[P2P-F] Fwd: Wired : learner centered movement

Sat Oct 19 03:49:11 CEST 2013

Thanks Anna for putting this forward.

I find Montessori and other related pedagogies of interest in this respect,
leaving the space to the child ( in us ) , not forcing it upon the learner.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education ; but also Piaget,
Steiner, Freire, etc  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedagogy  )

And also ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student-centred_learning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-oppressive_education

On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 7:02 PM, Anna Harris <anna at shsh.co.uk> wrote:

> This is an interesting discussion, but seems to be leaving out the most
> important element, consulting the child. Child centered really means the
> child in charge, trusting the child to make decisions and learn from
> mistakes.
>
> While I understand your concern June, my child self feels constricted by
> all these principles. TEF seems to have a very clear idea of what it is
> trying to produce. Has it asked the child? It seems to have been decided
> what is best for the child, and for society. Certainly more respectful but
> still a top down decision.
>
> Do we really need to stipulate anything? Could we just follow the child,
> learn from the child? That doesn't mean abnegating my own interaction and
> involvement, but that must always be strictly as an equal, not to dictate
> because of my superior age and experience. This is not easy. We think we
> know. We feel responsible. Huge learning for the adult is involved.
>
> And there is still some sort of social demand that the child be 'useful to
> society', Leave them alone, let them be free. We have done enough damage.
>
> Anna
>
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 5:20 PM, Dante-Gabryell Monson <
> dante.monson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Hi June,
>>
>> Thanks for your reply,
>>
>> I personally do not see this as a replacement of humans by the machines.
>>
>> I rather see the internet as a powerful tool for access to information,
>> both supporting and facilitated by dynamics between learners.
>>
>> I believe that the pedagogies it can be inspired of are that of Piaget,
>> Montessori, ...
>>
>> And as Marco underlined, hardly any new self learning ( or mutual
>> learning ) approaches.
>>
>> What is new, is possibly broader mainstream recognition, possibly
>> supported by the more widespread usage and interconnection of information
>> technologies globally, and in peoples lifestyles, facilitating a shift away
>> of "the expert", or "the teacher" as monopoly in terms of knowledge.
>>
>> Such approaches have been central in my own learning - up to a point
>> where I felt I could learn faster / feel less alienated in my learning by
>> leaving school.
>>
>> The challenge, then, for me at least, is to build up recognition through
>> networked approaches, with peers, rather then through top down ,
>> centralized certification programs and education environments.
>>
>> Although one may argue that the tests could at some point confirm the
>> acquired ( self ) learning, the self learner ( or rather, the mutual
>> learners in self organizing approaches ) does not, contrary to official
>> enrolled students, benefit from such "student" status, and at least in my
>> experience, faces pressures from society, even if only in terms of lack of
>> support.
>>
>> Cordially,
>> Dante
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 1:37 PM, June Gorman <june_gorman at sbcglobal.net>wrote:
>>
>>> Dante-Gabryell --
>>>
>>> This is wonderful stuff.  I know of Mitra's work and find it exciting.
>>>  Some of us in the UN Commons Cluster are working on these ideas as well
>>> and how they fit into education of and about all the Commons.
>>>
>>> But as a 30+ year (Western-US) teacher and the founder of the *MailScanner
>>> has detected a possible fraud attempt from "209.172.54.115" claiming to be
>>> <http://209.172.54.115/>MailScanner has detected a possible fraud
>>> attempt from "209.172.54.115" claiming to be Transformative Education
>>> Forum *, I would caution at the over-enthusiasm of the computer-focused
>>> translation of this idea of "learner-centered".  It is clearly an amazing
>>> and freeing tool in countless ways besides providing the "Library of the
>>> World" to any child, nearly anywhere with access to one.  But it reduces
>>> dangerously the historical, pedagogical and epistemological theories of
>>> learning and the human child themselves, down to dangerously reductive
>>> concepts of what in fact is most important "to learn".  Whose "information"
>>> gets processed and with what underlying results?
>>>
>>> It is one of my deepest concerns with the over-promotion of STEM
>>> (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) in the Western world,
