Hi
I agree with Stuart that part of the issue is competence vs process,
but I think it extends further than that. What worries me is the
tendency (no doubt dredged from a desire to converge on a single
answer - one of the unfortunate habits that science seems to have
infiltrated into other disciplines) to seek an exclusive
theory/practical explanation of learning rather than an overlapping
set of explanatory frameworks from which one or more might be
selected to help with a particular environment and situation - a more
postmodern approach. For example, I do not find the idea that
intellectual learning is somehow situated in individual mental
activity excludes the idea that learning is socially
conditioned, given that the mental activity will relate to the
individual's social being.
Actually, I think all of us follow the 'Anything Goes' dictum of
postmodernism (not to be confused with the meaningless and anarchic
'Everything Goes' with which it is often (deliberately?) confused by
modernists seeking to bash postmodernism) in our relations with
students - that is we seek something that will work for the student
in that environment under the operative conditions, and try not to
assume it will work for all students at all times. Hence our desire
to create as many 'pathways' or 'learning options' as possible,
simply because it is very difficult in a mass system to have the
degree of individual attention to allow us to specify the environment
and conditions for every student. Indeed we may even wish to
'stretch' the student into more flexibility themselves.
This is where the importance of process comes back in. Whatever the
competence - and let's agree that this denotes something, and my
experience with dentists unfortunately suggests it does ;-}, the
issue is whether it is a dessicated or a juicy concept - students may
come to it in different ways, and those ways will be critical in the
transferability of any acquired skills.
Surely it is possible to have a debate on this list which builds on
as well as 'bashes'. Don't we say in assessing our students it is
good to find something positive even if we are largely critical about
a piece of work?
Chris O'Hagan
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Christopher O'Hagan
Dean of Learning Development
Centre for Educational Development and Media
University of Derby
Kedleston Road
DERBY, DE22 1DA
England
Tel: +44 (0)1332 622262 (direct)
Fax: +44 (0)1332 622772
Email: [log in to unmask]
WWW: http://www.derby.ac.uk/cedm/welcome.html
I am always seeking book proposals for SEDA Publications:
http://www.seda.demon.co.uk/pubsmenu.html
and article proposals for the webzine The Technology Source:
http://horizon.unc.edu/TS
There is a crack - a crack in everything:
That's how the light gets in. L.Cohen, 'Anthem'
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