Empowering Professional Teaching in Engineering. John Heywood

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СКАЧАТЬ Programs. London, Collier Macmillan. 13

[8] ibid 13, 14

[9] ibid 14

[10] Newman, J. H. (1923 impression). The Idea of a University: Defined and Illustrated. London, Longmans Green. Discourse 5. 17

[11] Newman, J. H. (1843). Fifteen sermons preached before the University of Oxford. London, Rivington (1890 ed.), Sermon 14, p. 287. Also on pages 291 and 292. 17

      “Philosophy, then is reason exercised upon knowledge; or the knowledge not merely of things in general, but of things in their relations to one another. It is the power of referring everything to its true place in the universal system -of understanding the various aspects of each of its parts, -of comprehending the exact value of each, -of tracing each backwards to its beginning and forward to its end, -of anticipating the separate tendencies of each, and their respective checks or counteractions; and thus of accounting for anomalies, answering objections, supplying deficiencies, making allowance for errors, and meeting emergencies.”

[12] “An important characteristic of memory and perception is the tendency to remember our successes and forget our failures [13]. At the same time we tend also to be very consistent in our attitudes and opinions [14]. Apart from the fact that this makes it more difficult to adapt, we try to adapt, by accommodating new perceptions that possess values within our value maps. We tend to use sets that have served us well in the past. The same is true of problem solving: we tend to use the same heuristic whatever the problem [15]. Bruner has called this persistence forecasting and it can in a new situation prevent us from using more efficient strategies. We tend to believe in the advantages of what we already possess. Dissonance or downshifting arises when we have to accommodate a new value system with which we have no empathy.” When there is a conflict between the values of the instructor and the student learning may be impeded. 17

“For example when a subject that we have to learn is cognitively complex and where values are involved, such as in political studies, a student may be in disagreement with the views held by the teacher. In these circumstances there may be considerable resistance to learning, and apparently this is particularly likely to be the case if the students are only mildly critical of the teacher’s standpoint. Such students may become alienated from the political and economic system. However, as Marshall [16] shows, a teacher can cause learning through his teaching style, even if his or her rating with the students deteriorates during the course.” (Which is one of the problems of using student ratings to evaluate the effectiveness of a teacher).

“Since we impose meaning on the objects of knowledge it should come as no surprise to find that a [student] can deliberately impose misunderstanding in order achieve consistency between the message and his feelings. If there is consistency a student can change his/her attitude to a teacher from like to dislike if the teacher’s messages appear to be untenable. This can happen in university when first-year [engineering] students have to cope with certain propositions in the social and behavioural sciences: anything that is contrary to the student’s views can create such dissonance.” […] [17].

“Challenges to values may be perceived as threatening. More generally in situations perceived to be threatening, we narrow our perceptual field and return to the safety of our beliefs [18]. Behaviour in which we revert to tried and trusted ways can affect the higher order cognitive functions and thus the ability to solve new problems. Downshifting of this kind it is argued is one of the reasons why students fail to apply the higher levels of the Bloom Taxonomy” [19].

      “Cognitive dissonance theory accounts for the behaviour of institutions and politicians. For example, politicians become so committed to the values expressed in their slogans that they become unable to entertain reasoned arguments against their points of view even from some of their own supporters! And of course it is necessary for the dynamic of political parties that their workers (supporters) should not deviate from their beliefs” […]

      The above paragraphs are from pages 66 and 67 of Heywood, J. (2008). Instructional and Curriculum Leadership. Towards Inquiry Oriented Schools. Dublin, National Association of Principals and Deputies.

[13] Bruner, J., Goodnow, J. J., and G. A. Austin (1956). A Study of Thinking. New York. Wiley. 19

[14] Festinger, L. (1959). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford, CA. Stanford University Press. 19

[15] Luchins, A. S. (1942). Mechanisation in problem solving: The effect of “einstellung.” Psychological Monographs. No 248. See also McDonald, F. J. (1968). Educational Psychology. Belmont, CA. Wadsworth. 19

[16] Marshall, S. (1980). Cognitive affective dissonance in the classroom. Teaching political science in the classroom. Teaching Political Science, 8(11), pp. 111–117. 19

[17] French, W. L., Kast, F. E., and J. E. Rosenzweig (1985). Understanding Human Behaviour in Organizations. New York, Harper and Row. See also Thouless, R. H. (1974). Straight and Crooked Thinking. London, Pan Books. 19

[18] Combs, A. W. and D. Snygg (1949). Individual Behaviour. A Perceptual Approach to Behaviour. New York, Harper and Row. 19

[19] Caine, R. N. and G. Caine (1991). Teaching and the Human Brain. Alexandria VA, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 19

[20] Schubert, W. H. (1997). Curriculum. Perspective, Paradigm, and Possibility. Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice-Hall, p. 276. 17

[21] Cross, K. P. (1986). A proposal to improve teaching or “what taking teaching seriously should mean.” AAHE Bulletin, p. 14. 17

[22] Trevelyan, J. (2010). Engineering students need to learn to teach. ASEE/IEEE Proceedings Frontiers in Education Conference, F3H-1 to 6. 17

2.5 APPENDIX

      Example of an action research in a primary (elementary) school initiated by a teacher with the support of the Principal of his school.

      This extract is from Heywood, J. (2008). Instructional and Curriculum Leadership. Toward Inquiry Oriented Schools. Dublin, National Association for Principals and Deputies, pages 45 ff. It is based on Prior, P. (1985). Teacher Self-Evaluation using Classroom Action Research. A СКАЧАТЬ