Reflection 1. Week 2.     5/03/14

The design aspect was to reflect on 2 frameworks, Blooms Taxonomy, the SAMR model and our own personal pedagogy beliefs. By using participation of Bonos Hats to discuss the topic 'Use of mobile phones in the classroom' it put these frameworks into action.

I like to pick the eyes out of a topic to work out what is the simple dogma that needs to be always be in the forefront of what I am doing. In the learning materials overview I found ' Our goal as teachers is always complex thinking'. That has struck me as my mantra. It is my focus, so that I keep moving in the right direction as I am bombarded with an abundance of course information. "OUR GOAL AS TEACHERS IS ALWAYS COMPLEX THINKING". 

ICT has its biggest impact on learning outcomes when you are working towards complex outcomes. (learning materials wk 2)
The SAMR model is a great tool to always fall back on as a teacher to reaffirm that the technology you are exposing your students to is mainly in the modification and redefinition categories. ie. Learning tasks that you could not do without this technology.

From Blooms model I learnt the assertion, that the more complex the level of thinking, the better the understanding of the learning material. In the real world of the classroom that means to put in place pedagogy that stimulates analysis, open discussion and free will thinking.

The lecture from Dr. Judy Willis discusses neuroscience and learning. What stood out for me was the physical area of the brain (prefrontal cortex) that worked on our analytical,
conscious, reflecting, complex  thinking. AHH yes, so if we remember our mantra as teachers, then this is the area of the brain we need to target!!!!  Dr. Willis asserts that because of the flight or fight response to stimulation (that we have as human beings) the brain has to analyse that the classroom is a safe place to be. Only then will the brain transfer learning to the prefrontal cortex.

I have a big problem with the Dr, is that she lists the major causes of the flight or fight response/ causes of stress in students, BUT instead of dealing with the individual issues she instead lists ways to trick the students to forget about their cause of stress!!!!!!!   I will list her causes of stress in students in the classroom.

. Fear of being wrong
. Embarrassed to read outloud
. Test taking anxiety
. Physical and language differences
. Cliques and bullying
. Frustration with difficult material
. Boredom from lack of stimulation

Now this list is quite confronting and it concerns me that if a student has stress from bullying, cliques, physical and language differences that these problems need to be tackled head on immediately! We all know the occurrence of suicide is a very real possibility. 

Now instead of doing this the Dr gives us techniques to use so the students are fooled to forget these stresses, so the brain feels safe and comfortable to allow the information flow to the prefrontal cortex. These techniques are advertising, colours, costumes/music and movement. Not good.

If others believe that "of course she would deal with bullying etc appropriately" and that I  have been too harsh. Rubbish, this was a teaching hour long seminar and it should have been addressed. 

De Bono's 6 thinking hats is I believe one of the very best pedagogical techniques for use in a classroom.  It scaffolds, values others perspectives, allows connectivism and engages learners. From our learning material, Terry Anderson in his keynote address to the dehub summit in Sydney 2011, maintained that without a range of perspectives, analysis was neither feasible nor robust. And that is our goal as educators, to facilitate complex analytical thinking. Reading through the broad interesting contributions to the Wiki, I thought it was a fantastic technique to facilitate complex thinking. I am really looking forward to becoming adept in using De Bono's 6 thinking hats when I commence teaching.