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This Week's Features |
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Dialogue on Dialogues |
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Merriam Webster's Dictionary
defines dialogue as,
"a conversation between two or more persons; an exchange of
ideas and opinions." The Greek roots of the word
are dia (dia)
meaning "through or across" and logos (logos)
meaning "thought, speech, hypothesis, grounds for belief or
action, rational mind."
The
educational philosopher Paulo Freire felt that egalitarian
dialogue was a critical first step in a classroom where
teachers and students all learn from each other, as they work
to transform their shared understanding (the result of
dialogue) into real-world praxis (practice) that has the
potential to positively impact the wider world.
We would like to begin to model
that approach with this site, Dialogues. This will be
our virtual and egalitarian classroom where all are teachers,
all are learners, and all share ideas relating to Process
Education so that those ideas may be entertained, tested,
tried, and discussed. Our hope is that our readers and
contributors will grapple with and respond to the ideas
presented here and that together we may actively and
collaboratively increase our understanding and create new
possibilities.
Peter Senge, in
The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning
Organization,
wrote:
The discipline of team learning
starts with ‘dialogue,’ the capacity of members of a team to
suspend assumptions and enter into a genuine ‘thinking
together.’ To the Greeks dia-logos meant a free-flowing of
meaning through a group, allowing the group to discover
insights not attainable individually.
Let's give it the old college
try...
By the way,
Emotional Competency
offers an excellent table which includes behaviors and
attitudes that move us either toward dialogue or toward
dichotomy.
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Levels of an Educator and Level-Appropriate
Assessment Techniques |
| Level 1:
Teaching Assistants |
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Follow the curriculum and
script provided by the instructor, including materials &
procedures.
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Are limited in their ability
to perform assessment and let the instructor define the
evaluation system.
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Understand little about
creating learning environments and what processes they
are facilitating.
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Are beginning to learn about
the profession and can share their struggles with other
students.
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Are normally isolated from
the community of educators and given responsibilities
without authority.
Assessment Activities &
Techniques:
An educator at this level is
beginning to appreciate that there is a link between
assessment and improved performance, but simply does not
have the capability and/or authority to take advantage of
this link. For this reason, the educator at the level of
Teaching Assistant is relegated to implementing and using
the most basic (but also very powerful!) tools of
Mid-Term Assessment
and SII Assessment.
While each tool may collect potentially meaningful
information, the ability of the educator to act upon that
information is minimal. |
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| Level 2:
Instructors |
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Use the resources and
materials that the department has selected.
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Are given some latitude with
common departmental evaluation instruments and perform
some assessment.
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Try to cover the material
defined and keep some control over the classroom
environment.
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Are learning the profession
and will usually share what they have learned.
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Are seldom interested in any
additional responsibility and have little to do with
administration.
Assessment
Activities & Techniques:
An educator at the Instructor
level is capable and generally willing to use additional
documentation forms which allow for some degree of
assessment: Reading Logs,
Recorder's Reports,
and
Self-Assessment
Forms. Of these, the Self-Assessment forms require the
highest degree of commitment to assessment on the part of
the instructor. At this level, an educator is generally
capable of beginning to appreciate the utility of
peer coaching as a way
to use assessment for self-improvement. |
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| Level 3:
Teachers |
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Analyze what content should
be emphasized, the best materials to facilitate
learning, and how the content and materials should be
presented.
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Design a fair evaluation
system and produce a more systematic assessment of
student learning.
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Understand that a trusting
and challenging environment is needed in order to
improve the learning process.
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Realize that continuing
professional interests will stimulate the improvement of
teaching processes.
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Share some of the
administrative responsibility when requested and seek
some degree of community.
Assessment
Activities & Techniques:
An educator at the level of
Teacher has come to trust in the efficacy of assessment in
different contexts within the classroom. He or she is
aware that assessments needn't be 'top-down' and will
therefore use peer assessment
as a classroom tool. Additionally, a Teacher is
comfortable with using rubrics
and setting or refining
performance criteria in order to more finely
assess performance in contexts such as learning
activities. |
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| Level 4:
Facilitators of Learning |
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Produce activities that help
students improve their learning by increasing learner
ownership.
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Provide continuous feedback
on learners’ performance so that performance improves as
measured by the course evaluation system.
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Produce a learning
environment that allows the opportunity to facilitate
the growth of learner’s skills.
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Consistently model their
profession to help improve the professional performance
of their students.
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Take their institutional
responsibility seriously and offer to lead efforts to
improve quality.
