July 29, 2013 --Benefits of studying and learning with others

How do you think you could benefit from a two-week Summer Institute dealing with Twenty-first Century Educational Practices?

I might learn about Probing Questions. – That was a major focus in today’s meeting at Malvern Preparatory School’s Summer Institute 2013. In case you are not aware, the lead-in question at the top of today’s blog is a pretty good example of a Probing Question. The question challenges you the reader (or student) to do some thinking. If a person were to ask any member of this year’s Summer Institute what are the benefits of attending the Summer Institute, the lead-in question might be the answer that you receive.

The probing question challenges the asker (student, interested faculty member) to think for himself/herself about what the benefits might be. If the asker offers an answer, a new Probing Question might follow.

I might learn about Intent and Impact. – In praising a student’s effort on an Independent task or a Collaborative assignment, we should be certain that what we praise is the student effort or the process that the student utilized rather than simply telling the student that he or she does well on a certain type of assignment. Our intent is to build confidence in the student’s giving effort or using a certain process, not simply praise for the having completed something.

I might learn about St. Augustine. I might get along overdue chance to read his thoughts on education, and to see that his thoughts are still very relevant today. I might have the chance to evaluate my teaching to see if I employ any of Augustine’s thinking in my daily classroom routine.

Someone might challenge me to explain something that I am just learning. Someone in the group might ask me what I mean when I say that I am no expert. I might be able to explain that I use that statement when I want my students to think about how they can arrive at a conclusion without asking me what their conclusion should be.

I might learn that what occurs in my class is not all about me, even if I help to make the learning occur.

By asking a “Critical Friend”, I might finally learn the difference between Truth with a capital “T” and truth with a lower case “t”.

Are six new learning experiences enough for one day?  What do you think?