Reflections+on+Readings


 * Reflection on Readings

Other reflections are posted on [|My Blog]

Journal Responses to Walkabout ** || ** Personal Thoughts on Reading
 * **[|Walkabout Article]:  **** Searching for the Right Passage from Childhood and School **** By Maurice Gibbons ** 

February 2009 ** ||
 * The isolation involved in the walkabout is also in sharp contrast to experience in our school system. In an extended period of solitude at a crucial stage of his development, the aborigine is confronted with a challenge not only to his competence, but also to his inner or spiritual resources. For his Western counterpart, however, school is always a crowd experience.

//(from fourth paragraph) // || I thought this was an interesting contrast in education. I feel that in our society, we have all “catered” to our children. As parents, well want the best for our children and I believe we all do too much for them and not let them take a chance at making mistakes. Our education system is controlled by the government and teachers must direct our teaching to a crowd. Within our society, teachers and parents would not be permitted to send our children on a “Walkabout” without breaking laws. The concept of a walkabout is interesting and is a useful tool for comparing educational approaches in these two different societies. The walkabout helps to demonstrate some problems with our educational approaches and our celebrations of education. ||  //(from fifth paragraph) // || Markers in education differ greatly within different cultures. || //(from fifth paragraph) // || Our evaluation methods do not reflect many aspects of education. Our education system works towards a student’s entrance into post secondary education and not the education of a student’s entrance into society. ||
 * Imagine for a moment two children, a young native looking ahead to his walkabout and a young North American looking ahead to grade 12 as the culminating experiences of all their basic preparation for adult life.
 * The native's Western counterpart looks forward to such abstractions as subjects and tests sucked dry of the richness of experience, in the end having little to do directly with anything critical or even significant that he anticipates being involved in as an adult -- except the pursuit of more formal education. And yet, is it not clear that what will matter to him and to his community -- is not his test-writing ability or even what he knows about, but what he feels, what he stands for, what he can do and will do, and what he is becoming as a person?
 * ...imagine these same two children reaching the ceremonies which culminate their basic preparation and celebrate their successful passage from childhood to adulthood, from school student to work and responsible community membership.

//(from sixth paragraph) // || A simple community/family celebration is given for the successful passage from childhood to adulthood. They celebrate the fact that he has become their hope and their future. Our society celebrates graduation from grade 12 with an extravagant and frivolous celebration which has nothing to do with recognizing educational achievement or movement into adulthood and becoming a contributing member of society. Our celebrations are not responsible and do not represent becoming a responsible citizen. Our graduation celebration seems to be a rather sad statement on ourselves if this is the way we honour a completion of 12 years of education. ||
 * ...preparation and trial in our society are incomplete, abstract, and impersonal...

//(from seventh paragraph) // || I think we all “do” too much for our children as parents and teachers. Parents make decisions for their children. Children soon learn that they do not need to think for themselves. Teachers end up adapting education to ensure the “success” of a student.

We all want the best for children and will not settle for less. We provide too much for children and do not allow them to learn on their own. Parents will not allow their children to learn from their own mistakes. Children are sometimes told what is right and what is wrong but without reason. They do not get a chance to explore on their own. ||
 * The walkabout model suggests that our solution to this problem must measure up to a number of criteria. First of all, it should be experiential and the experience should be real rather than simulated....

Second, it should be a challenge which extends the capacities of the student as fully as possible...

