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November 2008

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From:
Jim Greenberg <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Teaching Breakfast List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 4 Nov 2008 08:31:01 -0500
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TBers, 

The next Teaching Breakfast get together is tomorrow (Nov 5) at 8 am in
Morris Hall.  We will be talking about ways to invite dialogue in the
classroom. 

As a reminder, one way to invite dialogue is reposted below. Please bring
your thoughts/ideas on this teaching method.

I hope to see you tomorrow.

Jim G. 

> From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:57:10 -0400
> To: Teaching Breakfast List <[log in to unmask]>
> Conversation: On Teaching and Learning - Posted to TB List by Jim Greenberg
> Subject: On Teaching and Learning - Posted to TB List by Jim Greenberg
> 
> TBers, 
> 
> The posting below looks at the importance of asking open-ended questions in
> our teaching. It is from Chapter 7, Open Questions Invite Dialogue, in the
> book, On Teaching and Learning: Putting the Principles and Practices of
> Dialogue Education into Action, by, Jane Vella, who among other things is the
> founder of Global Learning Partners in Rleigh, North Carolina.  She can be
> reached at: [log in to unmask] Published by Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint
> 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741-[www.josseybass.com].
> Copyright © 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted
> with permission.
> 
> 
>       Open Questions Invite Dialogue
> 
> The simple tactic of asking open questions in educational design can become a
> strategy. Open questions do invite dialogue. There is no more powerful tool to
> stimulate authentic, constructed knowing and vigorous learning. A learning
> task is an open question put to a small group with all the resources they need
> to respond.
> 
> Open questions elicit the power of context and life. The open question assumes
> respect for learners and for their experience and current knowledge. Open
> questions often begin with How: How would this theory work in my setting? How
> will I teach this skill to my colleagues? How will this help me respond to my
> problematic situation? How does this all relate to my life and context?
> 
> When an open question has been asked of a group, it is imperative that the
> teacher sit still, be quiet, and pay attention. There is a great temptation to
> respond ourselves to the question just posed. This can mean our stealing the
> learning opportunity from the learners. The quiet that occurs before dialogue
> around a meaningful open question is sacred and essential to their learning.
> 
> Closed Questions
> 
> Most of us have spent a great deal of our lives as school-based learners
> responding to closed questions. In church school, the catechism did not even
> put the answer at the back of the book: it was right there! That "learning"
> involved question and response-repeat the question, give the printed response.
> 
> Whose learning were we learning? In those classrooms, all disciplines had the
> textbook with the pink cover (teacher's edition) with the answers to all the
> tests in the back. Little wonder we grew up as linear thinkers, knowing for
> certain that there was one answer and it was in the back of the (pink) book.
> 
> In some bleak pedagogical archive there must be a text describing a method of
> teaching that looks much like fishing. The teacher says: Today we will cover
> the political geography of Europe. What is the capital of the United Kingdom?
> And of France? Of Germany? Of Belgium?
> 
> At this moment, classes in university, community college, and technical
> schools are beginning with a set of fishing questions. This behavior is as far
> from dialogue education as is possible. These are not open questions, but
> closed questions with a sting of domination. I know; you do not know.
> 
> From Closed to Open Questions
> 
> London was indeed the capital of England and Paris of France-but how did that
> happen? Why London? Why Paris? What is the relation of one to the other? What
> would have been the effect of making a coastal town in France the capital
> city, or of making Belfast the capital of the UK? How does this dialogue
> relate to the Middle East and the issue of Jerusalem? Imagine the difference
> in the quality of dialogue and of learning with this kind of thinking: the
> opposite of linear thinking. Such open questions invite connected, circular,
> profound, open thinking. Dana Zohar (1997) suggests this is quantum thinking.
> She explains these differences through quantum physics in terms of three
> functions of the brain: the one-to-one leap of energy between neurons on a
> neural tract, which she calls serial thinking; the leap of energy in a pattern
