Mass Customized Learning

Easily the most profound aspect of mass customized learning is the emphasis on actual learning and growth, and the ability to group students based on ability and readiness rather than age allows instructors to create a deep and authentic curriculum. The most common criticism I often hear of MCL is that critics often fear the trend of grouping students by ability rather than age will result in students staying in school longer than they would have otherwise. The best response is often the reverse of this, while some students may spend more time in school others will have earned their diploma much sooner, at the same time those who spend more time in school will certainly be much more prepared earn a better job or go to college than they otherwise would. Personally one of my favorite aspects of MCL is the emphasis on using evidence to prove proficiency, typically these artifacts are collected throughout the unit or semester and give a much more in depth picture of how the student is developing and what they have learned rather than a single test that could be skewed by multiple variables.

Voices

I found that while most of the philosophies seemed reasonable I never could commit myself to a single one. Though even the philosophies that stood out as poorly conceived had at least one or two valid points that could be used to develop a solid teaching philosophy. Which is what I mostly found myself doing, disagreeing with quite a few things and cherry picking from them a brief piece or two that I agreed with. While Confucius and a passage about Native American philosophy were included in the Voices article I was a little surprised by just how Eurocentric the entire piece was. The Native American piece stuck me as more than a little strange where they reduced numerous cultural groups and peoples who lived vastly different lives into a single blanket teaching philosophy seemed more than a little but sloppy.

Teach

Teach constantly had me simultaneously reflecting on myself as a high school student and as an educator. I consistently saw myself in the students and the teachers and the entire film gave way to a considerably introspective process. Most profound were the experiences with the math class that tested the pilot program of 360 degree math and the AP world history course, both of which seemed to be manifestations of my own high school experience.

Math was always something I struggled with in high school, there always seemed to be some disconnect. Usually as we began a new topic things went pretty well, the material seemed fairly straight-forward and I was able to put all the pieces together, though as soon as we moved beyond the opening stages I would always fall behind again. I feel as though the 360 degree math would have been the perfect environment for me to learn effectively. I was always uncomfortable with asking for help, most things came easily to me so I was unfamiliar with reaching out and as a result I fell behind. If my instructors could have seen my process and observed where the material was failing to fall together I am certain I would have been so much more successful at math than I was. I sincerely hope that kind of project is one I can bring to any schools I work at later that may have a struggling math class, as I am certain it will be an indispensable resource.

Joel’s AP World History course was also highly evocative of my own high school experience in an AP world history course, though this class was somewhat different. It was absolutely the most student centered class I had ever taken, and while the AP test was certainly discussed and passing it a goal of the course I never felt as though the class became commandeered by the test. We largely looked at primary sources and analytical texts that would complement whatever reading was assigned. During class our instructor usually did not do much else than ask probing questions and keep us on track. Mostly we all talked with each other about the reading all class, or something that happened in the news. There were only about seven or eight students in the class, and when the day of the AP test arrived only about four of us showed up to the testing room. The same day the senior class all went to Funtown in Saco, so only a few intrepid historians stayed behind to take the test, it was also my birthday. While I was only a little bit bitter about not getting to ride roller-coasters all day on my birthday (I certainly don’t bring it up often, after all what fresh eighteen-year old wouldn't want to take a test for four hours?), I managed to tough it out and only complained about it a little (read as: a lot) to everyone I saw that day. Though in the end I am glad that I made the choice I did since it saved me a few hundred dollars in the end since it was one less class I needed to take.

Bright Futures

Bright futures certainly has all the makings of a forward thinking twenty first century teaching philosophy. The plan seeks to eliminate the traditional teacher centered mode of instruction through a processes the plan calls “Phasing out”, and replaces the old philosophy with a pragmatic model that fosters a positive learning community where student’s direct their own learning. Bright Futures also aims to integrate technology as fully as possible into every aspect of the curriculum, and eliminate the possibility of anything less than a one-to-one computer program at the school.

A large aspect that compounds upon the creation of a positive learning community is the reimagining of co-curricular offerings that schools possess today. Bright Futures hopes to make these activities far more inclusive, and supporting of students by ensuring that coaches and activity leaders are fully versed in adolescent development.

Bright Futures vision is that teachers and parents become more active and reflective of the teaching process, calling teachers to reflect on their own development to help themselves as educators, but to also reflect on the unique and diverse educational needs of their students, and to learn to appreciate these differences in a way that enhances the classroom.

