Martin Owen (t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk)
Thu, 10 Jun 1999 11:17:10 +0000
Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 11:17:10 +0000 From: Martin Owen <t.m.owen@bangor.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Pedagogy or Learning?
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>
>On Sun, 6 Jun 1999, Glenn Ralston wrote:
> Owen's remark, that a pedagogy need not be Constructivist for
>> > cognitive, constructive learning to take place.
To clarify my position further. I ma not saying that constructive learning
is a natural consequnce of a teaching methodology. What I am trying to say
is that No matter what is used as an obeject of learning (conversation,
drill package, LOGO... etc etc) the way a learner will engage with this
activity in the world will be "constructivist"... beacuse that is the way
learning takes place.
Theis position is not differnt from that posed bu Aina. however I would
want to take the theory practice issue further. One reason is that
behavioursim as a theory embodies a theory of practice. I do not think
constructivism as a theory naturally embodies a theory of practice, which
does not in any sense devalue its applicability in improving or informing
practice. << This is not a position I would have heald 12 months ago I
might add, I have cheerfully said that I use Constructivist methods>>.
Ania continues:
So the point is: if we are to be so
>inclusive rather than exclusive, how do we remain true to our beliefs
>without compromising and, as I made the point in (a), in the end,
>perpetuating the old beliefs and doing what has always been done and hence
>never bringing a change?
The historian AJP Taylor claimed he had strong opinions which he held
weakly. Why should we discard opinions or belief? How do we create new
models of understanding; new representations of our perceptions of the
world? As I have put my self celarly in the "constructivist camp", I need
hardly answer for my own part. However as I strongly believe in the absence
of a theory/practice devide (action however may be based on more or less
continuum of tacit or explicit knowledge), the words reflexive, dialogue,
and community are big parts of my vocabulary.
<< as a post script, some time a go a crrespondent on this list reponded to
a point I made about socially constructed knowledge and the need for "real"
knoweldge. The correspondent said that "to build a house one would call on
the carpenter".
I was too far away from my computer to repond at the time of writing,
however in my patch of ground, to build a house, the carpenter would come
on the scene much later.... in MY undertanding of house building, I would
call on the stone mason. Temporarily, I rest my case>>.
Martin Owen
T.M.Owen@bangor.ac.uk
School of Education Yr Ysgol Addysg
University of Wales, Bangor Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor
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