> across a neural network, which she calls patterned or associative thinking;
> and the explosion of energy throughout the whole brain using a network of
> neural networks, which she names quantum thinking.
> 
> Here are some examples.
> 
> Serial thinking: What is the capital of Portugal? The capital of Portugal is
> Lisbon.
> 
> Patterned thinking: What do you notice about many of the capital cities of
> Europe? Many of the capitals of Europe are on waterways.
> 
> Quantum thinking: Political and economic realities are and have always been
> deeply entwined. Notice that all of the capitals of Europe are on waterways.
> How is the Internet, which we are using for this course, a global waterway?
> Where do you think the capital of the Internet lies?
> 
> Open questions are involved in patterned and quantum thinking.
> 
> Teaching as dialogue invites quantum thinking and quantum learning (Vella,
> 2002). It is the transformational learning that Mezirow (1991) defined. The
> quality of such learning may be one cogent answer to current problems in
> education at every level. The open question does not belittle facts and
> figures; it moves directly to examine them , to analyze the connections, and
> to consider the implications. Whatever you are teaching, a linear recital of
> facts and figures is hardly worth the effort. The definition of a learning
> task includes reference to open questions. A learning task is an open question
> put to a small group with all the resources they need to respond. The
> resources (facts and figures) can be incontrovertible data. However, this is
> not what you are teaching. Such data is available on the Internet with a flick
> of the finger: go to Google or to any search engine with the right question.
> Here are examples of data:
> 
> Over thirty thousand humans have been killed in the Iraq war.
> China's population in 2007 is estimated to be 1,321,851,888.
> Mozart composed twelve operas from 1767 to 1791.
> The seven design steps of dialogue education are Who? Why? When? Where? What?
> What for? and How?
> 
> The content of your teaching is not mere data or information, but the meaning
> of that information in a particular context. Testing is often an examination
> of learner's retention of data. It often involves serial thinking. Evaluation
> in dialogue education is not testing: it is rather an examination and
> evaluation of behavioral indicators that show constructed, quantum knowing
> (see Part Four, Sure).
> 
> Examples
> 
> Here are two dialogue education designs showing quantum knowing that includes
> serial and patterned knowing.
> 
> Dialogue Education Lesson 1: The Fatalities of the Iraq War 2003-2007
> 
> What? (content):
> 
> Thousands of men, women, and children have died in this Iraq war (2003-2007).
> 
> What for? (achievement-based objectives):
> 
> By the end of this class, all will have
> 
> * Calculated the cost of the Iraq war in human lives; examined pictures of the
> dead.
> * Identified contemporaries among them.
> * Composed a short letter to the family of a contemporary killed in this war.
> 
> How? (learning tasks and materials):
> 
> * Examine these charts of up-to-date data at your table.
> * Look at these sets of pictures of war dead: Iraqi and Coalition forces.
> * Identify contemporaries: men and women your own age.
> * Compose a short letter from your table group to that person's family.
> 
> Dialogue Education Lesson 2: China's Population Growth 2007
> 
> What? (content):
> 
> China's population in 2007 is estimated to be 1,321,900,000
> 
> What for? (achievement-based objectives):
> 
> By the end of this class all will have
> * Identified on a map of china the areas of most rapid growth.
> * Named strengths and problems in this growth pattern.
> 
> How? (learning tasks to be done in small groups):
> 
> * Examine this graph of China's population in 2007.
> * Identify on the wall map of China areas of growth.
> * Name strengths and dangers of this growth pattern for China's development.
> 
> Notice that the steps in this learning task are indeed open questions, and
> that they move across cognitive, affective, and psychomotor aspects of
> learning.
> 
> Implementation Challenge 7A: Face-to-Face
> 
> Consider a course you are now teaching or designing for a face-to-face
> situation. How do you see using your understanding about serial, patterned,
> and quantum learning? How can this knowledge enhance your design?
> 
> Implementation Challenge 7B: On-Line
> 
> Consider an on-line course you have designed or taught or are teaching, or one
> that you have taken. How would changing closed questions to open questions
> affect that design? Where in that course do you see serial, patterned, and
> quantum learning?

Mr. James B. Greenberg
Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center
Milne Library 
SUNY College at Oneonta
Oneonta, New York 13820

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