Bright futures is certainly an ambitious program, and has the potential to make some lasting improvements in the public education environment, however the difficulty of implementing such sweeping reforms cannot be understated. Thankfully Bright Futures offers two distinct goals to be implemented immediately to smooth integration. They suggest that organizations supporting the middle level of education form into consortiums which can in turn spearhead these reforms, and to secondly find funds to implement these changes.

Educational Philosophies

Perennialism puts a strong emphasis on the classics and blends them with educational curriculum, and uses these sources to develop a learner who is a skilled reasoned. Perennialism uses the classics to teach a base of core knowledge that it considers vital for a student to succeed in the classroom and beyond.

Existentialism shares quite a few parallels with perennialism, most namely with the emphasis on a core of knowledge that needs to be taught to students. Existentialism is teacher centered and emphasizes mental discipline.

Behaviorism reads quite a bit like a psychology textbook, likely because of its roots in human psychology with Skinner. Behaviorism holds that people are a product of their environments, and to produce people that possess virtues that our cultures consider ideal we as teacher have to model that desired behavior.

Positivism is highly student centered and places a considerable emphasis on inquiry based learning where students experiment and uncover what is true through empirical or factual based evidence.

Progressivists prefer experience, or empirically based evidence to support learning and is very student centered. Progressivism supports programs that support the processes of thinking and reasoning to enhance learning. Flexibility and experimentation a valued virtues of and progressive curriculum.

Humanism asserts the innate goodness of people, but states that institutions corrupt this goodness. Humanist teachers believe in supporting a curriculum that supports individualism in students and a strong empathetic learning community.

Constructivism is closely linked with existentialism in its belief in a core of valuable truths, but differs on the means to reach these truths. In constructivism hands on, project based learning is favored by the instructor who takes a more passive role and helps students to build their own ideas and motivations.

Reconstructivism takes a focused perspective on education and channels into a system that strives for social improvement and reform. They believe that through a dynamic system the human condition can escape oppression and improve itself.

Personally as a philosophical humanist myself I immediately gravitated towards humanism as a teaching philosophy because of my fierce belief that we as humans are good and capable of wonderful things, and that if we work as an empathetic community that we can achieve so much more together and possess a much more rich education than we could otherwise.

Educational Issue: Authentic Curriculum

For me my largest take-away from the authentic curriculum presentation was the concept of making authentic curriculum and the standards align.  Previously my concern with authentic curriculum was that it would be so difficult to make something authentic, unique, and individual fit into the actual standards that it was an exercise of futility, though of course I would have never said authentic curriculum was futile, far from it really. The presentation conveyed the idea that as an instructor you can first make your content and curriculum as authentic and individualized as you need to make you students engaged and have the content sink in. From this point you make the standards fit your curriculum rather than let the standards dictate your instruction. A quality instructor should never let the standards create a contortion act out of their instruction, instead they should strive to make an act out of the standards to make their classroom as authentic as possible.

It seems like such a small change in teaching philosophy, but I tend to think it will result into a profoundly powerful paradigm shift in my teaching philosophy, but even beyond this change there was so much more going on with the presentation that was worth mentioning. Authentic curriculum appears to me as a considerably attractive form of instruction largely because of its emphasis on the pragmatic side of instruction where I as the teacher work mostly to build an excellent learning community and take a role as a facilitator of instruction allowing the class to become much more student centered and led.

Teaching Hope: Empowerment

With part 142 I really enjoyed the travel aspect where the students, confident in their ability in soccer in Miami move on to South Korea where they are met with the whole world for the first time. The students first see the greater context of the world through Soccer, they realize that they are a smaller part of a much larger organism, and this realization shakes their confidence at first. Eventually the student’s take ownership of their abilities and perform considerably well in their tournament, though they come just short of winning. The students all come back from the experience with a profound impact on their lives, and I really connected with the personal growth that came with having their own confidences shaken, but then reaffirmed.

Part 147 sounds essentially like every Hollywood-esque cheese dripping movie detailing the struggle and success of a disadvantaged student in school. First Pablo does poorly in school, he does not connect with his teachers or the material, but eventually he finds his teacher who believes in him and he transforms his life, not to discredit his own transformation which is considerably inspiring. Pablo takes an active role in the school and in class and distances himself from his old gang affiliated friends to the point where he eventually graduates. What made this section so powerful was the story of Frankie, which is sprinkled throughout the section, who provides a completely divergent story than Pablo’s, which serves to illustrate what a profound impact having  an exceptional teacher can have a students.