Yesterday the Energy 2 class began with discussing how metaphors can be used towards facilitating understanding. The discussion evolved into how different metaphors about the same concept (time) can present differing or even seemingly contradictory conventions about that concept. For example, Leslie brought up the idea of a tribe in South America thinking about the future as being “behind” you. This was certainly a refreshing idea for the entire classroom to engage with; it really brought to light the action of “putting yourself in someone else's shoes”, as the entire class attempted to consider how/why this tribe's conception of time and “future” seemingly differed from our culture's conventions. (Looking where you haven't looked before!) The class even went so far as to discuss how this tribe could explain to us that the “future” was behind us in terms that we would understand, using our culture's conventions. This scenario of exploring multiple representations of a single concept helped everyone to de-construct what they thought they perceived “time” to mean and then re-construct a more tentative, yet expansive definition for “time”. By attempting to understand the why's and how's of someone else's understanding, you are able to make more explicit to yourself and to others what your previous conceptions were/are. This process of de-construction and then re-construction may be a way of describing how metaphors are able to mediate a “safe space” for tentative meaning to be jointly constructed/exist.
Today in class it became more apparent to me that several teachers found the idea of being able to change the model they were using for explanation or to change the metaphor being used as empowering towards their expression of their own understanding of various concepts like energy and force. It seems that the level of abstraction that metaphors and models offer also offers the teachers a way to become further empowered to make or change their decisions about how to explain their own thinking processes. Maybe what I am trying to say is that the abstraction provided by models/metaphors gives teachers a certain level of “safety” in expressing what they think.
A second comment I wanted to make concerning “looking where you haven't looked before” involved the seating formation of the class in a U-shape. I noticed this new formation (in comparison to the 4 separate tables) offered a new lens to look at not only the interaction between participants but also a new lens to look at the interaction between instructors and between videographers. Leslie and Stamatis seemed to have more direct contact with one another in the U-shaped formation (they were seated right next to one another), and much of their dialogue became directly explicit to the participants. It seemed rather beneficial for the participants to have the opportunity to observe the dynamic conversation between the instructors during class time. Furthermore, it seems that the U-shaped formation of the classroom encouraged the videographers (Jessica and myself) to integrate our real-time field notes during the whole-class discussion much more efficiently and much more frequently.
Finally, as more of a general note....
At this point I am finding my blogs to be a means of simply keeping track of what has happened alongside some initial thoughts. I find that as my observations sink in, new observations begin piling on top of old ones. Although a bit overwhelming, it's a great feeling to be in the middle of this accumulating "pile" of data and ideas...everywhere I look there is a new avenue to explore!
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