Earlier today, I read a brief Upworthy article, which included a comic entitled "Questions," by Alexandra Dal (pictured to the right). What I took away from this comic strip was a renewed realization of the importance of assumption-checking. In each of the scenarios, a person (often in some position of power) asks questions of either a fair-skinned girl or a brown-skinned girl. By comparing the questions asked of the two girls, I could ascertain some underlying assumptions. For example, in one scenario, a coach appears to be asking a high school senior about college. The coach asks the fair-skinned student what colleges she is applying to, while he asks the brown-skinned girl whether she is the first in her family to graduate high school. While neither of these questions are malicious, they certainly reveal contrasting assumptions about the students' lives. Reflecting on this made me think about teacher expectation theory, which suggests that student performance is affected by teacher expectations. As we think about discovering our authentic teaching selves, I hope we are also inspired to realize our students' authentic learning selves. Although this sounds quite lovely, it may actually be quite difficult. It will involve us confronting and challenging the assumptions we may make about our students, realizing that both positive and negative assumptions can be harmful and obstructive to engaged teaching and learning. |
3 Comments
Matthew D'Aria
3/11/2015 07:59:51 am
Hello and Thank you for your post.
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3/11/2015 09:29:45 am
I really value the learner-centered approach, but I am not sure that it automatically makes us conscious of our assumptions. I think these types of assumptions are often subconscious--ones of which we are completely unaware. That is, we may not even realize we have such assumptions until we are faced with some critical encounter, perhaps in which we say the wrong thing, or in which we realize we are actually wrong.
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gradstudent08
3/13/2015 06:46:19 am
I've been thinking about the (perhaps hurtful) assumptions which are unconsciously in our worldviews, vocabulary, and culture. I agree that we must consistently become more aware of these and change ourselves accordingly.
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GEDI BLOGI am taking a Contemporary Pedagogy, a Graduate Education Development Institute (GEDI) course towards the Preparing Future Professoriate (PFP) certificate. In this section of my blog, I will be posting about topics related to innovation in teaching and learning. Archives
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