Day 72: The Praxis of Pedagogy

I started off Friday by giving the students a reading on Milgram's famous psychological experiment on following orders. You know, the one where the test subject delivers "shocks" to an actor that has a made up heart condition. The experiment was to see if people would follow the orders of an authority figure. They found that 65% of the subjects delivered the highest shock to the actor at the urging of a self-appointed authority figure that had no enforcement capabilities. Afterwards we talked about the implications of that study and related it to things in our everyday lives. As much as everyone wants to say they are a leader... we are mostly followers. They really seemed to like this story, especially when I started to talk about my own interest in psychology and sociology. To make em laugh I started to talk about how when I was young and I wanted to get girls I read books about body language. Then I told them how when girls are interested in guys they will touch their hair and play with their hair. And if they really like the guy then they will reach out and touch them quickly. Then I talked about how guys will puff up and make themselves appear bigger. They will lower their voices and straighten up. I told them to go to lunch and watch for those interactions.

I want to teach students how to learn. I was thinking about the differences between western teaching and eastern teaching. In the western world we stress interaction with the students and getting them doing things. In the eastern world there is more of a stress on observing and sitting quietly. I usually think of martial arts and how people train. In Asian martial arts you don't talk so much. You watch the teacher and observe carefully. Then you go and do the movement. That's how Asians train. There is often a stress on imitation of movement. So like people that train the aikido style of when O-Sensei was young move differently from those that train the style of when O-Sensei was older. I feel that students must learn to be able to sit still and quietly and learn through observation. While this should not be the only way, this is another important way.

Anyways, after the experiment I handed out rubrics for the final project and presentation. Then I went over it with them and talked about what I wanted from them. I need to be more explicit with the students on what I want from them. Then I showed them how to make an outline or a semantic map for their final project topic. I have to teach skills. Then I had them make their own and show it to me before they left. All of this is a way for me to gauge where students are at in their final projects. I really don't want a situation like last year.