“Fraud.”
It’s the sentiment running through my mind as I skim my previous post. (I’d actually forgotten that I’d written it, but then couldn’t remember where I’d put the image of the self-actualized learner (which I did distinctly recall using) and so went searching for it.) Funny how five weeks can influence one’s perspectives.
These interim days have challenged me to the point of incapacitation…who was I to say ” Let’s go. I’m ready.”? Over and over, I find myself aghast at my lack of formal knowledge of the theories and constructs that I am supposedly, as an educator myself, to be purposefully and intentionally employing.
A part of me is irritated and appalled by this seeming ignorance. Another part of me rails against my choice to work casually or in temporary positions, leading to the fact that I’ve had virtually no opportunity to participate in professional development at all (never mind that which is meaningful and useful). Still another part of me feels frustrated with my undergrad teacher prep experience, and the fact that some of those classes (I’m looking at you, assessment and educational psychology) did so little to actually prepare me to be a teacher, no matter that that was nearly twenty years ago!
The fallout of this is manifold, but notably it means that I’m thinking about all of this nearly constantly. This morning was no different; on my way to the gym I was struck by the plumes and billows of exhaust and condensation in my wee bit of urban jungle in the -27°C weather:
people who live in more temperate climes (prior to the advent of global communication, anyway) could plausibly have had no inkling that our breath, vehicle exhaust, household ventilation systems, etc. are composed of anything tangible. And yet, a single change in setting harbours the potential for a radical shift in understanding!
This moment beautifully illustrated so much of what I have been reading relating to learning design and educational research. Just because something isn’t known does not mean that it is impossible to determine; sometimes a change away from the norm (and, dare I extrapolate, comfort) is needed to discover new and profoundly unexpected eventualities.
It brings to mind so much of what I’ve been reading in Peter Liljedahl’s Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics; I am continually awed by the methodical and logical manner in which he describes naming behaviours relating to thinking (or not), and the layers of iterations honing actions to increase thinking, and how, ultimately, a change in setting can evoke such profound shifts in understanding the way in which thinking is engendered!
My appreciation for these insights, and others like them, brings me full circle back to the sentiments of my last post: optimistic anticipation of what it is I might discover along the way, if only I will allow myself to be shifted into a new setting.
Post’s featured image 2021 12 Frost on Window taken by me.
Seek. Grow. Share.