After Energy 1 had made white boards describing an energy scenario they observed on the ship canal today, Stamatis asked something like this: "Several of you observed an airplane flying by. You observed the same phenomenon. So why are your white boards different?"
This seems like a terrific example of a particular kind of question. I was pretty sure I knew where Stamatis was going, because of my previous experience with the class: the participants had just done the people talk and pictorial representation (white boards of walk on the ship canal), so the next step in the Algebra Project sequence is to identify the features of energy scenarios. They are going to brainstorm possible features, then choose the most important features, then develop (or maybe be given?) a representation that shows those features. So the white boards are different because they have not yet agreed on a common representation, because they have not yet agreed on the important features of energy scenarios. Stamatis's question, thus, is intended to motivate the upcoming string of activities. I would think this is probably why he asked it - in order to give participants a kind of a puzzle, or preview; something that hints at what's ahead, and if it's a little bit mysterious, maybe that just makes it tantalizing.
On the other hand, people might just find the question bizarre; who would think that different groups' white boards would be magically the same? That can't be the real question, so what is the real question, if any, and what is the instructor trying to accomplish by this mysteriousness? I can easily imagine the question making people anxious. After all, it's unanswerable within their current experience.
I think that this kind of question sends the message that the class is about to go somewhere that is known to the instructor and not known to the students. Some people probably feel safe knowing that, like they have a knowledgeable driver in an unfamiliar city. Others might feel like unwilling captives, not knowing where they are being taken or whether it's somewhere they want to go. In either case I think part of what the question accomplishes is to frame participants as passengers in the vehicle.
And in either case, the direction is not up to you to determine (which might be exactly what you meant by being a passenger, but it's not like a passenger in a cab - or even a bus!).
ReplyDeleteI can imagine that if we are navigating the terrain of physics, and the end goal is to arrive at Physicsville, then the instructor is obligated to let you know if you're going to wrong way even if you're in the cognitive "driver's seat". -- I'm thinking about the participant stating that they have "the right to have their misconceptions [misperceptions] corrected."
(Oh analogies, how I love thee.)
ReplyDelete"I wanted them to see that diversity in expression of ideas is not something to be feared."
ReplyDelete-SV at Instructor's Meeting, 8/9/10
He also said something about "seeding the discussion" or seeding something anyway. I thought that was an interesting metaphor.
ReplyDeleteIn the learning-is-moving metaphor (which is employed in the taxi driver etc. analogies above), what is the corresponding thing to saying "Let's think about refrigerators now, according to the features that you have developed"?
ReplyDeleteTwo refrigerator ideas: "I've gotten us to a correct understanding, so let's check and make sure we didn't lose anyone along the way." Or, another way of putting it: "Let's see if, now that I've shown you the way, you can do it yourself." (Where 'the way' is a method rather than a concept.)
ReplyDeleteI think the refrigerator situation is more than that -- that is, it's not simply seeing if the participants can do something they've been shown the way to do (as if that were actually simple); my understanding is that part of what's interesting about the fridge is that we all know the basics of energy flow (or can figure them out if we think about it), but the mechanism is far from obvious. So, unlike a bow-and-arrow scenario, for example, thinking about a fridge might make us want to ask questions like: how/where exactly does the energy get from the inside of the fridge to the outside? What makes the energy go from thermal in a cooler environment to (in the end) thermal in a warmer environment? Where exactly does it flow out of the cooler environment, and what form does it turn into when it does that? ...
ReplyDeleteThis is to day: the "according to the features that you have developed" is more that just a challenge to apply the model we have developed -- we may need to revise or add to the model in order to satisfactorily make sense of a fridge.
Not sure what that looks like in the learning-is-moving metaphor.
- We made this map together; let's see if we can use it to get to Fridgeburg? (this would be using the model already developed)
- The map will give us the drive-by view of Fridgeburg's skyline; is that satisfactory, or do we want to explore the town more, in which case we may need to make a more detailed map?
I thought the "fridge" (Hunter's question) was a hypothetical - didn't realize it was being discussed in E2 - and that the question was "assuming that the nature of instruction has been a guided/instructor-in-the-drivers-seat, what would it mean to then ask the students to consider a new scenario, e.g., a fridge." I don't know that the fridge (as introduced in E2) is consistent with a learning-as-moving/instructor-as-driving metaphor? (And map-making as a metaphor for doing science is great! - esp Fridgeburg - but is different from the driving metaphor, no?)
ReplyDeleteHmm, yes -- I think my map thoughts were inspired by your comment about "I've shown you the way, now..." -- but you're right, that's not the same metaphor. In the learning-as-moving metaphor, the learner is moving to a new state of understanding -- I don't think the metaphor implies that the instructor is driving, though often we use it when we (the instructors) talk about getting students from their current understanding to where we want them to be, or moving them forward.
ReplyDeleteNow that I have written that, I'm not certain that's entirely different from the map metaphor. If we want students to get from where they are to somewhere else specific, wouldn't it be helpful to provide them with a map of how to get to that place? That might allow them to drive themselves there, following our directions / guiding themselves using the map...or better yet (maybe), if they have a map of some kind, they can look at it and decide where on it they want to go...?
Can I jump in here a few days late? I'd like to suggest a different interpretation of Stamatis's question, one that has different motives behind it than him being a chauffeur. If the white board is taken as a communication tool, with a representational language, then "You observed the same phenomenon. So why are your white boards different?" might be a question about shared communication tools, not about a direction the group should go. I suppose I'm questioning the map or driver metaphors, saying that it's possible there is a non-directional metaphor in play instead. Maybe Stamatis isn't /going/ anywhere, maybe he's trying to gather together a group out of like-talking individuals, forcing them to agree on a representational language before they can move on.
ReplyDelete(I find that my desire to write without directional terminology is thwarted by phrases like "move on" for proceeding with instruction. I also note that my suggestion about Stamatis's intentions comes from having asked similar questions in my class when trying to get a class to agree on the premise that a single representation helps us talk more easily with each other.)
I feel like I'm having a conversation with blindfolds on and every once in a while another voice chimes in that I had no idea was in the room. Hi, Michael! (Ah, analogies.)
ReplyDeleteSo yes - that is likely SV's goal (or something similar). There's a conversation he wants them to have before "moving on." (again, who's driving?) But the way of doing that was not to say "we need to agree on ..." or "here, let's use this representation so we can have a better conversation." Instead it was to ask "why are your white boards different?" Which, if you don't know why he's asking that, is a bizarro question. And that question suggests a "leading them" (driving them?) to some realization- which as Rachel noted is a way of signaling "we're headed somewhere you don't realize just yet."
And to Eleanor: the question that SV asked seemed to say "I'm not giving you the map yet." I'm thinking back to Rachel's entry (and I just love this point about the question) --
ReplyDelete"this kind of question sends the message that the class is about to go somewhere that is known to the instructor and not known to the students... part of what the question accomplishes is to frame participants as passengers in the vehicle."
That is - they are not the ones with the map.