Week of 1/18/10

I always love reading the influential research pieces: they give dimension to the representation of who you are and what motivates you, and they are a great getting to know you exercise. Remember, I’m joining this party after it has begun – and entering into a discussion that is already in progress.

One piece I like to share is the chapter of psychiatrist Daniel Stern’s book The Interpersonal World of the Infant, in which he describes the transition to becoming verbal. When I first read this text it taught me a lesson in contextual thinking that I have never forgotten.

Most people -- likely all people, really -- see becoming verbal as a great accomplishment. Acquiring the ability to speak is tremendous. It enables the baby to talk about things with another, to share a focus with someone else on a third object or person. It makes it possible to even talk about things that are not present, and thereby to play and to imagine. All this is wonderful. And yet, Daniel Stern also points out what is lost when becoming verbal. I had never even considered the possibility that anything might be lost in a move so positive as learning to talk.

What Stern points out is that the language version of reality or experience becomes the “official version.” That which can be experienced can be articulated, expressed, but in the official way—through language. And yet, until that point there are a myriad of equally important other ways to experience the world, and even to express this without language. In some ways, the human need for art, music, dance, and so on is born with the ascent of verbal language, because these are other modalities and non-verbal ways of experiencing and expressing our experiences.

Our choices of influential research fall into groups—or at least one way to sort them into categories that comes to mind is the group of a) psychological insights (Multiple Intelligences, Maslow’s hierarchy and Bloom’s taxonomy, right-brainedness . . .); b) Classroom management approaches: Wong, Leadership Gold, Discipline with Dignity, and Love & Logic; c) specific discipline or area teaching: English, Words Their Way, Rethinking Curriculum in Art, Alan November’s Web Literacy. . .; and d) the importance of perspective: from anthropology Farmer, and from psychiatry Daniel Stern. 

Some of this research is quantitative, based in the positivist notions of counting up regularities and creating measurable quantities of things in order to investigate the world. Some of these pieces are based in qualitative methods of inquiry: examining phenomena and their impact on systems or descriptions of processes. In addition, some are attempts to create theory that can help explain and predict outcomes.

Many have expressed a learner-centered view of teaching and interacting as an educator or teacher with pupils, students, public, that rely upon their thinking abilities, choice, and motivation. Engagement with the whole person is a big part of the power of this interaction. 

For many of us, having come across the piece we shared profoundly changed the ways we thought about or engaged in our work and even our ways of being in the world. This speaks to the power of research to influence practice. In recognition of this power, it behooves us to learn about critiquing and evaluating research for its validity (the degree to which something is measuring what it purports to measure) and reliability (the accuracy of the measurement – how trustworthy we feel it is, whether if measured repeatedly or by different raters the measurement will come out the same, within a certain error of measurement). We want to be able to define and investigate problems of practice, to know that we are investigating these in trustworthy and rigorous ways that reduce our bias, and that lead us to warranted conclusions, that we are using methods that others could follow and find similar results and evaluate our account for its veracity.

What do you think as you look across people’s selections?

Please do Parts 1-3 of the following by Monday, Jan. 25. 

Part 1) Now that you have read Chapter 1 of the Art of Classroom Inquiry (AOCI) respond in writing.

As you consider this chapter, keep in mind that the intended audience of the book is the teacher/researcher who is expected to conduct their research in classrooms or directly within their practice. You may need to adapt a stance in your reading to help you take their writing in an analogous way. Not everything in the book’s approach is directly or literally related to your projects. If you find that the translation eludes you, please write and I can try to help.

Responses to Chapter 1: reflections, thoughts about the book or the chapter itself, about research as an endeavor, etc., any comments or questions, doubts or concerns about any of these, or about the meaning of the book chapter, these are invited.

Part 2) A -- For yourself: begin to list possible research topics and to think through ways to define and articulate possible research questions. Here are some guiding questions for this process. They are not intended to be answered in full: rather they are suggested entry points--use as many or as few of them as are helpful to you.

Ask yourself: What do I want to learn from my pilot?

List possible topics and discuss issues related to them.

What particularly interests you about each idea, what motivates you to study this?

How do you define the terms of your topic(s)? Be specific about what the words mean to you and what they mean in the field.

Consider how excited you are about each topic, what really grabs you and why?

Questions, doubts, concerns, etc. about any of these topics?

As a thought exercise, it might help to think about research you have read or been exposed to that has influenced what you do in a profound way. What characterizes that piece of research? What kind of research is it? What did you learn from it, and what kind of changes did you make as a result? What impact would you like your pilot project to have? What would you like your work to contribute to?

What is your pilot about? What is its purpose? What would you like to know about what it accomplishes, and/or about how well it accomplishes those goals?

B -- Share your list with your project mate/s and have a discussion about your pilots and what you want to investigate.

Part 3) Read the Introduction and any two chapters from Rethinking Our Classrooms (ROC) and respond to questions of your choice from the following:

Respond to and discuss the Introduction and two pieces from Rethinking Our Schools (ROC).

     a) List the titles of the pieces you read.

     b) Think about what you have read. Respond to the sections: how do you think/feel in relation to these pieces?

     c) Critique the readings. Possibilities include the following suggestions or points you can think of. This is not an exhaustive list--you need not respond to all or any of these points. You may develop your own, and/or you may choose one or a number of these points as ways to frame your discussion.

Suggested guiding questions follow:

+ Summarize the pieces succinctly.

+ Analyze them for consistency and reliability.

+ Who wrote the piece and what is their concern?

+ Evaluate what is articulated well, what is well warranted on the part of the author, what may be less so. What is the quality of the authors' arguments, evidence presented in support of these, etc.?

+ What is left out? What is assumed or taken for granted? 

+ Compare the pieces: discuss their similarities and differences.

+ What is your response to them: agree, disagree, etc.?

+ What are some implications of the pieces?

+ What questions do you want to ask now that you've read these pieces?