
in need of enrichment. My job was to provide groups of students with opportunities to
creatively engage with their academics through the use of dramatic and kinesthetic
activities as a way of teaching to achieve higher order thinking. My desire is to work
collectively with community youth programs and the District School Board of Niagara
(as well as other boards) to develop a series of workable documents to aid teachers with
integrating drama techniques into their standards-based integrated curriculum.
As a student of the concurrent education program, I have had many opportunities
to write research papers in my various Education and Dramatic Arts courses. For
example, Dr. Joe Norris of the Dramatic Arts Department based the ‘Alternative Forms of Theatre’ DART 3F98 course on his book Playbuilding as Qualitative Research: A
Participatory Arts-Based Approach. This course allowed me to hone my research skills
by examining how collaborative creation can bring intervention, development, and social
change to fruition. Due to my keen interest and active participation in applied theatre, I
was able to write an 8000-word research paper to conclude the positive findings of the
research.

As an education student, I have worked closely with critical education theory and
have interrogated the links between educational theory and practice; this has driven me to
pursue a Masters of Education degree at Brock University. I have experienced firsthand
the support and innovative research of Brock's Faculty of Education, and would benefit
from the expertise of Dr. Susan Drake while studying standards-based integrated
curriculum and 21st century literacy education (Drake, 2012). Furthermore, Dr. Joe Norris
and Prof. Helen Zdriluk of the Drama Department have provided the framework for
research in drama education studies, which has been invaluable to my research interest
(Norris, 2009). Not only does Brock offer the resources I need to pursue my research
interests, but I am confident that my passion, enthusiasm, and academic talent will be an
asset to the program as well.

Works Cited

Drake, S. (2012). Creating Standards-Based Integrated Curriculum: The Common Core
State Standards Edition. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.

Norris, J. (2009). Playbuilding as Qualitative Research: A Participatory Arts-Based
Approach. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press Inc.

Whitehead, J., & McNiff, J. (2006). Action Research: Living Theory. London: Sage.

Whitehead, J. (1993). The Growth of Educational Knowledge. Creating Your Own Living
Educational Theories. Brighton: Hyde Publications.

Exploring Interdisciplinary Curriculum (5P42)

Literature Review: Integrating the disciplines: Successful interdisciplinary subjects. 

Literature:

Golding, C. (2009). Integrating the disciplines: Successful interdisciplinary subjects. Melbourne, University of Melbourne Press.

Type:

Guide / Descriptive

Review:

This guide, Integrating the disciplines: Successful interdisciplinary subjects, outlines why and how the University of Melbourne believes interdisciplinary teaching and learning to be integral to the curriculum of their institution. As well as the primary document, two supporting documents: Attributes of the Melbourne Graduate (2009) & Refining our Strategy (2009) were included in the guide to support claims made by the CSHE (center for the study of higher education).

This guide seems to provide two distinct purposes; one to enhance and educate on the interdisciplinary methods of the University of Melbourne and to provide a document for reference to enable consistency, second as a tool for educators outside of the University to use this process for themselves elsewhere. I believe that reading this guide has helped me conceptualize how our integrated units are going to be framed and how to go about it. I found the language in this guide very accessible and easy to relate and engage with your own interdisciplinary practice. This guide provides insight the importance and ideal scenarios to engage with either disciplinary or interdisciplinary subjects. Although the guide is written in the context and for the purpose of a University, the methods, procedures and findings are easily transferable to post secondary interdisciplinary work.

I would like to include the sections within this guide as I found just looking at the headings sparked ideas.

• Introducing interdisciplinary subjects
• What are interdisciplinary subjects?
• What are the generic objectives of interdisciplinary subjects?
• Do interdisciplinary subjects require disciplinary depth?
• How do you design and coordinate interdisciplinary subjects? (Included - Interdisciplinary subject template)
• How do you assess interdisciplinary learning?
• What conceptions do students need for successful interdisciplinary teaching and learning?
• How do you evaluate the success of interdisciplinary subjects?
• What criteria can be used for quality assurance of interdisciplinary subjects?

MY COMMENTS: 

I would like to include here a selection of referenced works at the end of this document that I believe may lead to deeper understanding of the practices of interdisciplinary work at the University of Melbourne and to inform practices of interdisciplinary work across the world.

Petrie, H. (1976). Do You See What I See? The Epistemology of Interdisciplinary Inquiry. Educational Researcher, 5(2), 9-15.

Paul, R. W., & Elder, L. (2002). The Miniature Guide to the Art of Asking Essential Questions. Santa Rosa: Foundation for Critical Thinking.

Paul, R. W. (1994). Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs to Survive in a Rapidly Changing World (revised 3rd ed.). Melbourne: Hawker Brownlow Education.

Nikitina, S. (2002). Three Strategies for Interdisciplinary Teaching: Contextualising, Conceptualising, and Problem-Solving. Project Zero: Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Lyon, A. (1992). Interdisciplinarity: Giving up Territory. College English, 54(6), 681-693.

