Brain Storming

[I'm not sure what the problem is or what caused it, my fingers, my brain, or my age. I was trying to type the title of this entry and it took me five tries to be able to spell “Storming” correctly. I wrote “stroming” instead each time. Perhaps that is what brain storming is really about, trial and error. The difference is that during a brain storming session, we say something and our peers may help us whenever we get stuck.]

One of the best sections of the class on Thursday, October 14, was the brain storming session. The Kolb test was relevant, but I believe that I personally benefited most from exchanging ideas with my classmates on the possible subtopics for our papers. In my opinion, the exchange of ideas for a paper usually happens before or after class. Just by listening to my classmates, I learned that I need to narrow my own topic, and that I need to deal with methods, models, and -isms of teaching, instead of policies and their celebrities. I usually take a blank piece of paper and write down an outline and some words, before I proceed to search for information, then I write the paper. In other words,

idea + blank paper + outline + research + writing + editing = paper

But this time, the formula looks different:

have an idea + search for information + brain storm + research + outline + writing + editing + review = paper

Although the process seems longer, I believe that from the second week of October to the last week of November, the final paper can be done.

==

After Thought

I went with my family to Target in Williamsburg, and we saw a lot of white paint on the parking lot. To me, it looks like a brain. Now, I see brains everywhere! Here is a photo of the paint.

A splash of white paint on asphalt at the Williamsburg Target's parking lot.

Class at The Library

Scene 1 - students enter the library at 4:00 p.m.

Scene 2 - they learn that there is a problem with the VCU website and perhaps with the library servers too.

Scene 3 - the library web site is down.

Scene 4 - the librarian made a wonderful job explaining everything without the help of visual element, except for the text she wrote on the board and a handout.

Scene 5 - class dismissed.

Debating the Debatable: Andragogy

Class of 30 September 2010

In this class we had to debate andragogy and its assumptions—that adults learn in a different way than young, that adult learning is self-directing, that adults learn because they have previous experience, et cetera.

Our team had to argue against andragogy. This was a very intense exercise, because we had to prepare statements and questions in a few minutes, and then exchange them with another team in a debate format. My question is, what would happened if we had more time for this type of exercise? Would the debate be more interesting, more heated? Would it result on a debate similar to the ones in the British parliament? I'm not sure, but even with a little bit of time that our group had to prepare, we managed to agree on something and challenge the other team's point of view. Our main questions were:

1. At what time do we become adults?
2. Isn't the Montessori method similar to andragogy? Both assume that students can learn in a self-directing environment, for example.
3. Doesn't andragogy look very similar to pedagogy? To a certain extend, anything that we can say about adult learning, we can say about children. Therefore, it's not peda or andragoy, it's just “gogy.”

What I liked during this exercise is that I didn't want to talk—yes, me, I, who is always expressing her mind, either in a serious or not so serious way. I only wanted to observe my classmates, because we were very close to each other, everybody had great ideas and examples, and all of us were right. The part that bothered me was that since I didn't say too much during the debate, I was chosen to deliver the closing remarks. I am not the best public speaker. Yes, I talk too much in class, but I'm too chicken to carry such a responsibly! I'm not an English native speaker and this was what I call “a language crisis moment,” which usually make go blank and my grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and confidence go to the floor in a second. Well, maybe my team chose me when they realized I hadn't say that much during the debate. Or perhaps I talk too much in class, that everybody has the impression that I will have something to say at any given moment.

After notes

These are three links on andragogy, which make think that a debate was a good way to talk about it. Andragogy seems to be synonymous of “debate”.

Links:

a. We were in the right direction, or at least we are not the only ones who thought about the age.  This is a short response from the Adult Education Quaterly.

b. The “Andragogy Homepage for Adult Education Specialists” mentions that the term “andragogy” is changing. I like the graph on the scheme of adult learning.

photo: http://www.uni-bamberg.de/fileadmin/andragogik/08/andragogik/andragogy/lifewide.jpg

c. It seems that in Nigeria they are debating—it's a “warfare,” according to the author—the practice of andragogy:

“For example, persons who had training in areas other than andragogy, but who find themselves in Departments of Adult Education, tend to develop complexes which may be termed unbeneficial to andragogy. This is because, such persons in all their manners and attitude, project not andragogy but the discipline in which they had their  initial training even while in a Department of Adult Education. Indeed, you have a feeling that these persons are somewhat ashamed to be associated with andragogy. This state of things is naturally unprofitable to adult education.” (http://biao-ayinde.org/andragogy.htm)