- Why is freeing students from closed, canonical (and necessarily terminal) interpretations vitally important if we hope to help young people think critically about the sociocultural identities that are available to them?
- What do the authors mean when they argue that “hesitancy and uncertainty are central to knowledge making” (pp. 297 of original text)?
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Questions for Hull & Rose:
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From Hull and Rose’s reading:
ReplyDeleteAuthors argue that “hesitancy and uncertainty are central to knowledge making” in the text. This means a student make their own knowledge efficiently when they feel uncertainty and hesitancy about the knowledge. Feeling uncertainty and hesitancy to something means a student are not sure about the information. If a student is not sure about something he/she will have a willing to find out and to make sure the information. This makes a student to study, ask to someone, or find in the internet. After this activity, they can find out the truth and get confidence in their knowledge. Throughout all this process, they can earn the knowledge which was not clear. From my personal experience, I strongly agree on this statement. When I know something quite exactly, and have no doubt to my belief, I never try to study more, because I believe the knowledge I know is right. However, when I am not sure about some information, which is feeling uncertainty and hesitance, I try to find out the truth, so I look into books or find in the internet. Through these works, I can find out whether my information is right or not. If it was right then I can have an assurance in my information and can add to my knowledge, but if it was not, then I can correct the information to the correct one and also can add to my knowledge. In conclusion, authors want to say that feeling hesitancy and uncertainty help people to make their new knowledge, cause they want to make sure.
In the Hull and Rose piece “This Wooden Shack Place: The Logic of an Unconventional Reading” the authors discuss an instance of a teacher and his student working together to co-construct knowledge. Rose’s style of hands-on, individualistic instruction leads him to have a discussion with his student, Robert. Rose’s method of teaching prompts him to open up a discourse with his student in which each can speak freely without the burden of an academic authority. Through this process Rose comes to have a better understanding not only of his student but also of the original poem. The discourse that is opened between the two men leads each to a fuller, more complex understanding of the text.
ReplyDeleteThe important work of opening literature to interpretations other than the conventional, dominant one is crucial if students of all backgrounds are to be able to relate to their education on a personal level. Through allowing students room to negotiate their own, experience-based, understandings of text Rose works to empower his students to own their own education. These practices serve to move Rose’s teaching style away from what Freire would term the educational banking system of teaching and more towards a freer, problem posing education. The teaching style Rose engages in with his students leads to an educational environment where every person is able to express their interpretations with validity and, through this process, where each can work in tandem to engage in a more complete and complex understanding of a text.
Daniel Seok
ReplyDeleteIn essay, “This Wooden Shack Place: The Logic of an Unconventional Reading” authors argue that “hesitancy and uncertainty are central to knowledge making”. Before talking about what it means, let’s talk about “knowledge making” first. In the field of education, I believe there are two kinds of knowledge making. The first one is involuntary knowledge making and second one is voluntary knowledge making. The knowledge making happens when we have to acquire some types of knowledge even if we don’t want to. The voluntary knowledge making is totally the opposite. It happens when we are acquiring some kinds of knowledge with our own will. Our will to gain knowledge initiates when we are hesitant and uncertain about particular subject which we are interested in. When we are attracted or interested in any fields of subject, we try to know more about it. But since we don’t have any experience in this new field of subject, we tend to be hesitant and uncertain about certain parts of the subject. When that happens, we spend our time to study and analyze such subject to master it. Thus our feeling of hesitancy and uncertainty serve as a driving force to knowledge making of any subject that we are interested in.
By “hesitancy and uncertainty are central to knowledge making” author Hull and Ross means that even though teachers are there to teach students, they cant always teach the students what to think. Hull argues that by having teachers focus on discussion, it will help students articulate their ideas and form their own conclusions and thoughts. At times I do find myself coming up with a better explanation for something especially when put on spot especially with the teacher there because they help me formulate an answer. You have to be curious in order to want to find the solution to something. Another example besides the one provided in the chapter about Robert and Rose, are inventors. For example, take Benjamin Franklin and his discovery of electricity, he wouldn’t have had the drive to conduct experiments if he wasn’t certain if his hypothesis were right or not. Curiosity and asking questions is key to find answers when you are hesitant and uncertain. It is especially helpful when you have your fellow peers around. Having a discussion in class or outside of class always help with decision-making. When uncertain and hesitant, everyone one comes up with their own personal opinions, and when put into discussion, one could put together all the pieces and come up with one overall conclusion that includes bits and pieces of what other people have said also. I also agree with what Jisu said. His example about studying and when you don’t know something, you would study by reading books or researching it on the Internet until you understand the material.
ReplyDeleteI think most people would agree that learning experiences aren’t always easy or smooth. Some of the most difficult and awkward situations I’ve been through have also been the most profitable in terms of my development. My parents moved around a lot when I was younger, and so I was constantly put in new situations, often being an outsider, including many moments both in classrooms and out, where ‘hesitancy and uncertainty’ were prevalent.
