Thanks John, an interesting way of looking at the issue of 'strategic
learning'.
A couple of years ago I conducted an induction survey to look at how
students felt prepared for university study. Many of the students used
the metaphor of travel - that learning was a journey that they were
undertaking. They that needed certain resources (from the
educators/institutions) - fuel, directions, map, reliable vehicle etc.
Some extended this metaphor to interplanetary travel, seeing the
achievement of their degree as a distant star that was likely to be
difficult to reach. Others took a more local perspective... Waiting at
the bus-stop unsure of the timetable, taking a taxi to the airport etc.
I wish I'd made more of it then, but it was just part of a broader
discussion. It did point to aspects of the journey that students felt
were beyond their control, but necessary to reaching their destination.
Caroline Cash
Research Fellow
Learning and Teaching Research Centre
University College Falmouth
Woodlane, Falmouth, Cornwall, TR11 4RH
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Telephone +44 132 621 4390
website: www.falmouth.ac.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: learning development in higher education network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Martin Hampton
Sent: 04 June 2007 11:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: metaphors - just scoring points?
Quite agree that creating and criticising metaphors for learning can be
a great way to:
a) encourage reflection and meta-cognition
b) make 'critique' accessible.
Sometimes it seems that 'what is this NOT like' is almost as effective a
question as 'what is this like?' - especially when it is proving
difficult to think of answers to the latter.
Martin H
>>> John Hilsdon <[log in to unmask]> 01/06/2007 15:27 >>>
Dear All
A minor Friday afternoon diversion ...
I thought you might enjoy and find interesting a brief article by Walter
Tschinkel (professor of biological science at Florida State
University)
that was sent to me via a colleague here in Plymouth. It explores some
common metaphors for learning and asks helpfully critical questions
about 'building blocks' and sports related images, the extent to which
they accord with reality, and their implications for teaching and
learning. He is provocative about learning, how deeply students learn,
and the instrumentalism encouraged by how we assess ... He also
discusses some alternatives.
Tschinkel asked his students about suitable metaphors for education.
They agreed with the notion of constructing a building - but he
countered:
"My observations suggest that there is another metaphor that describes
your mode of operation more closely," I said, "and that is sports. When
you play a sport, your preparation reaches a crescendo just before a
match (exam). If you win the match (exam), you get points (grades) in
proportion to your placement. You keep track of those points,
strategizing about how to get more next time. The match leaves no
residue other than the points. At the end of college, you enter the
working world with your overall standing (grade-point average) and
little more. Your approach is certainly effective in getting the points
that get you through college, but it is poor when it comes to getting an
actual education."
Hmmmm! I wonder what others might make of that ... I was, unthinkingly,
about to simply paste the full text of the article into an email and
send it to the list, but then realised there may be ethical and legal
issues around reproducing the full text in a public open list such as
ours.
This led me to seek out the source of the material to see if the article
is 'free'. It is not 'technically' free - but my journey was worth
taking - you might want to go there too!
Seeking the source of Tschinkel's article led me first to the "Science
Education Resource Center" of Carleton College in the US (Northfield,
MN): http://serc.carleton.edu/serc/about.html
This site points to a wealth of science-related and learning development
materials some of you may find useful.
From there, I found my way to "The Chronicle of Higher Education" (a US
publication) in which the Walter Tschinkel article was published. If you
are not familiar with the Chronicle (I wasn't) I thoroughly recommend
that you go to the site http://chronicle.com/ to see for yourselves. A
range of fascinating articles kept me from my urgent 'to do' list for a
good hour this afternoon!
If you are keen to pursue the article, it has been distributed and
discussed on a US email list: [log in to unmask]
http://serc.carleton.edu/mailman/listinfo/elements and the full text is
available from
http://serc.carleton.edu/pipermail/elements/2007-May/thread.html - click
on "Elements good article" posted by Dexter Perkins.
Happy weekends folks
John
John Hilsdon
Co-ordinator, Learning Development
University of Plymouth
Drake Circus
Plymouth
PL4 8AA
01752 232276
[log in to unmask]
http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/learn
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