Higher Ed: The Lastest Bubble?

Like the housing bubble, the education bubble is about security and insurance against the future. Both whisper a seductive promise into the ears of worried Americans: Do this and you will be safe. The excesses of both were always excused by a core national belief that no matter what happens in the world, these were the best investments you could make. Housing prices would always go up, and you will always make more money if you are college educated.

The full article from The Economist.

TeachDesign and teach it early

Collaborative, project-based learning combined with learning that encourages design thinking is the future of education.

TeachDesign is an initiative in Austin, Texas that is helping students to use critical thinking skills while working as a team to create solutions. They do this while learning more than students might learn in a traditional education setting. This program connects industry and education. It is exciting to see this sort of education happening at the high-school level.

Check out this story on GOOD Magazine’s website:

Why We Should Teach Design Early

Teach Design: Think Dumb

Protected: Stringers Ridge as a Collaborative Space for Community Learning

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Wheatley on New Dimensions

The 02/13/11 edition of New Dimensions radio show featured an interview with Margaret Wheatley. She had numerous interesting insights.

One, which I found personally relevant, is that when we learn to believe in the goodness of others, we find it possible to be courageous for them. Indeed, when we truly believe in others, we cannot do other that stand up for them.

Another, which I’d heard before, but was a great refresher, is the insight from Hopi prophecy that in turbulent times, those who cling to the certainty of the shore will be torn apart, that we must swim into the current and rely on each other to keep our heads above water.

You can listen to the program for free through 02/23/11, or download the MP3 for $2 at http://www.newdimensions.org/flagship/3370/margaret-wheatley-phd-persevering-no-matter-what/.

Tags: Hopi, New Dimensions, Wheatley

Components of Learning 5: Feedback and Reflection

Note: This series of posts comes from my effort to develop a taxonomy of collective learning methods.

Feedback is basically the phenomenon or process by which current action is informed by the results of past actions. It is essential to control systems of all sorts, including biological, cognitive, mechanical, and social. Feedback tells whether our behavior is acceptable or effective. Reflection is a more complex and richer version of feedback for conscious entities, whereby they consider the nature and implications their actions. Askew and Lodge (2000) maintain that “[f]eedback is a complex notion, often embedded in a common-sense and simplistic dominant discourse” (pg. 1) about education, but “effective learning must include a wider conception of feedback … challenging the implicit assumptions on which approaches to feedback are based, and touch on a bigger question – what is ‘effective’ learning?” (pp. 2-3).

Tags: Argyris, Askew, collective learning, feedback, Lodge, reflection, Schon, Senge

Components of Learning 4: Practice

Note: This series of posts comes from my effort to develop a taxonomy of collective learning methods.

Practice, as related to learning, typically means “repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency” (practice, n.d.). But other definitions of the term—“habitual or customary performance … habit; custom … the action or process of performing or doing something … the exercise or pursuit of a profession or occupation” (practice, n.d.)—involve acquisition or creation of knowledge and potential for different behavior, or learning. Practice involves components similar to those involved in modeling: awareness of what the behavioral ideal is, breaking it into components, repetition of those components, integrating those components into a performance, and continuing the enhance the performance (Moretti, 2009).

Tags: collective learning methods, expert, How People Learn, Moretti, National Research Council, practice

Components of Learning 3: Models/Stimuli

Note: This series of posts comes from my effort to develop a taxonomy of collective learning methods.

Learning involves a change in behavior. Just as any behavior involves intentions, motivations, and knowledge, so does any change in behavior, particularly intentional, methodical behavioral change. This need not be explicit: there is a natural tendency to imitate behavior, which is reinforced when the observed behavior results in valued outcomes and reversed when it results in undesirable outcomes. Classical conditioning research shows that some stimulus, when associated with a particularly desirable or feared thing, evokes a response appropriate to that thing, even when the thing is not presented (Pavlov, 1927/2003).

Tags: bandura, collective learning methods, model, Pavlov, stimulus

Components of Learning 2: Intentions and Motivation

Note: This series of posts comes from my effort to develop a taxonomy of collective learning methods.

Intention and motivation are primary cognitive determinants of behavior, in general, and learning, more specifically, and are fundamentally shaped by self-concept interacting with social circumstance (Heider, 1958; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Bandura, 1977, 1986, 1989, 1997; Ajzen, 1985, 1991; Ryan and Deci, 2000). Generally, intention’s influence is a function of what one believes he or she can do (behavioral control or self-efficacy) and what he or she expects to result from that behavior. Attitudes, beliefs, and norms related to behavior are derived via experience and observation in various social settings. Together, outcomes-expectations and self-efficacy, based on experience and observation, add up to agency, or self-determination, the capability to act on one’s intentions, in one’s own interest: the greater the sense of agency on some topic, the harder and longer one will work toward success.

Tags: ajzen, bandura, carreira, collective learning methods, deci, fishbien, heider, intention, motivation, ryan

Components of Learning 1: Prior Knowledge

Note: This series of posts comes from my effort to develop a taxonomy of collective learning methods.

Knowledge is what learning is all about, and prior knowledge is the starting point for learning. It is an understatement to say that knowledge has been to topic of a great deal of discussion and study. Rather than attempting to review the voluminous literature on the topic I shall simply build upon the classical philosophical definition of knowledge with more contemporary perspectives from communications and information theory–knowledge as informed true belief. That said, we must recognize that some prior knowledge may not be informed, let alone true.

Tags: collective learning, prior knowledge, Roschelle

Current thoughts and input

Here is a thought I have been contemplating:

this is a model that mirrors Maslow’s and Bloom’s hierarchy against each other. The thought being that if you could assign a value to tasks ( such as a self assessment of efficiency 1-10 etc. . .) then you could plot moments of growth and self actualization. at the same time quantify mental/ emotional factors in terms of  Bloom’s (self assessed level of stress 1-10, level of happiness 1-10, etc. . .) Now place these values on an X Y plot and measure the difference at a given moment.  I would speculate that Task Growth (TG) is not congruent to Mental and Emotional Growth (MEG). TG is equal to self actualization(quantity from assessment averaged)  divided by time. MEG is equal to Evaluation divided by time) {evaluation being the tip of Bloom’s taxonomy and given that a person is mentally and emotionally capable of growth if they can evaluate and synthesize new ideas}

These are my thoughts based on this model. I am interested in growing the concept or redesigning it with a better format in order to be applicable to people. It is my hypothesis that the level of task growth would rise as the mental and emotional growth declines in most situations. Example: high stress project my yield a perception of completion in the task field thus a high score while emotionally draining the person thus yielding a low score.

The greater the difference in scores the greater the T growth and MEG growth over time. ( MEG is in the IV quadrant, TG is in the II quadrant).

This though as with any thought is better left in the hands of more minds than mine.