all aboard the 7303
The opportunity presented itself unexpectedly - so I snapped it up. For the next 13 weeks I'm going to be learning some of the nuts and bolts of what teacher's have to do. I'm hyped, to be honest - and scared, and we're not even going to go into classroom management or any of the really tricky shit: but that's okay, there are people trying to help with that on-line, and I don't have to deal with it anyway, just yet.
First article in my reflective journal:
Knowles' andragogy: an angle on adult learning
Came across the concept of andragogy purely by accident looking at the sleducationuk notes on "Core Competency in Second Life".
It's not clear to me whether it has any great currency within contemporary educational debate - the word isn't in my Dictionary, but there are some leads to further reading at Wikipedia - and references elsewhere on Google.
The quote above:
"Andragogy assumes that the point at which an individual achieves a self-concept of essential self-direction is the point at which he psychologically becomes adult. A very critical thing happens when this occurs: the individual develops a deep psychological need to be perceived by others as being self-directing. Thus, when he finds himself in a situation in which he is not allowed to be self-directing, he experiences a tension between that situation and his self-concept. His reaction is bound to be tainted with resentment and resistance."
Of interest to me is the idea (which had never occured to me) that the root of"pedagogy" means infant learning ("child leading") and yet we engage in arguments about "pedagogy" in a sector which is principally concerned with adult learning.
So - no big deal. Yes, I can see that the quote above is unnecessarily gendered - that idea is probably going to run through my study. So I'm going to go on thinking that if the "technical language" is gendered (I don't think the Greeks were massively into educating their girl-children) - then there is space for intelligent comment.
First article in my reflective journal:
Knowles' andragogy: an angle on adult learning
Came across the concept of andragogy purely by accident looking at the sleducationuk notes on "Core Competency in Second Life".
It's not clear to me whether it has any great currency within contemporary educational debate - the word isn't in my Dictionary, but there are some leads to further reading at Wikipedia - and references elsewhere on Google.
The quote above:
"Andragogy assumes that the point at which an individual achieves a self-concept of essential self-direction is the point at which he psychologically becomes adult. A very critical thing happens when this occurs: the individual develops a deep psychological need to be perceived by others as being self-directing. Thus, when he finds himself in a situation in which he is not allowed to be self-directing, he experiences a tension between that situation and his self-concept. His reaction is bound to be tainted with resentment and resistance."
Of interest to me is the idea (which had never occured to me) that the root of"pedagogy" means infant learning ("child leading") and yet we engage in arguments about "pedagogy" in a sector which is principally concerned with adult learning.
So - no big deal. Yes, I can see that the quote above is unnecessarily gendered - that idea is probably going to run through my study. So I'm going to go on thinking that if the "technical language" is gendered (I don't think the Greeks were massively into educating their girl-children) - then there is space for intelligent comment.