Moje

What is meant by "socially just" subject matter instruction:

The final perspective that I will address in this review argues for a view of subject- matter instruction in which access to ways of producing knowledge is at the heart of social justice. The focus on ways of producing knowledge is distinct from ways of knowing, in that ways of producing knowledge evokes the need for a tool of some type, namely, the tool of language. Both oral and written language are the focus of this perspective, with a particular emphasis on how young people might be apprenticed into the nuanced differences in producing knowledge via written language across multiple disciplines. To be sure, this perspective recognizes the importance of understanding the accumulated knowledge of each discipline but also argues that knowing how to produce knowledge—and thereby how to critique its production— is where power in the disciplines lies, in part because it provides access to content knowledge and in part because it provides access to the discourse communities of the disciplines who produce that knowledge. In other words, some of the power of knowledge comes from being an active part of its production rather than from merely possessing it. Some theorists and researchers would even argue that a student of discipline does not really know the discipline unless she or he knows how to produce knowledge—with some facility—in it. Of the study of history, for example, Leinhardt (1994) argued, "History is layered, and the teaching of it, like other subjects, involves not only a process of acquiring the stuff of the discipline but acquiring a particular rhetorical stance toward it. The artifacts of any given course (multiple texts, documents, discussions, and required essays) and the roles of the teachers and students are unique." (p. 218).

... she goes on, but I've been thinking about ways to connect the work in Inquiry with the work on social justice pedagogy and this connection seems clear.

Split tasks

This is starting to get at the "tribe"/"my people"/"teaching about belief" strand. It's half baked, and mostly just a set of things I did in class as a (meta)response to the election.

Yesterday I began class with a question from the FCI, and planned to first ask "what's the right answer" and then as "what answer makes the most sense?" (a mis-statement of the Elby/McCaskey task) By the time I checked in on the first task (do we agree on the right answer?), students were already saying "so the right answer is D, but it's hard to believe it's not A..."  - which segued nicely.

The next question I asked:
Is this a problem? Is your job as a teacher to get your students to understand what scientists say, or to agree with what scientists say?

And, more specifically, as I went to tables:
Let's say you gave the FCI and your students do the best anyone has ever done. Every student circles the correct answer for every problem. But they "square" other answers. Is this a problem? Have you done your job? is your job to teach them what scientists believe, or to make sure they agree with it?

The conversation was pretty intriguing and mostly were arguments about how really understanding something might entail it 'making sense' and that might then entail 'belief' (one student brought up the term 'belief' which was great). If students don't agree, they probably don't understand. The more fundamental goal is the second goal - agreement. We discussed the problem of tests in getting at these ideas and in measuring what teachers do. It was a good discussion. I pushed them to consider how this is problematic not only for really understanding the concepts, but for really understanding what science is all about. I asked the David Hammer question - "if I throw two balls: one out and one down, which hits first?" - and mentioned how the obviously right answer is something that people say before a physics class but not after a physics class. Education *does* this to us - and another student pipes up to say "I thought they would hit at the same time -- I see what you mean."

And then - where I wanted to lead this - was the question of evolution. Believing Newton's Laws is not positioned by our culture as very problematic. But is it your job (as a biology teacher) that students leave your room understanding evolution or believing evolution? (Because that distinction was deeply problematic for me when I taught evolution. One side of me wants to say that I need them only to understand the scientific ideas and arguments; but the other side of me honestly hopes they agree with that.) We worked through some evolution curriculum I wrote for LSET and discussed "intellectual empathy" for students' beliefs. And I shared how when I taught this - even as I tried to be empathetic and anticipate their responses - I failed. Students were upset. But I had a classroom culture where the students who did not believe in evolution could voice that and we could still all love each other. I think, all in all, it was a successful unit and an incredible class.

In class this discussion went great - next time I'd have more carefully planned 'products' from our discussions, but this question really did intrigue us and they wrestled with them earnestly. There was discussion about how science moves forward by those moments when your squares and circles don't overlap - that pedagogically it's actually a productive place to be. I loved this (we have one student who is really great at pushing those ideas - he's awesome; you guys, these students are alright - our future is in good hands).

There's a lot more to say about this... I do teach with a hope of addressing belief and tribe.  I didn't say as much to my students.

Global warming

Ian asked on facebook "does anyone else feel like most of the things we spend our daily time and energy on are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?"

I actually have opinions on this, and I want it to become more than opinions - a possible research direction, or something? -

So here's my take:
I think I could do a better job than most people at describing a mechanism by which global warming occurs - how one kind of clear gas makes the world heat up, and why it is that burning things creates more of that gas, and so on. But I certainly wouldn't come close to a real, complete explanation and I really really don't understand it. But I vote and act (errr... or at least feel guilty) as if this is a reality. So I don't understand global warming, I believe in global warming.  And the reason I do is because I believe scientists. They're my people. I know the game they play and how papers get published and how they are trained. And even though I have my (sincere) criticisms of the scientific community, I both understand this process and- even more significantly - I see myself as the kind of person who agrees with scientists.  (I also see myself as the kind of person who agrees with environmentalists, and these overlapping spheres reinforce my convictions when it comes to global warming, but I don't see myself being in a strong position for cultivating "kinds of people who agree with environmentalists.")

If I want my students to believe in global warming, it is not critical (I think) that they understand global warming -- it is more important that they feel like "I'm the kind of person who agrees with scientists."

And how do I cultivate that in students? By engaging them in doing science...
(1) I think that an open-inquiry investigation into the phases of the moon has been one of the more powerful things I've seen to get at this.
(2) I think my inquiry class does this well. (For the same reasons the moon does this well.)

... why do I think that helps?
(3) I think David Hammer's work on epistemology is right where this question lives.
(4) And the work on identity is pretty closely related.
(5) pretty much all the recent research about anti-vaxxers seems to suggest as much.

But does this really hold up? On what kind of time scale? (like, would ideas shift by the end of the semester or would it take longer?) How does this connect with activism? (does it? could it?) ("Im the kind of person who...")