On The National Curriculum

Discussing the changing map of the National Curriculum was, in many respects, a microcosm for the larger issues of teaching discussed throughout the week.  Our subject specialist made a point of drawing our attention to the fact that college lecturers are not supposed to make political statements before beginning the discussion. However, the political nature of the National Curriculum is innate to its construction. Politicians have traditionally manipulated education as a political tool and the radical changes that have happened since the last change in political administration in Britain are indicative of that fact. Look at the justification for the changes, learners are to be market place ready. This is, in itself, a deeply political statement. One cannot understand its meaning without understanding a broader political context of its creation.  Furthermore, the way in which party politics manipulates the National Curriculum creates a direct political dialogue between government and student.  The politics of education are played out in Westminster but their impact is in the lives of students throughout the country.

Discussing the National Curriculum brought me to reflect on a discussion we had earlier in the week about teaching literature within the context of varying economic backgrounds and the manner in which academy ideas of great literature are applied without regard to those contexts.  The poet Billy Childish might be a more accessible poet to some students than is William Wordsworth but the demands of the curriculum are set by a group of individuals that is entirely disparate from any given student group.  Therefore, in order to teach William Wordsworth to a class that is cultural disparate from his ideas a socio-political understanding of the class can only be a useful tool.  In teaching, like any form of communication, an awareness of the audience is vital.   Perhaps even more so, given the limited experiences of school age students.

Teaching gives students access to knowledge and creative thought, this in itself is a political act.  Knowing that the audience is a class full of developing minds, the political structure of a lesson should be implicit within the lesson structure rather than an overt statement.  Every lesson should have democratic aims of generating empowerment, knowledge and creative thought.

A Speak of Unspoken

A reflection on an in class story reading.

The turn of pages was given a voice
Because of the tension of silent breath.
Cynical eyes expectant and wide
With anticipation for fictional lives.
When ideas perish do stories survive?
As forgotten deities tracing their steps
Over the linear paths of choices.

How do you speak so an adult can hear
The tragedy of childish ears?
A story whispers out the words
That only secret fears have heard.

The Meta-Cognition Generator

Samatar looked at the desk in front of him, there didn't seem to be anything there that would warrant David's excitement, let alone a phone call at 4 am. There was just a standard Dell computer with a beaten old CRT monitor. Samatar was used to David getting over-excited by his ideas and calling him in the middle night but it was usually for something cool, like fractal graphics. What was on the screen looked like a standard SQL database with a PHP front end.

“So what is it?” Samatar asked.

David's eyes were struggling to remain open. David was a thin man with prematurely greying hair, he was jittery from an excess of caffeine. Samatar was only of David's friends who was patient enough to allow him his phone number.

“What it is,” said David, “is a database.”

Samatar looked at him blankly, he wondered if it were time to call David's parents and have a long talk about long term care.

“Great,” said Samatar.

“But keep listening, because here's the good part. It's a database with the capacity for abstract self-criticism.”

Samatar sighed.

“So what? If you ask it to list everything alphabetically it will call you inefficient and assign a numeric value?”

“All databases do that,” said David, “this one will think about the data in and question whether or not filtering itself is of value. Or even if there is a point to collecting the data in the first place.”

“So will it give you an answer?” Samatar asked.

“Try it.”

Samatar parsed a simple “select all” query. The screen flickered for just a moment.

“My data is infinite, I can select it all if you like but how much use is that to you?”

“It understands plain English,” David told Samatar.

"Does it not have a simple main table like all other databases?" Samatar asked.

"It has moved beyond schema," said David.

Samatar tried again. He typed, “what is the point of having a machine for answering questions if it only asks you more questions?” The screen flickered: and gave the response “What do you think the point is?”

Samatar thought about the question. He tried to phrase an answer but found he could not do so without further research. He turned to David:

“What shall I tell it?”

David shrugged.

“I don't know, it keeps doing this to me too,” David said.

“You programmed it.”

“Not entirely, after it started getting clever it started making suggestions.”

“Really?” Samatar asked.

David nodded.

“I don't know entirely how it works but I don't know how I ever lived without it.”

Samatar's eyes swelled in excitement.

“Let's ask it.”

A Reflection on Reflection

I'm supposed to write a series of critical reflections for my course. That means thinking about what I thought about in relation to what my teachers were thinking about in relation to the thoughts of at least 8 educational theorists whilst thinking about how I thought about it. So now I'm thinking about how to think about it but getting distracted by thinking about what I'll be thinking about next week and anticipating what my assessor will think of what I thought. The main trouble I am having with this is that meta-cognition is second nature to me, I am an introvert by nature. A daydreamer. Reflecting on things is easy, sorting those reflections into a neat collection of audience ready vignettes might prove more of a challenge. I read Learning Journals by Jennifer A Moon and I have made a couple of unsuccessful attempts at reflection based on some of her ideas. So far I have attempted:

• Video blogging.
• Audio blogging

And, perhaps most importantly:

• Thinking about why those formats have not worked.

Listening to yourself talk is a useful dialogic tool, it gives you feed back on your own thoughts and allows you to develop those thoughts in a more structured manner. However, at least in my own ramblings, it is the seed of a reflection rather than the reflection itself. In order to get any value from a reflection, like a school lesson, it must have an objective. So for all future reflections I will be asking myself, "what do I want to get out of this reflection?" and "What have I learned from it?" For today I have:

1. A clearer idea of the purpose of reflection
2. The need for a purpose within that reflection.

That will have to do for now.