Tara Fenwick, "Learning through Experience", Ch.3. "Writing our own life narratives can provide a space to begin examining how our various communities, power relations, identities, cultural affiliations, and social interactions have constructed our actions in particular ways that defy any definition of "normal" experience (61). I found Fenwick's discussion of writing personal narrative and the insight this provides very interesting. Looking at a personal narrative in relationship to your community, cultural identification and relationship to power extends the voice and meaning beyond the personal story. Exploring the question of how a situation made us act and react, and how our way of acting defies what society defines as normal, enlarges the scope of the personal into a larger whole. This reminds me of Robert Nash's discussion of the Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) in "Liberating Scholarly Writing," In my teaching of beginning students, I found it a difficult task to get students to write biographies that were transcendent. I do think at this beginning level it sometimes happens without the student being aware of it. One of my students wrote an essay about his literacy. He wrote about how parents should be responsible for either teaching or seeing that their children are taught to read and write. He was furious that his parents, who could read and write, had not taught him these skills. When a person is unable to read and write it impacts not only the person but also the community, Without literacy a person's potential is greatly marginalized and often more community services are required to assist these families.
Sharan Merriam, Rosemary Caffarella & Lisa Baumgartner. "Learning in Adulthood" There are different ways of learning through experience that are discussed by Merriam, Caffarella, and Baumgartner in chapter 7 "Experience and Learning". The constructivists believe in critical reflection on students prior learning experiences. The situative approach engages students through role playing. Teachers from the psychoanalytic school help learners bring unconscious conflicts to the surface to try to overcome learning blocks. Instructors who use the cultural approach force students to see the effects power has on their lives and help them to resist being taken advantage of. Lastly , there is a school of teaching who believe in the complexity theory. These instructors teach their students to understand how people understand complex situations and reach conclusions (171). Out of all these theories of learning through experience, I found, in my experience teaching adult learners, that the constructivist approach was most useful. The adult students could learn through past experiences and access relevant information. I found that reflecting over prior learning experiences was the most helpful in teaching beginning students to read and write.
Tara Fenwick, "Learning through Experience", Ch.3.
ReplyDelete"Writing our own life narratives can provide a space to begin examining how our various communities, power relations, identities, cultural affiliations, and social interactions have constructed our actions in particular ways that defy any definition of "normal" experience (61).
I found Fenwick's discussion of writing personal narrative and the insight this provides very interesting. Looking at a personal narrative in relationship to your community, cultural identification and relationship to power extends the voice and meaning beyond the personal story. Exploring the question of how a situation made us act and react, and how our way of acting defies what society defines as normal, enlarges the scope of the personal into a larger whole. This reminds me of Robert Nash's discussion of the Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) in "Liberating Scholarly Writing,"
In my teaching of beginning students, I found it a difficult task to get students to write biographies that were transcendent. I do think at this beginning level it sometimes happens without the student being aware of it. One of my students wrote an essay about his literacy. He wrote about how parents should be responsible for either teaching or seeing that their children are taught to read and write. He was furious that his parents, who could read and write, had not taught him these skills. When a person is unable to read and write it impacts not only the person but also the community, Without literacy a person's potential is greatly marginalized and often more community services are required to assist these families.
Sharan Merriam, Rosemary Caffarella & Lisa Baumgartner. "Learning in Adulthood"
There are different ways of learning through experience that are discussed by Merriam, Caffarella, and Baumgartner in chapter 7 "Experience and Learning". The constructivists believe in critical reflection on students prior learning experiences. The situative approach engages students through role playing. Teachers from the psychoanalytic school help learners bring unconscious conflicts to the surface to try to overcome learning blocks. Instructors who use the cultural approach force students to see the effects power has on their lives and help them to resist being taken advantage of. Lastly , there is a school of teaching who believe in the complexity theory. These instructors teach their students to understand how people understand complex situations and reach conclusions (171).
Out of all these theories of learning through experience, I found, in my experience teaching adult learners, that the constructivist approach was most useful. The adult students could learn through past experiences and access relevant information. I found that reflecting over prior learning experiences was the most helpful in teaching beginning students to read and write.