Education is a values-directed activity
- Learning is a process of becoming by which one is transformed into someone who knows a thing
- You know something when you can recall and apply the knowledge in an appropriate context
- Knowledge is bound up in contexts where it can be applied
- The context involves the entire environment: living and non-living beings, physical surroundings, learner's posture, etc.
- Knowledge is bound up in contexts where it can be applied
- Learning can explicit or implicit
- In explicit learning, the learner (or teacher) has in mind what that they want to become and undergoes activity specifically to realize that change.
- In implicit learning, the learner realizes a change as a byproduct of other activities that are not intended for the purpose of learning.
- Learning is an "always-on" process - one is always being formed, either implicitly or through explicit intention.
- You know something when you can recall and apply the knowledge in an appropriate context
- Education, therefore, is a system of change management explicitly designed to transform individuals.
- Education is a values-directed activity: it always has "the good life" in view
- "What is the good life?" answers the key question "Who is truly well-off?" and "How do I become truly well-off?"
- The answer to these questions form a vision of the explicit change that we wish to bring about
- "What is the good life?" answers the key question "Who is truly well-off?" and "How do I become truly well-off?"
- Education is a system involving the learner, teacher, community, larger societal context, resources, and too many other factors to concretely name.
- Because of the complexity of an educational system, the system must be designed following Gall's Law: it must be evolved from a simpler system that works
- Education is a values-directed activity: it always has "the good life" in view
- A pedagogical approach is a codified system of education that addresses some of the elements of the system
- All pedagogical approaches are necessarily incomplete due to the overwhelming complexity of educational systems
- All pedagogical approaches are bound by the context in which they were formulated, be it real or fictional, and must be adapted in order to fit a new context
- Pedagogical approaches which design for this contextual adaptation have a better chance of being adopted and thriving
- A pedagogical approach tends to focus on several components in it's construction:
- Assessment
- Memorization
- The role of the teacher
- The role of the parent
- The role of assessment
- How do we know that the educational goals have been achieved?
- Assessment
- Academic subjects don't exist as independent things amenable to isolated study
- They are instead an arbitrary and imperfect taxonomy that provides helpful names for things
- Subjects (disciplines) are best learned within a larger context
- What pedagogical style do I believe is most effective?
- "Start how you mean to end" - Learning is "always-on", so create plenty of opportunities for the learner to grow into the human being that you wish them to become.
- Self-directed - the learner learns best that is motivated by an internal desire to know
- Project-based - the learner learns by engaging in the
Education is a values-directed activity
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Education is a values-directed activity