Assessment
Activities & Techniques:
An educator at this level is
fully capable of objectively appreciating the impact of
assessment and can therefore
assess assessments, in order to not only help
students improve their performance, but actually increase
the degree to which improvement is possible. A
Facilitator-level educator is able to
adapt rubrics as
needed and take full advantage of a implementing and using
a course assessment system. |
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| Level 5:
Mentors |
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Integrate the growth of
skills into every activity in order to produce desirable
long-term behaviors.
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Facilitate the growth of
self-assessment skills leading to the ability of
students to assess and improve their own performance.
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Blend quality teaching and
learning processes to produce an environment conducive
to learning and growth.
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Are highly effective
professionals who seek to improve their profession by
mentoring others.
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Seek to organize teams to
improve educational systems within as well as outside
the profession.
Assessment
Activities & Techniques:
An educator at this level is
fully responsive to the needs of others as they arise and
he or she is comfortable and competent in the use of
real-time assessment.
Because a Mentor-level educator has command of all facets
of assessment, he or she will
create new rubrics, as needed, to allow for
maximum growth and improvement in the processes, roles,
and behaviors of students.
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Getting the "Self"
out of Self-Assessment |
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In principle, assessment and
self-assessment are identical. However, with self-assessment,
the assessor (the person performing the assessment) and
assessee (the person whose performance is being assessed) are
the same person. While very similar, the differences between
the two processes can be significant. Most people find it more
difficult to self-assess than to assess someone else.
Why is this? Wouldn’t you expect
that because you know yourself better than anyone else does,
that you’d be the best person to assess your own performance?
Not really...and here’s why: Performing an assessment requires
some degree of objectivity—you must be able to see the
performance as a thing that stands separate from your feelings
about
your performance. That is not an
easy task. The ability to remain objective while performing an
assessment is one hallmark of a strong assessor.
Here’s an example to put the
problem in a specific context:
Suppose you are asked to look at a
photograph and let the photographer know what makes the
picture "good," (its strengths) and what the photographer
could do to improve the next photo (areas for improvement).
What would you look at? On a basic technical level, you might
notice if the picture is in focus or if the photographer’s
thumb is covering part of the picture. Now suppose the
snapshot is of you! The basic tendency in looking at the
second photo is to focus upon yourself and how YOU look. It is
a challenge to keep what you think and feel about how you look
in the photo out of your assessment of the photo itself—in
other words, to remain objective.
Remaining objective is clearly a
priority when performing a self-assessment. But how do you
actually DO that? One way might be to recognize that there is
a tremendous difference between I am and I did;
the first includes a whole bundle of self-perceptions that
relate directly to identity. The second, on the other hand,
attempts to focus purely upon performance — what was done,
rather than who did it.
 This
is not a "solution" to the problem but only one possible
perspective that might minimize the problem to some degree. So
the question goes out to our readers ...
How do you best encourage objectivity
when performing a self-assessment?
Let us know...and look to
the next edition of "Dialogues" for your responses.
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Risk-taking and Risk-imposition |
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"If you don’t risk
anything you risk even more."
Erica Jong, American author
Risk-taking involves taking on new
challenges that have uncertain outcomes. Success is not
guaranteed and the possibilities for failure are real. Those
who are strong risk-takers are willing to move outside of
their comfort zones in various contexts (mind, body,
relationships, etc.) focusing on the upside potential rather
than the downside. They are willing to accept short-term
failure to obtain long-term success. This is in contrast to
individuals who do not venture outside their comfort zones and
need the security of certain positive outcomes before taking
on new challenges, thus limiting their opportunities for
personal growth.
Typically, strong risk-takers:
focus on the potential benefits
rather than costs or downside
are strong at responding to both
successes and failures
are strong emotionally; not
letting fear be an immobilizing emotion
are able to make great intuitive
leaps
view risks within realistic
contexts
There has been a great deal written,
in the last several years, about risk-taking behavior from
psychological and philosophical points of view. One point that
has been introduced is that the notion of 'weighing' upside
versus downside potential is problematic, as it does not take
the idea of "risk imposition" into consideration. That is,
asking and considering to what degree one's own risk-taking
may affect others.
The philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote
of two types of freedom: the freedom to act and the freedom to
not be affected by others' actions. When one's actions and
choices are truly isolated, then risk (or the exercise of
JSM's first type of freedom) are not at all problematic, as
there is no potential of risk imposition (or curtailing
another's freedom). But this type of isolation is, one may
argue, exceedingly rare.
 Consider
a situation where students (or individuals) are working as a
team or in some other collaborative grouping. Is risk-taking,
in this type of situation, a less desirable behavior, than if
a student (or individual) was working alone? If so, what are
the possible implications for the classroom environment?
We'd love to hear what you think.
Worth consideration:
Seven Myths of Risks by
Sven Ove Hansson (from the Philosophy of Risk Homepage)
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Responses
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Do you have an idea
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Process Education.
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