Third, it should be a challenge the student chooses for himself. ... <span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> the major challenge for young people in our society is making decisions. <span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Success in our lives depends on the ability to make appropriate choices. Yet, in most schools, students make few decisions of any importance and receive no training in decision making or in the implementation and reassessment cycle which constitutes the basic growth pattern. Too often, graduation cuts them loose to muddle through for themselves. In this walkabout model, teachers and parents may help, but in the Rogerian style -- by facilitating the student's decision making, not by making the decisions for him. The test of the walkabout, and of life, is not what he can do under a teacher's direction, but what the teacher has enabled him to decide and to do on his own. //<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt;">(from eighth paragraph) // || This has been a very helpful analogy which has helped me gain a better understanding of slef-directed learning. It has also given me an insight of what educational outcomes should look like. Many of our learning current learning outcomes do not teach good decision making. || //<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt;">(from 13th paragraph) // || We need to teach about “real life” needs and not theories that may or may not be needed in a child’s life. Lessons need to relate to “real life”. || //<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%;">(from 18th paragraph) // || I believe that this would be a good concept to try in our school system. However, educational reform is a difficult process. Change is often met with resistance and perhaps a fear of trying something new or by a lack of professional development provided by the Ministry. || //<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%;">(from 20th paragraph) // || Teaching children subject matter is important in our schools but teaching about life and how to problem solve would be the most important lesson taught. Teachers can teach about life through their subject areas. There are many factors in our society that present difficult challenges to teaching a class of varied students. Teaching students to become independent learners would help meet challenges in their lives. || // What does it mean to you? // || This article has helped me understand some of the concepts behind Self-Directed Learning. We are all used to learning what we are told and how to learn it. Becoming a Self-Directed Learner will be a bit of a challenge for me but I can see the benefits of becoming Self-Directed. || || I think we have been raised in an education system that has “spoon fed” learning to us. Learning to learn will be the greatest of tools that we can use forever. Becoming a Self-Directed Learner will help us introduce and teach Self-Directed Learning to our students and hopefully; they will be able to become lifelong learners. The end of education should not be celebrated at the completion of grade 12 but it should a celebration that we can go into the future and know our students/children are able to continue learning on their own and make valuable contributions to our society. As a society, we have a lot to learn about learning. || || I can be self-directed at times, but I am accustomed to guided learning. I prefer to have the direction pointed out for me. I try to encourage students to discover and learn on their own but I tend to pre-determine the direction I want them to move in. When teaching to a crowd, I cannot individualize my teaching so I teach towards the majority’s needs.
 * <span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">If we entered any room anywhere in the school, similar presentations would be under way; students displaying all kinds of alternatives they selected to meet the five basic challenges:
 * <span style="color: #996666; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Adventure <span style="color: #67211b; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">: <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> a challenge to the student's daring, endurance, and skill in an unfamiliar environment.
 * <span style="color: #996666; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Creativity: <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> a challenge to explore, cultivate, and express his own imagination in some aesthetically pleasing form.
 * <span style="color: #996666; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Service: <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> a challenge to identify a human need for assistance and provide it; to express caring without expectation of reward.
 * <span style="color: #996666; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Practical Skill: <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">a challenge to explore a utilitarian activity, to learn the knowledge and skills necessary to work in that field, and to produce something of use.
 * <span style="color: #996666; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Logical Inquiry: <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> a challenge to explore one's curiosity, to formulate a question or problem of personal importance, and to pursue an answer or solution systematically and, wherever appropriate, by investigation.
 * <span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Preparation for the walkabout challenge can be provided in various degrees of intensity, depending upon how committed the school staff is to creating a curriculum which focuses upon personal development
 * <span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">I am interested in the Walkabout challenge because it promises what I most want for my own children. No one can give life meaning for them, but there are a number of ways we can help them to give life meaning for themselves. Central to that meaning is their sense of who they are in the scheme of things and their confidence that, no matter what the future holds, they can decide and act, that they can develop skills to be justifiably proud of, that they can cross the most barren outback with, a certain grace and find even in simple moments a profound joy. I hope that by exploring what they can do and feel they will come to know themselves better, and with that knowledge that they will move through today with contentment and will look forward to tomorrow with anticipation. I think a challenging walkabout designed for our time and place can contribute to that kind of growth.
 * Further Thoughts on this reading:
 * // What are your beliefs about learning? //
 * // How self directed are you and how self directed do you allow your students to be? //

|| I have always learned by completing assignments as dictated by others. This course is giving me freedom to learn about myself and to look at the ways I learn. || || My tensions come from being uncertain about what to do in the course and understanding how to become self directed. My joy is coming slowly as I am beginning to understand. ||
 * // What are you noticing about yourself as you start to move into this mode of learning? // || I am noticing that I am very confused and unsure about what to do as we progress. I am beginning to catch on and the confusion is beginning to clear. This article has helped me understand the concept.
 * // Where are the tensions / joys? //