From: Ayal Goury
Email: ayal@cats.ucsc.edu
Course: Psych 100K: Development of thought and Language
College: University of California Santa Cruz
Instructor: Eugene Matusov
ClassWeb: http://ematusov.com/psych100K
ChildrenObservations: No
Date: 19 Mar 1997
Time: 20:28:40
Remote Name: lang-lab-mac27.ucsc.edu
This paper looks at the informal methods of teaching by Dr.Eugene Matusov in conducting learning in his Psychology 100K course. His design of the class and his web site is studied along with his attempts to teach students "how to learn".
It is approached with much pleasure to be able to review the teaching methods of Dr. Eugene Matusov. Eugene conducts the structure of the course using informal patterns in all areas of the course including the classroom discussions, practicum and web site. Like a novel one learns much if not more through the implications within the words, so too does one learn much in the fields of pedagogy and psychology by immersing in the UC links program particularly under the teachings of Eugene.
Dr. Matusov's skills lie in his determination to let learning take place naturally, with as little impositions as possible. His demonstrations of re-evaluating formal techniques by questioning the status quo and learning how to learn from the experience as a whole has been the primary source of knowledge in the course. For clarification we may look at the web page that Eugene has designed. In order to allow for as much collaborative learning as possible to take place, Eugene has created a web site for the class. It is on this web page that students have the option of sharing experiences from the site of the practicum with the other members of the class. Discussions also get posted allowing for constant update onto the classroom as well as immediate communication with the professor and the TA's. The web page documents and patents any thoughts one may have on the program forever. In essence, the web site captures the present involvement of the class and allows for it to stay documented forever. Five years from now, for example, I may look back into the web-site and once again have access at information I had studies years earlier.
An amazing concept when one begins to understand that the course is never over and is forever kept for further reference or review. Most courses have a few books to read in the course of ten weeks, and then the experience is pretty much over. Sure one may re-read texts assigned in a classroom and get much out of it but one cannot jump into self-documented thought processes of what it was like to go through the class at that time. The web site not only opens up information to the classroom but if given access to it, it opens up the experience to any one any where in the world who wants to learn about the class. This is very different from formal university courses because the syllabus for the course is constantly being shaped. Eugene is not pouring information into our heads but rather every student is learning how to learn from the experience by writing field notes, and getting into discussions all about the same program. In short, we are doing what educators have been trying to get children to learn for ages, we are "learning how to learn".
The field notes and discussions require the students to take an experience and learn from it. The experience and what we are to take from it is completely left to the student. That is, Eugene does not say "go in to the local Latino youth center and learn the following things", instead he says go try to observe what is going on and then come back and share it with the class so that everybody can learn from your experience as well.
Classroom readings are designed in a similar approach. In the class groups are assigned particular readings. Unlike most formal classrooms which never share opinions on the readings but are only taught to read them and learn them on your own, Eugene's class is conducted in a manner that allows for the real learning to take place with the discussion of the readings. The class gets split up into reading groups which everyone can discuss the readings and afterwards further discussion is brought out in the class. In these discussion we urged to question the readings and apply the theories into our own observations at the site. At times Eugene may assign a reading specifically because he disagrees with the writer's conclusions. By doing so, Eugene encourages his students to think for themselves. His objective is to get students to engage actively in the readings and it has positive effects. Much of Eugene's teaching is about questioning what we take as truth in our society. On one response to a field note Eugene poses some of his opinions regarding literacy and the problems with how society tends to define it.
"You [an undergraduate student] wrote,
'I noticed that she [an observed child] didn't have very developed reading skills, because it was so apparent in her game playing. It bothers me terribly that an eight year old in our school system hasn't learned to read properly. I wonder what they are doing for her at her school?'
I wonder why is it so important for you that all kids learn how to read solo by third grade (or whatever age benchmark). You also seem to imply that it is school (and teacher in specific) is responsible if your benchmark has not been met. I think that dyslexia and whatever difficulties kids face do not matter if the kids are taught to access literacy practices in some other ways. Literacy is not rooted in reading solo. I think that kids who 'can read' but hate reading are much [more] illiterate. While kids who can't read solo but love readings and found ways (with the help of other people or equipment like recorders) how to access the readings are literate. As far as I know, current research support that view--kids who can actively work with readings (whatever way they access it) demonstrate much more advanced skills that kids who are not actively engaged in the reading and can just 'reproduce' the 'soundtrack' of the readings. The more I am studying schooling, the more I become convinced that setting age (or grade) benchmarks can be damaging for children equating a lack of a specific skill with academic failure. What do you think?" (EM 01/26/97)
This field note response has been chosen because it displays much of Eugene's approaches to learning. One student comments on the shame of an eight year old seen at the site, not knowing how to read. Eugene takes this comment, demands that we take a step back and analyze what it is we consider to be literacy. He explains how we define the problem (i.e., illiteracy) and review that definition. See if it is correct, and find what the root of the problem is. He poses his opinions, and then asks the student for her opinion. This particular discussion was also brought up in the classroom discussions where we all attempted to redefine the problems. Although no conclusions or definitions were made, the process taught the students how to approach some "problems" that may arise in the future.
As I mentioned earlier, one of Dr.Matusov's methods is to create the course with the students as the course is going on. I have been fortunate enough to take two classes with Eugene. Neither of the courses were the same because different classes, had different students, who posed different opinions. Since most of the course involves collaborative learning between students and students, with Eugene as one of the students also, what is learned is always different.
Different opinions, different thoughts, different frustrations, all make up for a different learning experience. This change in structure can be difficult to adjust to at first. I recall my frustrations in the first quarter. We are so used to having teachers impose their structure on the student that we get frustrated when the responsibility is put into our hands. Eugene refuses to impose his structure on his students, and creates one which tries to be as free and open to student collaboration of course curriculum as possible.
Dr. Eugene Matusov's approach of refusing to teach his classes but serve only as a catalyst to collaborative learning is a break in the traditional methods. It is inconvenient at times because we are so expectant of teachers telling us what to think that we may find Eugene's class to lack structure. When one looks deeper into his methods one sees that structure is not only there, but is in constant evolution with the needs of the self, classmates, and teacher. This is how learning happens.