>>> dramatically by "education promoting companies" who want to sell this model
>>> to everyone else as the US is currently doing promoting "No Child Left
>>> Behind" worldwide through the World Bank and Brookings Institute.  But for
>>> those of us in the education field all our life, there is definite need to
>>> examine these issues, like certain brain theory results accompanying early
>>> child exposure to computers as their dominant learner - interaction.  The
>>> TEF tries to address this issue of needed complete intelligence development
>>> with arts, humanities and especially the social/cultural/emotional learning
>>> not developed with this priority or technological "default".
>>>
>>> Anyway, more is available on this on the TEF website, but particularly
>>> the *MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from
>>> "209.172.54.115" claiming to be TEF Principles*<http://209.172.54.115/web/guest/principles>.
>>>  There is a serious caution here about just how much and what exactly, the
>>> "machines" can and do teach when used primarily? So much cheaper though,
>>> for those trying to go into the field of education for their own profit and
>>> on top of it, leaves out those more philosophical, even human justice and
>>> equity arguments that actually really matter for children around the world
>>> to ultimately make sense of their lives and societies.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> June
>>> *June Gorman, Educator and Educational Theorist*
>>>  Co-founder*, **MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from
>>> "209.172.54.115" claiming to be <http://209.172.54.115/>MailScanner has
>>> detected a possible fraud attempt from "209.172.54.115" claiming to be Transformative
>>> Education Forum (note website re-work, so ignore "non-standard"
>>> notification :-)*
>>> Education Advisor,  <http://www.safepla.net/>
>>> *UN SafePlanet Campaign *
>>> *Board Project Director for Outreach, I**nternational Model United
>>> Nations Association* <http://imuna.org/>* *
>>> *Steering Committee, (UNESCO/Global Compact) **K-12 Sector for
>>> Sustainability Education *<http://www.uspartnership.org/main/view_archive/1>
>>> Member, UN Education Caucus for Sustainable Development
>>> Member, UN Commons Cluster
>>>
>>>
>>>   ------------------------------
>>>  *From:* Michel Bauwens <michel at p2pfoundation.net>
>>> *To:* p2p-foundation <p2p-foundation at lists.ourproject.org>
>>> *Sent:* Friday, October 18, 2013 4:03 AM
>>> *Subject:* [P2P-F] Fwd: Wired : learner centered movement
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: *Dante-Gabryell Monson* <dante.monson at gmail.com>
>>> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 2:16 AM
>>> Subject: Wired : learner centered movement
>>> To: "econowmix at googlegroups.com" <econowmix at googlegroups.com>, "
>>> netention-dev at googlegroups.com" <netention-dev at googlegroups.com>, "
>>> global-survival at googlegroups.com" <global-survival at googlegroups.com>
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/free-thinkers/*
>>> *
>>> *a new breed of educators, inspired by everything from the Internet to
>>> evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and AI, are inventing radical new
>>> ways for children to learn, grow, and thrive. To them, knowledge isn’t a
>>> commodity that’s delivered from teacher to student but something that
>>> emerges from the students’ own curiosity-fueled exploration.*
>>> entire article :
>>> http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/free-thinkers/all/
>>> *student centered movement :
>>> http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/student-centered-movement/*
>>> " TED has created a toolkit full of ideas for jumpstarting
>>> student-centered learning in your home, local community, or school. It’s
>>> called SOLE: How to Bring Self-Organized Learning Environments to Your
>>> Community. Download it here <http://www.ted.com/pages/sole_toolkit> and
>>> share your story afterward on the SOLE Tumblr<http://tedsole.tumblr.com/>
>>> ."
>>> further large excerpts :
>>> Teachers provide prompts, not answers, and then they step aside so
>>> students can teach themselves and one another. They are creating ways for
>>> children to discover their passion—and uncovering a generation of geniuses
>>> in the process.
>>> ...
>>> “If you put a computer in front of children and remove all other adult
>>> restrictions, they will self-organize around it,” Mitra says, “like bees
>>> around a flower.”
>>> A charismatic and convincing proselytizer, Mitra has become a darling in
>>> the tech world. In early 2013 he won a $1 million grant from TED, the
>>> global ideas conference, to pursue his work.
>>> He’s now in the process of establishing seven “schools in the cloud,”
>>> five in India and two in the UK. In India, most of his schools are
>>> single-room buildings. There will be no teachers, curriculum, or separation
