[IAEP] maths instruction

[Maria Droujkova]

On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 12:20 PM, Kathy Pusztavari
<kathy at kathyandcalvin.com> wrote:
> Bloom's Taxonomy reminds me of committees that never get anything done in
> the Life of Brian.
>
> Direct Instruction reminds me of the people that get in there and get the
> job done.

Here is how I see these issues. Bloom's Taxonomy is a part of a
research and design framework, and direct instruction is a pedagogical
methodology. In general, frameworks help people analyze and plan, and
methodologies help people to implement ("get things done"). Typically,
you need to work with both methodologies and frameworks for sizable
research and development projects. Depending on the project's goals,
you make or choose frameworks and methodologies suitable to the goals.
Constructivism, in particular, is a group of framework for studying
how people learn. To contrast direct instruction with something, one
can choose a different teaching methodology, for example, the
discovery method popular in the sixties and seventies but not as much
anymore, or the Socratic method still popular in some circles after a
couple of millenia.

Relationships between frameworks and methodologies are complex. For
example, one can use constructivist frameworks to study how students
learn under direct instruction methodologies. One can also use
behaviorist or information theory frameworks to study learning under
the same methodologies. It's not a one-to-one correspondence. There is
a lot of confusion about the matter, because people use theories and
frameworks not only for research, but also as ammo in policy wars.
Also, sometimes the same person or group works on developing theories
and methodologies, and they become twined in people's minds through
their authors. In general, relationships between theory and practice
are complicated and often frustrating in education, just as they are
in medicine and other human-centered fields.

The important thing is for everybody to be able to match frameworks
and methodologies to their goals. For example, at some point I made a
taxonomy of computer learning environments focusing specifically on
users' power over representations, because my goals had to do with
authoring, and creating representations is a good measure of
authoring. I think it may be of interest to people here:
http://wikieducator.org/User:MariaDroujkova/UserPower

Life of Brian is wonderful - one of my favorite movies. Very quotable.
"- You are all individuals! - Yes, we are all individuals!" - this
could be used to snark recitation, but I happen to find the technique
very useful.

Kathy, congratulations on your license!!! What grades do you plan to teach next?


-- 
Cheers,
MariaD

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