ReplyDeleteA lot of what we learn comes from things like reading, listening to teachers lecture, and things of this nature. But in some ways, I feel that these learning experiences aren’t nearly as strong and efficient as those that involve ‘hesitancy and uncertainty’. Hull brought this up in the context of a ‘richer, more transactive model of classroom discourse’, and I think this is exactly right. I feel like its best to be bold in your outlook towards ‘knowledge-making’—trying new things, dealing with feelings of insecurity and embarrassment, becoming confident about the whole trial-and-error process of learning.
This topic reminds me a bit of the zone of proximal development, in the sense that it may not always be clear to a teacher or a student exactly how to further develop one’s knowledge. Theoretically there is always the potential for the expansion of knowledge, but the path to it is often unclear. I think this is why it is so crucial to accept hesitancy and uncertainty as part of the process.
During the whole passage the authors argue whether hesitancy and uncertainty are central to knowledge-making. In my opinion, I would like to say that hesitancy and uncertainty strongly affects to making knowledge. Thanks to internet development, people can find much information through on-line, so if there are questions we can find the right answer via online. Reflect on my personal experience, when I believed some of my knowledge has certainty, I did not look for it. However, sometimes my belief was wrong. At that time, if I spend some of my time finding the information, I would not make wrong.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, when I was not sure about my knowledge I looked up internet or many other books to find out what is the right knowledge. Like this, looking up internet or other materials can make me sure about the specific knowledge. In addition, when I find the information by myself, it might remain longer in my brain than just accept already certain knowledge or information. Also, if some information has hesitancy and uncertainty, students might think more and more to reach certainty. In this case, students can build up their thinking ability and their thinking skills might become deeper and deeper.
The article, “This Wooden Shack Place: The Logic of an Unconventional Reading” suggests the idea that a one’s personal experiences shape how one learns and analyzes information. Rose conducted a small study to determine whether “a student’s (Robert) personal history and cultural background shape a somewhat unconventional reading of a section of a poem.” Rose discovers that Robert’s perception of his own socioeconomic status and limited views displayed in the media determined Robert’s unconventional reading of the poem. In fact, Robert analyzed the “full visual particulars of the scene,” in which Rose had missed. In this case, both the student and teacher teachers and learns, which encapsulates the democratic style of teaching and learning. When reading this article, Friere’s words resounded through my mind. To establish the conventional means of reading the poem, Rose asked two English undergraduate students, two graduate students, and two English professors, in which they all answered analogously. I assume the answer is a product of the banking system, in which a student possesses “an empty ‘mind’ passively open to the reception of deposits of reality from the world outside” (Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed). In the opinion of Freire, this educational style obstructs a student’s creativity and critical-thinking skills. However, this article provides an example in which problem solving is encouraged through discussion. The argument in which Rose and Hull poses, “hesitancy and uncertainty are central to knowledge making” mirrors Friere’s text: “Knowledge emerges only thorugh invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient continuing, hopeful inquiry human bings persue in the world, with the world, and with each other” (Pedagogy of the Oppressed). It suggests that hesitancy and uncertainty will lead to discussion that will help critically analyze the given information to provide a well thought-out answer to a problem. Thus, because each individual has their own history and cultural background, through discussion everyone will be able to consider and understand different perceptions to come up with a holistic conclusion.
ReplyDeleteUpon reading “ ‘This Wooden Shack Place’: The Logic of Unconventional Reading,” by Hull and Rose, one understands that they inducted a study on a student by the name Robert and focused on his reading skills. However, one chooses to focus on this concept of how “hesitancy and uncertainty are central to knowledge making.” First and foremost, one understands how the authors illustrate this concept as essential and crucial phase for intellectual development. One needs to use this sense of uncertainty and hesitancy to increase one’s curiosity as a drive to acquire the answer. However, one feels that another factor of this concept applies to the role of the teacher as well. As Freire mentions within “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” about the notion of the “problem posing system” and how the teacher is should establish a status that is not superior to that of the students. And thus, the authors of this piece believe that it is necessary to establish such a status, which will thus cause uncertainty and definitely involve hesitancy from the teacher. However, if the teachers are able to do so, the authors believe that it will be because of this that is central in to knowledge making. The author realizes that by establishing this status that it will cause uncertainty and hesitancy to both the students and the teacher but this is the very act that would transform the typical banking system model into a “trans-active classroom.” The author directly states of how they are not asking to “abandon structure, goals, and accountability,” but to establish this new model of an educational environment. The authors believe that it is necessary for students to have this uncertainty and hesitancy to fully embrace the acquiring of knowledge and also that in order to create this environment central to the knowledge making, there will be a reciprocating relationship of uncertainty from the teacher and the students.
ReplyDelete