McCalman, J., Muir, L., & Soeterboek, C. (2008). Adventures with Breadth: A Story of Interdisciplinary Innovation. Melbourne: Centre for the Study of Higher Education.

Miller, M., & Boix Mansilla, V. (2004). Thinking Across Perspectives and Disciplines. Interdisciplinary Studies Project, Project Zero: Harvard Graduate School of Education.

What is development? Defining for a purpose. (5P30)

Teaching, Learning, Development:

What is development? Defining for a purpose.

“Our main critique of a traditional notion of development is that it has been assumed that development is independent of an observer. We argue that development is a social construction emerging in and among communities of practice” (Matusov, Hayes, & Drye, 2007, p.1).

In an attempt to fully understand the scope of the field I am researching under (Teaching, Learning, and Development), defining the broad discourse that falls under each of these concepts will assist in conceptualizing my work. During my undergraduate education classes and pre-service education, I was exposed to many opportunities to discuss, reflect, and define learning and teaching. I had previously assumed that the scope of what development encompasses was a concise, easy to define term used to enhance our understanding of teaching and learning. After reading Matusov, Hayes, & Drye’s article Whose Development?Salvaging the concept of development within a sociocultural approach toeducation, I was able to see that defining the discourse of development was more complicated than I had anticipated.

I am wondering how does education fit into the scope of development? Three differing angles to this debate have fueled education research on the development of students. Piaget believed that development was a constraint for education which cautions educators against implementing curricula and instruction that lay outside the student’s developmental stage. Where Vygotsky believed in the zone of proximal development in which more capable peers, adults, or a sociocultural activity (e.g. play) engage a child in more advanced actions than he or she would have done on their own and thus defines the child’s development (Matusov, Hayes, & Drye, 2007, p.2).  Third, there is also the belief that development is a self-organizing dynamic system that pulls focus to the emergence of stable patterns of relations. This view of development shifts focus from the student (how much they learn/how they behave) to the student’s emerging relationships (with peers, teachers and parents as ‘hidden curricula’ of education) (Matusov, Hayes, & Drye, 2007, p.3). 

The paper reviewed here examines the traditional notion or development and then provides an alternate, sociocultural view to development as a response to defining development in education and psychology. The traditional notion of development assumes that development is independent of an observer. What is common among these attempts to define development is how its observers define development, thus playing an integral part of the development of development. Defining development as something that is tangible and is effected by observers/outsiders allows education to apply pedagogical actions to enhance certain developmental phenomenon specific to the sociocultural aspects of the school/board/classroom. I would be interested in incorporating a more comprehensive understanding and definition of development in my future qualitative arts-informed research.

Matsuov, E., Hayes, R., & Drye, S. (2007). Whose Development? Salvaging the concept of development within a sociocultural approach to education. Educational Theory, 57(4), 1-8.

Ms. Taylor, when am I ever going to use this in real life? (5P42)

I often wonder how as educators in this insanely faced paced 21st century learning world how we can effectively provide relevant curriculum and education for students across Canada's cultural mosaic. We are seeing the need and relevance of moving from one teacher/ one subject learning to a more integrated and collaborative style of learning. There is a passage in Chapter 5 that caught my attention in how it was phrased. "With only one teacher, some excellent teaching and learning can happen with fewer obstacles. Yet we have found that some of the richest integrated units are designed collaboratively." The yet proposes that this action of collaboration for richer integrated units and curriculum is an uncommon or underestimated. It shocks me some times to remember and recognize that this has not been the practice of curriculum development in the past. It excites me to remember we are all in a position of great influence as collaborative educators in the 21st century world. I believe it may be easier for elementary teachers to wrap their heads around the benefit and potential ease of blending and integrating subjects together to teach concepts or themes in the classroom. I have always separated secondary subjects from each other in order to fully grasp the scope and depth of each individual subject. I believed it would be a disservice to blend them together for students, it would be too confusing. 

I am now able to see how integrated curriculum can actually heighten students awareness of the scope and depth of each individual subject. This awareness comes from the explicit skill and ability to make meaningful connections between subjects and between the subject and daily life. Integrated units and curriculum allow for broader themed projects or community based projects, for example, which give students immediate use for the skills and knowledge acquired in a method that connects to them personally. This immediate tangible knowledge can assist with the inevitable question, "Ms. Taylor when am I ever going to use this in real life?" 

In order to find the common themes and threads that can relevantly link material to practice comes from careful consideration and brainstorming on the part of the collaborating educators. I will insert another verbatim Chapter 5 quote here;

"Typically, there may be territorial conflict about what knowledge and skills are front and centre. The backward design process facilitates a process where all collaborators can find a substantive place for their subject areas by providing a way to discover what is common across them" (Drake, Reid & Kolohan 2014). 

Changing the educator territorial and subject specific niches from a rigid to an interchangeable one can impact the approach students take to school work. Collaborative learning that happens at all levels of learning and education (curriculum development, teacher training, daily classroom teaching and daily classroom learning) will permeate and trickle through to daily learning routines.