tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post1828515613185431431..comments2024-03-27T08:53:29.267-04:00Comments on CURMUDGUCATION: A Big Problem with Ed ResearchPeter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-24302997422629795392014-08-15T04:10:38.277-04:002014-08-15T04:10:38.277-04:00If the science regarding ed reasearch is lacking, ...If the science regarding ed reasearch is lacking, what can be said of underpinnings of all of pedagogy training that makes up the advantage that people with a 4 year ed degree have over the TFA kids? I feel that the way teaxhing appears to be taught is lacking in practical application. Leading to new teachers unprepared for the rigors they will face in their first year. Matt.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15075326581935048045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-63333977902383179452014-08-14T15:25:37.003-04:002014-08-14T15:25:37.003-04:00It's certainly not scientific if you don't...It's certainly not scientific if you don't replicate the studies. I was not aware that educational research is routinely so unscientifically done. I know from proofreading my daughter's graduate papers on scientific studies - she's a physical therapist - how important it is to not draw conclusions from studies outside of the sample group you work with. When I was in college in the early 70's, I found Jerome Bruner's work in my ed psych course very helpful. My other daughter is a social studies teacher and she also has found Bruner's work helpful; it seems his work is still valid, or does it also mean there haven't been enough other theorists. It seems like the education departments are trying to do a marginally better job than when I was in college, but she still had to completely organize the information from her methods class for it to make sense because it was presented in a very random, disorganized way. Except for the ed psych class, all my other education classes were the most useless classes I had, taught by the worst teachers. My field is foreign language - French and Spanish - and the only other helpful class I had was called Spanish Linguistics for Teachers (which was not in the ed dept), where we analyzed and compared Spanish and English to figure out what problems the students would have and where and why and how to address them, and I was able to use the skills I learned there to apply them to teaching French and E.S.L. also. I helped my son study for his cognitive psychology course, and I found it fascinating, especially the chapter on learning theory. I've had some drive-by pd sessions on cooperative learning or on random memory things like how many words the average person can learn at a time and about memory "chunking", but again, very random. In the 80's something called TPR became popular for teaching foreign language but I got absolutely nothing out of a day session on it; I only understood it once I read the book by the person who developed it and then I understood the theory well enough to be able to apply it. I had a very good workshop on multiple intelligences and learning preferences that was helpful. And I think you mentioned a neuroscience study in one of your recent articles. It just seems like someone needs to separate the wheat from the chaff in these studies, or maybe cognitive science is better than "educational" research. And we have to watch people who cite things out of context or misrepresent studies: that awful, awful article by Joanne Lipman written to shill for her book by jumping on the reformster bandwagon about "grit" cited Anders Ericsson. I googled him and the way she quoted him out of context actually contradicted the main thrust of his research. I don't know. Teaching will always be an art (but if you say that people will think it's aesthetics and depends on your opinion instead of being "skill in performance acquired by experience, study, or observation" or "a special ready capacity that is hard to analyze or teach") but the more of a science we can make it, not only could we refute stupid ideas or fads, but the faster young teachers would become good. Rebecca deCocahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13168718846105012814noreply@blogger.com