A sense of occasion –
Sit and sweat - rigor
Heroism - on an adventure, sense of joy, wonder, discovery
Jerome Bruner – Toward a Theory of Instruction

How to mediate between the two

What motivates students?
Grades
Curiosity
Attitude of the teacher
Credentialing
Peers – community, fear, attitude
Expectations – of themselves, achievement, teacher expectations
Self-Image
Parents
Arrogance, Self – efficacy
Trust – that a person is being honest with you


What motivates teachers?
Salary
Achievement – great success or fixing
Aha moments! With the students
(getting out of the verbal realm, time to reflect, time off for the right hemisphere to reflect)
Autonomy
Student Feedback
C. What motivates teachers?
D. Moving from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation

i. Difference between Professor #1 and #2

he ask them questions, he is passionate about his subject,
he meets them where they are, ask them questions so they can put pieces together themselves
awaken in them the desire to ask questions
Mode of invitation
To know how to ask questions and when is a huge prompt for active learning
it is not enough just to pour out information to the student, or just to ask questions.

Professor #1
is about information

Proffesor #2
is about knowledge - information that is moving forward
take information and make it meaningful
get people to know certain things and
create and innovate in a certain space
go beyond what is given
compeling and involving the students
good use of humor
relate the content to their passions
get the audience on the edge of their seat
he is a strory teller

a) What is a story telling???

draws your attention
emotional involment
turns a list into an experience - engage the learner
context - inquiry
things become invested with meaning - why does it matter???
rich with metaphor, suspense and suprise,
"metaphor we live by" - metaphor allows me to think of new tought, metaphor is a basic human activity


E. Formal and informal learning

How is content important when you are trying to engage students?

domain transfer becomes possible
When you physically engage the students your domain tranfer becomes greater.

making knowledge strong -
importance of being in the space

Problem solving and Problem finding
innovation
creativity
inquiry
adventure
create an atmosphere -


F. Individual and social learning




III. Principles of Active Learning
A. Bloom's taxonomy, L. Dee Fink's revision
B. Designing great lectures--cf. the TED Talks (www.ted.com)
See Clay Shirky's talk on how Twitter and social media can change the world: http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history.html
See Sir Ken Robinson's talk on the role of creativity in education: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
C. Designing great discussions ("the canny art of intellectual temptation"--Bruner)

"To isolate the major difficulty, then, I would say that while a body of knowledge is given life and direction by the conjectures and dilemmas that brought it into being and sustained its growth, pupils who are being taught often do not have a corresponding sense of conjecture and dilemma. The task of the curriculum maker and teacher is to provide exercises and occasions for its nurturing. If one only thinks of materials and content, one can all too easily overlook the problem. I believe that it is precisely because instruction takes the form of telling-out-of-the-context-of-action that the difficulty emerges. It is a pitfall of instruction by the 'third way.' The answer is the design of exercises in conjecture, in ways of inquiry, in problem-finding. It is something that the good teacher does naturally at least some of the time. With help from the curriculum maker's exercises and conjectures, it is something that ordinary teachers will do much more of the time." Jerome Bruner, "A Retrospect on Making and Judging," in Toward a Theory of Instruction (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1966) 159-60.


D. Apollo

IV. Assignments and Grading


V. Using ICT to augment teaching and learning


VI. Teachers who make a difference

One of my teachers from high school significantly impacted my perception of education through his diligence and willingness to push each student. He taught courses in Psychology and European History, and held high standards for each individual. Particularly in the European History course, he set up a rigorous course of study by diversifying lectures, discussing primary sources, and creating many writing assignments. He not only encouraged discussion but required it, by basically making us talk and orally defend our ideas. As a teacher, he was also very accessible when we encountered problems with the coursework willing to discuss any issues. However, he rarely gave in to our grumbling on the amount of work we had to accomplish. His methods of making us think and create our own ideas did not just prepare us for college history courses, but helped us create methods for taking in material, defend our thoughts, and recognize how much vigor academic endeavors actually need. Out of the 15 students who were in that class, nearly all of us are in graduate school right now (in many different fields) or pursuing careers in education. I believe that a little bit of credit should go to that teacher.

One professor stands out in my mind as a teacher in whose footsteps I'd like to follow. This person, alongside being prepared, organized, challenging, and encouraging, is genuinely interested in his student's ideas and in his students as individuals. Sitting in his classroom was always an experience of growth in terms of knowledge, breadth of opinion, intellectual maturity, personal humility and confidence (they can and should develop each other), or some combination of these. As a college freshman, his class felt like the kind of exciting learning adventure I'd imagined having at university.