Standpoint Theory

This week we talked about standpoint theory and how it accounts for our inability to be truly objective because we all come from a standpoint, which includes elements such as location, gender and race.  

Thinking about this theory made me think about my recent struggle with a developing a lesson plan. Good teachers often try to take into account their students interests; however we can never truly know what they will think of a topic, even when we think we have begun to really know them. A history teacher I work with is currently teaching the mid war era and is focusing on the topic of bootleggers, prohibition, and the current Mexican drug trade. He finds that the students quite enjoy this unit. So I have the challenge of creating a lesson that will go along side this. I choose to develop the lesson, “the history of the teenager” to show how social life changed so much in the 1920s moving forward. I wanted to bring in local and current articles that portray teenagers today and after a long search I found one article in the Saskatoon Bridges on the “Idle no More” movement. After sharing this with my co-op teacher he pointed out to me that my article was written by adults talking about 19-30 years olds as if they were young people. I did not have an article after all that reflected teens if the authors did not have this standpoint. So what now? Plan B: Have the students do a web quest and free search on, “what is teen culture today?” Even then “Seventeen Magazine”, popular “teen” websites, and blogs are written by adults, often those in their 20-30s, not teenagers. I hope to pose the question to my students, “Do you think that the online web findings, the media, and the news portray you as a teenager correctly? How would you describe 2013 Canadian teen culture to someone else years down the road?

This history teacher also pointed out to me that although I am still quite young, I simply don’t know what it is to be like a teenager from these student’s standpoints and that they simply have to tell me. I am so glad we had this conversation so I didn’t end up having my students read articles written by adults about young people. I look forward to hearing what they have to say and to see if they can spot the stereotypes in what they find during their web searches. We try our best to know our students but often their standpoints are made up of many elements that we can’t always see.  

-Week 9, Sarah

The Science of Blogging

The Science of Blogging, how to follow the “scientific method” of blogging.

I initially wrote this down to be silly and to get my creative juices flowing for my weekly reflection, but the silly part truly is how real and concrete it began to sound. Then I just had to Google it, “the science of blogging,” and sure enough the first website is exactly that. Oh boy! Let’s look this site over. The website is about teaching others how to maximize their blogging efforts including when the best time to post is and how to increase your credibility as a blogger. It’s a step by step guide of how to make the ultimate blog that is useful and generates comments. Ha!

This is some of the tips outlined by their “Scientific method”:

“I've heard the advice a lot to don't call yourself a guru. A lot of people say that. Don't call yourself a guru.”

and

“I'm going to talk about the more general marketing impact that blogging can have. And so I did a survey and I got about 1,400 responses. And in that survey, I asked how much do blogs affect your purchasing decisions? Right. So how often do you proceed to a purchase decision with blogging research? And what I found is that 71% of respondents said that blogs affect their purchasing decisions either somewhat or very much.”

So it suggests tips on what not to do as well as discusses the power of blogs in marketing.

http://www.hubspot.com/the-science-of-blogging/

I think that Chalmers nailed this trend, where science is intended to imply some kind of merit or special kind of reliability, in his article. Chalmers explains that this happens in everyday life and in the academic world as many areas of study are described as “sciences” by their supporters in an effort to imply that the methods used are firmly based and potentially as fruitful as traditional sciences such as physics. There is Library Science, Speech Science, Mortuary Science, and now even Blogging Science!

See, I have always thought that blogging was supposed to be creative and unique to the blogger. So when there is a step by step guide I feel like it takes away from that creative freedom. I think I will try to keep science out of my blog because I have a love for the social humanity subjects, which I believe embraces the creative side of my brain. If my blog is less credible then a “scientific blog” then so be it, for that would only prove our readings further in that society values scientific knowledge over other types.

-Week 8 , Sarah

Why Did the Plant Die?

Here I go giving our week’s topic, epistemology of mathematics and science, some thought today. I came into this week with a preconceived notion that I might not get much out of this week’s lessons because I did not pursue either of these subjects beyond high school. I have to admit the materials and lessons were really not all that bad actually. One idea that really stood out for me was the reoccurring theme that we need to learn how to accept failure as a positive element to learning because we can grow and learn from that failure.

Tom Murphy talked about the power of failure in science in his blog, “When Science is a Conveyer of Bad News.” Murphy tells us that the best description of the scientific method that he has seen is, “The scientific method involves the dynamic interplay between theory and experiment.” –Hobson. The idea that good experiments often lead to failure and that that was normal, natural and real.


Murphy uses a great example to frame this idea, he says, “Meanwhile, science fair projects across the nation—under the advisement of teachers who themselves often do not have personal experience in how science really works—approach their subject in an uncharacteristically formulaic way. Nine times out of ten the effort culminates in a proof that the initial hypothesis was right; as if that were the goal and criterion for success. The rare student is surprised by the data, admitting to a failure of the hypothesis, quickly reconsidering initial assumptions and driving into an unexpected yet rewarding direction (dynamic interplay). That’s the real scientist at work. Too bad the judges (in my experience as a judge) often don’t recognize this apparent failure as the true success.”

 

I think this also ties into how it is beneficial to let students come to their own knowledge and understanding through inquiry and experiment. The term and understanding of the notion “failure” needs to be uplifted and given new life in order for our students to be able to embrace their failure and learn more deeply in a result.
 

I had a wonderful chat with a grade nine teacher who has a unique and fresh view to education and teaching pedagogies. Entering his classroom is like getting a breath of fresh air. The environment is inviting, there are plants, art, games, food, and students who come from all types of backgrounds and situations.  In our conversation he told me that he lets his students take ownership of the classroom because this is their place to thrive and not just the teacher’s space. Just the other day one of their plants died and the students were wondering about it after. He asked them, “Why do you think the plant died?” It was eventually discovered that nobody had watered it in a long time. This small lesson hit home for me because I have a feeling I would have just watered it myself, rather than letting the students be responsible for its care. This teacher was able to turn this failure into a teaching moment where the students were asked to reflect, gather data, and come to a conclusion and I’m betting that the next plant won’t die so easily! Although this is no big science experiment, I thought that this lesson was very neat and it can be done in every class!
 

-Week 7, Sarah

See Murphy’s Blog at: http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2012/10/when-science-brings-bad-news/#more-1257