 |
 |
-----Original Message----- From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development Association [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Professor Phil Race Sent: 05 July 2007 11:45 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: award winning film >I do, however, continue to worry about the word 'understanding' as often being used in a >rather woolly way, and use the little 'dialogue' (slides 2 >attached) in my workshops to try to help colleagues to be much more specific about what >they really intend their students to become able to do. Perhaps this is (in the language >of the video) helping teachers to be 'level 3' and helping their students also to behave >in 'level 3' ways? I very much like those ^^^ slides about understanding, illustrating that desperate effort to gauge understanding while asking questions thath just won't do it (and then basically giving up). I kind of focused on the debate a little late, and deleted a lot of the earlier contributions, but something drew me in, and I've looked at the film now, so I hope I'm not repeating too much. I agree that there are some very distracting stereotypes, and I think for this film to be used in any useful way, it would have to be carefully deconstructed with viewers to ensure they are not sidetracked. I was getting into thinking about the problematic binary there, but then maybe that's all part of illustrating the stage one view -- if accompanied by a discussion of the stereotypical 'good' and 'bad' students, then maybe those stereotypes could be examined and taken apart. I think such a discussion should also involve an investigation of the impact of the broader political context on people's HE choices and motivations. I find people (ie my peers) increasingly shy away from this aspect, and I can't quite understand why. The film goes as fair as raising the issue that students might have different goals from one another and Robert is responding to a system, but how that system operates requires more analysis. I believe we need an understanding of the _systems_ we're working against to have an impact as well as having the teaching strategies to try to beat them. Thanks for making me think about these things more. Debra Debra Boyask, Educational Developer Faculty of the Built Environment, University of the West of England [log in to unmask], Phone 0117 328 3211, Fax 0117 328 3002 This email was independently scanned for viruses by McAfee anti-virus software and none were found