week4

**__Week 4__** This week’s topic was Planning for Learning. I found the reading for this week's class both enjoyable and thought-provoking. I will concentrate on the first article by Egan (2005) as I found it to be the most interesting and whilst the article by N.Postman&C.Weingartner (1972) was interesting it didn’t really grab me the way Egan’s article did. However, at some stage I’m sure I’ll refer to the article, as I believe that without questioning knowledge is pointless. I feel the Egan article is offering an opportunity to encourage imagination and critical thinking in students even more than by teaching them to question everything. "A Tool Kit for Learning" really made me think about how we learn and that not all learning comes from a set curriculum but rather by using as the article suggests an “An Imaginative Approach to Teaching". The Imagination is a powerful tool; it is perhaps the most important driver of knowledge, for without imagination I doubt there would be much of anything going on. The article got me thinking of a world where imagination didn’t exist or wasn't encouraged - there would be no Leonardo Davinci, Shakespeare would never have written the classics we still enjoy hundreds of years after their creation, the Wright brothers would have never left the ground, we would never have dreamed we could explore other solar systems and put men on the moon, etc (you get the point). Now imagine a school system where imagination is stifled (not hard to do, in fact most of us would have experienced this at some point during our schooling), where you followed a set curriculum, did not deviate, and success was measured in test scores. When thinking about this, it is important and interesting to remember that Einstein barely passed his exams and was not considered a very capable student. However what he did have was an enquiring mind and an ability to dream, as this quote suggests: "Imagination is more important than knowledge''. Which leads us to the Tool Kit for Learning that Egan describes and is easy to follow. It starts with:

**Storytelling**, which as the article suggests is one of the most powerful cognitive tools we can use, many oral cultures have used storytelling to pass on knowledge, "It is the real world story telling that promises most value for teaching" (Egan (2005) p1).

**Metaphor:** Egan states that metaphor is one of the foundations of all human mental activity. I had never thought of using metaphors as overly important, it was just something you do. However, after reading the article and taking time to digest it all, I now see them as vital to encouraging creativity in children. Where would literature be without the metaphor? I was never taught metaphors in school but, as Egan says, they come along with our development of oral language. Metaphors should be encouraged in education as they make students use their imaginations and have the ability to turn lines on a page into something unique and special.


 * Binary Opposites:** I found myself trying to think like a child (not hard for me), in many regards the world is black and white (another metaphor, I’m good at this) to children, for example, there is hot/cold, and play time/bed time. Again this is a topic that I didn’t associate with teaching but as Egan points out they are part of everyday life and encourage students to think in the abstract and that oppositions can make a subject "imaginatively engaging to students" (Egan (2005) p19). I now see binary opposites as an educational tool which can help to shape our view of the world. However, as Egan cautions they can also become too simplistic, such as the use of good and bad for example. In World War II the allies perceived themselves as the good guys and the axis the bad guys however, those on the axis side would not have held this view.


 * Rhyme, Rhythm, and Pattern:** In oral cultures, as Egan points out, these strategies were vital in passing on knowledge and are still in use in classrooms today. We teach students to rhyme the calendar so they can remember how many days there are in the different months, and children learn to tie their shoes using rhyme ( well at least I did). I can remember being in class and having a great time clapping out syllables or learning to correctly spell words that sound the same such as 'there' and 'their' . In university whilst studying the animal kingdom we were asked to develop ways of remembering its structure and relationships, a tool which I still use. These types of tools should be encouraged in classrooms and should not just be considered a tactic to use in early education, as they have value across a much wider curriculum. For example whilst studying for the English hurdle exam I, and I assume others, found themselves clapping syllables and reciting "I before E except after C" etc.


 * Jokes and Humour:** Again this is a topic I would not have associated with learning. Sure we joked around in class but then it was time for the lesson and jokes stopped. Egan points out the value in using humour in education by drawing attention to language as object that can be used in many different ways rather than it being an "unconscious behaviour" (Egan (2005) p25). The article points out that “Metaphor and humour help to summarize the two mental performances that go into understanding a sentence". Humour can be a powerful tool in education and, although many teachers may disagree, I found this example to be quite useful as I have an irrational fear of maths: “Why is six afraid of seven?" "Because 7, 8 (ate), 9". As a prep learning to count this would have made me want to learn more rather than becoming math-phobic. I will as a teacher try and use these tools to encourage students to think of novel ways to approach subject matter. Though not useful in all areas, for example the holocaust would not be an appropriate subject with which to use humour, but in the correct setting jokes and humour have real value.


 * Mental imagery:** This is a great tool for learning that, as Egan states, influences throughout our lives. As I was reading I thought back to the strategies that were used in a recent maths tute; Beth stated that she sees the sum in her mind and arrives at the answer by doing in her head what she would do with pen and paper. Imagery can be a powerful tool and should be encouraged in modern classrooms.


 * Gossip:** Gossip is not something I get involved in and I’m not sure if I agree with using gossip as an educational tool. Egan states that it can help to develop language skills and help to develop social interaction in children, but I feel it is a double-edged sword and would probably not encourage its use in my classroom.


 * Play:** Egan states play is a related set of cognitive tools children use itheir imaginations to develop understandings of society by role playing**. **

Author: Nick Power
 * Mystery:** I feel mystery is vital to education as all subjects involve mystery on some level especially if just being introduced. Students will feel they have achieved more as they become more involved in solving the mystery of the subject matter. Teachers can make the classroom exciting by leaving a lesson on a "cliff-hanger", students may want to come to class to solve the mystery and in the end have a better grasp on a subject because they have discovered something new for themselves.

