Teddy’s Reading Log 01.31.2010

Posted by on February 1, 2010 
Filed under Reading logs

Teddy’s Reading Log 01.31.2010

Teaching is an unpredictable occupation that’s full of surprises and leads which spring into a state of existence referred to as the “unknown”. You may find yourself asking what did your students learn or how well did they learn it and realize that you have absolutely no idea. You will make inquiry of questions that possess several or more leads that you must investigated as a problem. Similarly, in the article “The Scholarship of Teaching: What’s the Problem?” Randy Bass (1999), states that having a problem in scholarship and research is at the heart of the investigative process. It is the compound of generative questions around which all creative and productive activity revolves. And like other creative processes, it requires one’s critical thinking, time and resources to study it and refine such inquiry. Bass describes teaching as an extended process that unfolds over time. However, we know that process will require periods of adjustment to which related scholarly research will develop into leads, questions or problems. Outcomes may be favorable or undesirable as the resulting paths of investigation finds new layers of other questionable materials.

It is important that we pose these questions in order to understand how our students learn and develop. Similar to what Howard Gardner refers to as deep understanding of the subject matter. According to Gardner, he assumed that understanding was equivalent and coextensive with mastery. He further states, I assumed that students in a particular course achieved understanding by replicating a partial and incomplete versions of mastery or mimicry of mastery that was like the understanding that developed across a whole course of study.

Our reading this week took us to chapter three of our text where we are given clear cut instructions on how to create a SoTL project. I enjoyed reading this chapter very much, but I feel the need to review it again. It was enlightening to practice posing new problems as research paths to fixing problems in teaching. I hope we can get a distinctive set of practice templates in class this week to assist us in becoming efficient and proficient in doing this task. These articles have truly been a plus and I hope we get the chance to explore this one with lots of practicum in our Scholarship of Teaching and Learning course and create models for posterity.

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