>>> into age groups—just six or so computers and a woman to look after the
>>> kids’ safety. His defining principle: “The children are completely in
>>> charge.”
>>> Mitra argues that the information revolution has enabled a style of
>>> learning that wasn’t possible before.
>>> ...
>>> Mitra’s work has roots in educational practices dating back to Socrates.
>>> Theorists from Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi to Jean Piaget and Maria
>>> Montessori have argued that students should learn by playing and following
>>> their curiosity.
>>> ...
>>> In recent years, researchers have begun backing up those theories with
>>> evidence. In a 2011 study, scientists at the University of Illinois at
>>> Urbana-Champaign and the University of Iowa scanned the brain activity of
>>> 16 people sitting in front of a computer screen.
>>> ...
>>> The study found that when the subjects controlled their own
>>> observations, they exhibited more coordination between the hippocampus and
>>> other parts of the brain involved in learning and posted a 23 percent
>>> improvement in their ability to remember objects. “The bottom line is, if
>>> you’re not the one who’s controlling your learning, you’re not going to
>>> learn as well,” says lead researcher Joel Voss, now a neuroscientist at
>>> Northwestern University.
>>> ...
>>> A similar study at UC Berkeley demonstrated that kids given no
>>> instruction were much more likely to come up with novel solutions to a
>>> problem. “The science is brand-new, but it’s not as if people didn’t have
>>> this intuition before,” says coauthor Alison Gopnik, a professor of
>>> psychology at UC Berkeley.
>>> Gopnik’s research is informed in part by advances in artificial
>>> intelligence. If you program a robot’s every movement, she says, it can’t
>>> adapt to anything unexpected. But when scientists build machines that are
>>> programmed to try a variety of motions and learn from mistakes, the robots
>>> become far more adaptable and skilled. The same principle applies to
>>> children, she says.
>>> ...
>>> Evolutionary psychologists have also begun exploring this way of
>>> thinking. Peter Gray, a research professor at Boston College who studies
>>> children’s natural ways of learning, argues that human cognitive machinery
>>> is fundamentally incompatible with conventional schooling. Gray points out
>>> that young children, motivated by curiosity and playfulness, teach
>>> themselves a tremendous amount about the world. And yet when they reach
>>> school age, we supplant that innate drive to learn with an imposed
>>> curriculum. “We’re teaching the child that his questions don’t matter, that
>>> what matters are the questions of the curriculum. That’s just not the way
>>> natural selection designed us to learn. It designed us to solve problems
>>> and figure things out that are part of our real lives.”
>>> Some school systems have begun to adapt to this new philosophy—with
>>> outsize results. In the 1990s, Finland pared the country’s elementary math
>>> curriculum from about 25 pages to four, reduced the school day by an hour,
>>> and focused on independence and active learning. By 2003, Finnish students
>>> had climbed from the lower rungs of international performance rankings to
>>> first place among developed nations.
>>> ...
>>> Juárez Correa had mixed feelings about the test. His students had
>>> succeeded because he had employed a new teaching method, one better suited
>>> to the way children learn. It was a model that emphasized group work,
>>> competition, creativity, and a student-led environment. So it was ironic
>>> that the kids had distinguished themselves because of a conventional
>>> multiple-choice test. “These exams are like limits for the teachers,” he
>>> says. “They test what you know, not what you can do, and I am more
>>> interested in what my students can do.”
>>> ...
>>> But these examples—involving only thousands of students—are the
>>> exceptions to the rule. The system as a whole educates millions and is slow
>>> to recognize or adopt successful innovation. It’s a system that was
>>> constructed almost two centuries ago to meet the needs of the industrial
>>> age. Now that our society and economy have evolved beyond that era, our
>>> schools must also be reinvented.
>>> ...
>>> *Want to help teachers like Sergio Juárez Correa make a difference?
>>> Here’s how you can get involved in the student-centered movement<http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/student-centered-movement/>
>>> .*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
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>>> http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>>>
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>>>
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>>
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