From: Pablo Chavajay
Submit: Post Message
Date: 26 Nov 1996
Time: 19:58:41
Hi Valerie,
It is very nice of you to share your perceptions about what happened in our Wednesday class. You mentioned that sometimes students ask questions without receiving an answer. You also mention that a "straight answer would be preferable." However, I think that it is difficult to give you and the other students one "supposedly correct" answer, given that the issues we are dealing with are very complex (e.g., institutional development --with all its limitations in terms of equipment, qualified personnel; individual development -what works for one child may not work for another child from the same cultural background or even the same age --undergraduate students and steering committee members with different ideas or perspectives about teaching and learning and how to carry these processes out; etc). In addition, I think that not having one sole "correct" way to do something or to think about something is challenging, and often is very different from what most undergraduate students are accustomed in "traditional" classrooms (e.g. where one answer which the teacher knows must be learned by students). I strongly believe that you and your fellow students, and Eugene, Ed, and I have learned a lot by challenging and questioning our own assumptions about teaching/learning - e.g. providing your own views and disagreeing with one another in respectful ways about issues that are important to us contributes to further our understanding and creating unique dynamics in this class. In short, for the kind of work we are doing, I do not think that there is a standard answer for all the issues raised in class. Instead, from my view, there is a lot of room for diversity of ideas and flexibility as we learn to address various issues that arise as the project develops -- including lots of ways in which teaching and learning may occur in the project.
Pablo