Big Ideas Udb Ch 4

Chapter 4 explores how we understand 'understanding' and how that relates to developing pedagogy. Developing an understanding, which at times can be understood by viewing the opposite, is not a simple task. How does one understand the essence of something and what framework are you using to achieve that "understanding." Explanation, Interpretation, Application, Perspective, Self-Knowledge, were the five major concepts discussed in this chapter. Historical explanation, and the fiery disagreements that exists over interpretation, illuminates the difficulty is supplying a generic system for explanation. It is stated that "[our] intellectual blind spots" and being conscious of such can "predispose us toward intellectual rationalization." Understanding ones own limitation, and having that intellectual maturity is key so we have "the ability to unending assimilate experience to beliefs and to categories that seem not merely plausible ideas but objective truths." (p101) All too often we find students not having the necessary tools and engage a different culture or concept with implanted ideas that do not corelate and the reproduction of misconceptions take place.

Ubd Templete

I have chosen the 2-page template. It contains a concise system, organized well, but contains enough room to plan out lessons that deal with economics. To visually see the planned out work, with the key concepts, goals, and other categories, I think it will serve very useful. The one page piece was too small and the 6-page design I felt would have swallowed me under. There needs to be something that allows me to navigate the course, with access to the overall theme and goals. Also, the split between "identify desired results" on one hand, and "determine acceptable evidence" on the other, leads to healthy dialectical relationship between execution and results.

Ubd Chapter 3

This chapter allowed to conceptually tie toegther the important parts of the chapters before, working backward and understanding learning. The statement "It has to have pedagogical power" stood out to me. The quote continues, "It must enable the learner to make sense of what has come before; and, most notably, be helpful in making new, unfamiliar ideas seem more familiar." (P70) Very often "education" can degenerate into a collection of facts, with a theoritical, or a historical undertstanding. With that, to be sensitive towards eliminating and being aware of very common misconeptions. The dominant stereotypes and superficial thinking always enters the classroom and often can be justified through "academics." The section, "Framing goals in terms of transfer tasks" was also very useful in conceptually undertstanding what are the core task- the "most important performance demands in any field (P78). An educator needs to figure out what are such core tasks, and core concepts, and develop a method based in systems that have such "pedagogical power."

Ubd Chapter 2

The chapter Understanding Understanding was very useful. To understand the complexity of understanding, we can see that "the idea of understanding is surely distinct from the idea of knowing something." That said, how can we really understand that someone understands something. Later in the chapter, the idea that one can produce a pattern of responses and results because the actual subject matter has been internalized. But this process is very much based on the concept of 'transfer.' Transferring information is key. The actual transfer is "affected by the degree to which people learn with understanding rather than merely memorize sets of facts." The process of transferring information is connected to the quality and or the essence of the information. Which brings back the importance of the evidence of understanding. And the role of the assessments has to be to contextualize and demonstrate such evidence.

Ubd Chapter 1

'Backward design' seems to be an absolutely important concept. Not knowing where you are going, will not achieve the desired destination. Knowing what should be created before hand, paves a very clear theoretical understanding of what should be done to achieve that destination. This is critical of achieving such goals in the classroom, making sure that the key concepts are thoroughly addressed, and having a system of assessments in place. But to have such a solid system of assessments and goals, entails having a framework already defined. As the goals are defined, so is the process which eliminates any ambiguity during the march towards the end of the marking period. It makes sense that this process is explained as, "we can think of our designs, then, as software."

· Question: What did you have question(s) about from this reading? What made you curious as you were reading? What would you ask the author, given the chance to talk to him/her?

Deborah Meier's The Power of Their Ideas was an incredibly rich read. How Deborah dealt with the trials, challenges, complexities of urban inner-city education was fascinating. She attempted not to romanticize the experience, but demonstrate concretely how she built a successful elementary school, then fallowed by a set of schools. The millions of power struggles, the teachers relationship with the parents, the role of the state, and the role of the administration underneath that, illuminates how teaching is a challenge that is so multi-task. I would ask, what type of structural systems were actually built. What were the norms, the laws, the systems of expectations and how were they implemented?

What quote(s) did you find particularly illuminating, frustrating, confusing, inspirational, etc.? Be sure to explain why this quote was memorable to you.· What did this book make you think of?

The book did not expose me to singular quotes that stuck out. But I did appreciate the first sentence of Chapter 8 that reads, "[teaching] more than virtually any activity...depends on quick instinctive habits and behavior." One cannot use formal theory as complete medium for teaching. As well the accumulation of experience in the classroom develops skills that cannot be bred through other forms. Young people, still at a key developmental stage, cannot control their spontaneous behavior. There has to be structures in place that they respect and recognize, but their natural behavior can challenge such systems unconsciously. As a response, teachers must have a counter to this, which is very much embedded in instincts in the classroom.

What connections can you/did you make with other readings? with your own personal experience? Do you have an overall opinion on this reading?

I worked at Alternative Learning Community In East Oakland. The school was out of control all the time with an administration that was very incompotent and negligent. The attitude of the staff is that this just how things are. I new with a more creative approach, with more teacher led activity, and real systems in place, that the school could thrive. It was very frusterating. How could one work hard in such a situation, and not feel like it was a wasted effort. But how could one not work hard, where the children were going to pay. Reading about Deborah's experience gives me a hope, but methodical based hope, that actual systems and structures can develop in inner city school that supply real education.

Mastery

· Question: What did you have question(s) about from this reading? What made you curious as you were reading? What would you ask the author, given the chance to talk to him/her?

The authors conception of Mastery was very thought out and borrowed concepts from many different traditions and philosophies. But the author placed his perspective in the cultural context of American society, where everything is fast paced. What I would ask the author is how did his conception of Mastery evolve. The explanation of Mastery in this book seems like a crystallized understanding that was based on years of evolving thought on the matter. Both a structure and elasticity was woven into the concepts. What books, and real life experiences played instrumental in developing his understanding of Mastery?

· Quote: What quote(s) did you find particularly illuminating, frustrating, confusing, inspirational, etc.? Be sure to explain why this quote was memorable to you.

·Albert Einstein wrote, "that the modern methods of instruction have not yet strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry...It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and sense of duty." (P 122) This was very interesting to me, besides the fact that Einstein's social quotes are often insightful, but because modern American education was shaped to reflect economic needs, and contemporary California education is based so much on the CSTs. As such systems define the rules and dynamics of education, when teachers are forced to adapt to the demands of testing, the actual social relations in the classroom, as well as the form and content of the academics, establishes its self with a coercive relationship to the student. But such coercion negates the potential, even though the systems that are propped up in coercive terms are justified to foster such potential.

Comment: What did this book make you think of? What connections can you/did you make with other readings? with your own personal experience? Do you have an overall opinion on this reading?

The book understanding of Mastery had influences that were both philosophically western and eastern. Based in the challenges of American fast paced culture that negates long term development, this book attempts to explain how and why one should achieve a state of mastery. Its influences, indirectly speaking, have many Chinese, and eastern principals. The maintaince and tapping into personal energy was something built in eastern philosophy way before their western counterpart. And the centrality of goals, and habitizing activity for perfection I think is very western, but Leonard was lacking the rigidity that these concepts had in say the 1950s. The discipline of the outer, with tapping into energy of the inner, establishes an equilibrium. But the progress is never constant and regression is always around the corner. I found the book to be a little abstract at times, but it definitely deepened my understanding in what it means to master something.