aapt 2008
This summer, my former adviser Alan retired. At the summer meeting, there was a section to honer him. I was invited to present a talk, but unfortunately I was not able to go to Canada to present it. I did work with David to put the entire talk together.
Here is the quote from the summer meeting note of Dave Van Domelen. It is kind of interesting to see our talk from other's eyes. It is nice to see that he understand the points we were trying to make.
Intermission: A Socio-Cultural Analysis of How Alan Trains His Graduate
Students - David Brookes, University of Illinois, presenting on the behalf of Yuhfen Lin
[A tongue-in-cheek deadpan presentation with a serious core.]
Alan trained his graduate students according to three important principles:
epistemological development (students learn to stop relying on authority and start to
construct their own knowledge), legitimate peripheral participation (learning by doing,
stop treating the students as underlings and start treating them as equals or partners) and
cognitive apprenticeship (learning to think like a researcher).
The work of Baxter-Magolda (2004) applies in the case of epistemological
development. Students learned to stop relying on authority because Alan has a talent for
joking with a straight face, undermining our ability to trust what he says.
For legitimate peripheral participation, the work of Lave and Wenger (1991)
seems relevant. Alan values all opinions equally, and is easy to talk to as a colleague.
Alan also generally demonstrates the elements of thinking like a researcher,
unpacking them for his students:
Situated Learning - Doctoral students are thrown into the pool at the deep end,
becoming real researchers practically from day one.
Culture of Expert Practice - Students often end up advising each other rather than
relying on Alan’s sage advice (delivered on napkins, often as not).
Intrinsic Motivation - Toys are fun! And they’re task-involved.
Exploiting Cooperation - Alan is the “guru of networking”, arranging meetings
both within and between institutions.
Exploiting Competition - Well, this one doesn’t get demonstrated. Alan’s just so
humble!
That last one aside, Alan is generally very good at applying cognitive
apprenticeship.
Here is the quote from the summer meeting note of Dave Van Domelen. It is kind of interesting to see our talk from other's eyes. It is nice to see that he understand the points we were trying to make.
Intermission: A Socio-Cultural Analysis of How Alan Trains His Graduate
Students - David Brookes, University of Illinois, presenting on the behalf of Yuhfen Lin
[A tongue-in-cheek deadpan presentation with a serious core.]
Alan trained his graduate students according to three important principles:
epistemological development (students learn to stop relying on authority and start to
construct their own knowledge), legitimate peripheral participation (learning by doing,
stop treating the students as underlings and start treating them as equals or partners) and
cognitive apprenticeship (learning to think like a researcher).
The work of Baxter-Magolda (2004) applies in the case of epistemological
development. Students learned to stop relying on authority because Alan has a talent for
joking with a straight face, undermining our ability to trust what he says.
For legitimate peripheral participation, the work of Lave and Wenger (1991)
seems relevant. Alan values all opinions equally, and is easy to talk to as a colleague.
Alan also generally demonstrates the elements of thinking like a researcher,
unpacking them for his students:
Situated Learning - Doctoral students are thrown into the pool at the deep end,
becoming real researchers practically from day one.
Culture of Expert Practice - Students often end up advising each other rather than
relying on Alan’s sage advice (delivered on napkins, often as not).
Intrinsic Motivation - Toys are fun! And they’re task-involved.
Exploiting Cooperation - Alan is the “guru of networking”, arranging meetings
both within and between institutions.
Exploiting Competition - Well, this one doesn’t get demonstrated. Alan’s just so
humble!
That last one aside, Alan is generally very good at applying cognitive
apprenticeship.