Creating Disequilibrium through Conversation
The article “On Listening to What Children Say” introduces a concept of using a classroom interaction as a source to reveal information on student understanding and comprehension. The author Vivian Gussin Paley states that teachers should treat their classroom as theater in works in which students are actors trying to disperse their problem in the play which is the class content. I really love Ms. Paley concept of listening and gathering information through conversation. In my classroom I tried to have open conversation on the topic I was teaching. Most of the time I had open conversation was to relate the content material to the student’s every day life. Biology can be really tuff sometime at connecting to the real world because the student’s can’t see and feel the content. Open conversation is a great way to gather and analyze student background and understanding on the content. While reading the article I got the strange feeling that Ms. Paley was really talking about creating disequilibrium in student’s understanding through a imaginary story line. The root of the Ms. Paley theory is really Jean Piaget who stated that learning is a versatile activity in which student’s incorporate new information to their existing idea. We covered Jean Piaget in Chapter 3 of “Teaching Science to Every Child” which covers assimilation, accommodation and disequilibrium. Ms. Paley is using listening during conversation as tool to create disequilibrium. She also uses student’s prior knowledge to create this sense of confusion which directly correlates with student’s personal belief. This is a very good concept because the content relates to the student’s own confusion.
However I must point out some of the disadvantages of using this theory. First of all I wish the article provided example of a secondary teacher. I think it’s extremely tuff to have an open conversation which relates to experience of all the students. Secondly, at the secondary level the conversation tends to drift off into other avenues. Sometime it takes a lot of energy to get the students back to the content. Finally it is very time consuming to create disequilibrium with all of the students. Some of the students might just not find material interesting and motivating. As an educator I try my best to introduce each new concept with a lot of energy and enthusiasm but there are always some students that find material tedious. I really love the idea and I have done it in my classroom but structure and foresight are essential to having mutual learning experience in the classroom.
3 comments:
I agree with you. I was thinking that as I was reading the article that how wonderfully it lends itself to elementary school but I was unsure if that sort of dynamic would be feasible in secondary topics. i think certain secondary topics like social studies and English definately lend themselves more to interpretation and discussion, but perhaps there is room in a science classroom for this. As you said you did try to conduct your student teaching in this way. Paley plays off of the students ideas an imagination and preconceived notions so I wonder if it is also a challenge because the older you get the more of that idealogy slips away and kids are more grounded and factual and embedded in answers and yes and no, not necessarily theatrical experiences in uncovering ideas. I imagine it might my be more challenging to pull this off with older kids, but I would love to see or talk to a teacher who tries to accomplish this.
Choosing the right topic seems to be essential in order to have a useful and generative conversation. When there are societal issues involved, then the value of individual perspectives becomes useful. In some ways, I wonder if it isn't EASIER to do this in secondary classrooms: the students have so many more life experiences and ideas to draw upon.
it's great to hear that you were having thoughtful conversations while teaching biology. I hated my freshman year biology in high school because my teacher was so distant and never really talked to us. She would just assign pages and questions to answer. Engaging in thoughtful conversations will help connect the new material with what the students' already know and also build relationships with your students. They know they can come to you with questions and know you're willing to hear their voices also.
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