I thought Nick's notes were really good this week, and certainly made the reading come alive for me. This shows just how powerful and useful collaborative learning is, that through Nick's perspective and insight I was able to gain a new level of understanding on the issues we are learning (Nick's use of "Humour" no doubt helps this process a lot!!). I agree that Egan's article was extremely useful in the way in which it explained some alternative ways of teaching that are really affective but which I hadn't really thought of as official learning tools. Rhyme, Rhythm & Pattern stands out as being useful for me in my own past experiences. My deplorable maths skills are no doubt widely known by now (thanks for the help Beth, here's hoping you actually get onto the Wiki some time soon!). But the few times tables I do know by heart I can still hear playing in my head to the tunes we learnt in class. The same goes for Indonesian, which I haven't even thought about since primary school, but I still know my body parts because we were taught the 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees & Toes' song in Indonesian as young students.
 * Response to Nick - Author: Bianca**

Egan's tool which also struck a personal cord with me was "Play", as it can literally be seen in every child's life, both in and out of the classroom, how through play we all gain the most fundamental knowledge. The importance of play has constantly been instilled into the minds of my siblings and myself by our social-worker mother, who constantly reaches children and gains an understanding of their sufferings in her office through playdough, sand trays and drawings. Bruno Bettelheim, a leading child psychoanalyst, combines this understanding with the way in which children respond to and grow from fairytales, tying in nicely with Egan's other subheading 'Storytelling'. "Children need fairy tales," Bettelheim constantly urged, because ultimately they are "helping them cope with the psychological problems of growing up and integrating their personalities" ("Bruno Bettelheim's Uses of Enchantment & Abuses of Scholarship", Alan Dundes, in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 104, No. 411, p74)[|Bruno Bettelheim (JSTOR)]. The importance of making learning relevant to students (of all ages, as was proved by Nick's humour helping me make light of the readings this week), instead of abstract theories and formulas to learn is thus clearly evident. This is of course the point of Egan's list of tools that serve the purpose of making learning come alive for students and help them retain that learning.

Mental Imagery is a another powerful tool for me. I'm a 'crammer' from way back and before each French, Spanish and Maths test I copied out verb conjugations and formulas over and over, so that in the test the next day I could work out the answer from mentally conjuring it in my mind as I saw it on the paper. The dangers of this are evident however, as was proved in the maths tute last week when I found it nearly impossible to solve the simple maths equations without inverting them to the standard algorithms with a pen and paper- just like Pete said was problematic about them.

With this in mind, it is to be concluded that a mix of these tools is ideal, as Egan advocates. So here's hoping that in terms of Maths I'll eventually learn to utilise Egan's tools and more, so that soon it will be more than just the complete "Mystery" with which I associate this subject.

The suggested text 'What's Worth Knowing' was difficult to understand and it was only in the concluding statements that I was able to make meaning of what was being conveyed by the author. According to this author, a student's questioning is vital in terms of how and what they learn and it is a necessary process which should form the basis of the curriculum. With effective classroom management skills, this seems like a logical approach to keeping the motivation and interest of the students as well as ensuring that their quest for knowledge and inquiry is not taken from them through standardised and rigid teaching methods. In comparison however, I found Egan's article to be more motivating as well as more easily comprehensible and also relevant. As stated above in both posts, Egan's ideas, although familiar to all separately, were suggested for use in such a way that imagination was not only accepted as important in learning but was also considered essential in a child's learning. Having a set of 'tools', although not being a complete list of available 'tools', made the idea of teaching a slightly easier concept to manage. Humour would be perhaps the hardest 'tool' for myself to incorporate as a teacher, for this is not a skill that I feel I have a natural ability for. Regardless I can see the importance of such a skill to engage the students and to create a fun and interactive learning environment. The concept of storytelling was in my belief very well explored by this author as was the concept of mental imagery; both tools eliciting great emotion and imagination. Imagination is something that I will endeavor to maintain in a classroom hopefully full of curious minds. Author: Angela Partridge  I am once again in complete accord with my fellow wiki collaborators. I found the article by Egan to be far and away the most enjoyable and applicable of this week’s readings. Although we are familiar with all or most of the concepts that Egan mentioned I had not personally considered many of them within the context of learning. Nick mentioned earlier his scepticism about gossip as an educational tool and my original reaction was the same. After further consideration I could see where Egan was coming from (I also have the further insight of being female and without trying to reinforce stereotypes I do believe that girls have a greater understanding of the social implications of gossip).While being careful not to encourage malicious gossip or breaches of privacy the informal conversations that occur under the context of gossip are an important part of human nature, we all to some extent participate in gossip and too ignore its existence would limit the educational experience.
 * Further comments on Week 4 readings:**

I also found the website Teacher Tools – Questioning techniques to be a very useful site. Understanding the importance of questioning students as an assessment of learning is critical and something I had not given a lot of consideration to until this week. As we commence writing our first lesson plans I have found it increasingly difficult to fit a questioning component into my lesson plans but I found some quick resources on this website that I found useful. In particular I could see a role for the active questioning techniques. //Filling the Toolbox// website ([]) is along the same lines as Egan’s article but provides some practical “how to” advice for questioning. Author: Beth McMullin