Kieran Egan on the nature of Knowledge

Kieran Egan was born in Clonmel, Ireland in 1942. He was brought up and educated in England. He read History (Hons.) at the University of London, graduating with a B.A. in 1966. He worked for a year as a Research fellow at the Institute for Comparative Studies in Kingston-upon-Thames and then moved to the USA to begin a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education at Stanford University. He worked concurrently as a consultant to the I.B.M. Corp. on adaptation of a programming method, called Structural Communication, to new computing systems. He completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1972. His first job was at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, where he has remained ever since. He is the author of over 20 books, and co-author, editor, or co-editor of a few more. In 1991 he received the Grawemeyer Award in Education. In 1993 he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada, in 2000 he was elected as Foreign Associate member to U.S. National Academy of Education, he received a Canada Research Chair in 2001, won the Whitworth Award in 2007. His main area of interest is education. His work focuses on a new educational theory, which he has developed during the past two decades, and its implications for a changed curriculum, teaching practices, and the institution of the school. His work deals both with innovative educational theory and detailed practical methods whereby implications of his theory can be applied at the classroom level. Various of his books have been translated into about 10 European and Asian languages. His recent books include Teaching as Story Telling and Imagination in Teaching and Learning (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), The Educated Mind: How cognitive tools shape our understanding (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), Getting it Wrong from the Beginning: Our progressivist inheritance from Herbert Spencer, John Dewey, and Jean Piaget (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), An imaginative approach to teaching (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,2005), and Teaching literacy: Engaging the imagination of new readers and writers(Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2006), and most recently The Future of Education: Reimagining our schools from the ground up (New Haven: Yale University Press).

I am having a blast listening to all these authors on education on WWW.FutureonEducation.com. Egan has many controversial ideas about education. One of the quotes discussed in his interview is,

"Education is a contentious and unsatisfactory activity." That quote alone got me interested.

These notes below are from the interview, please note some ideas are quoted verbatim.

**Egan claims education is made up of three ideas that ultimately do not fit or work well together, the three ideas are:

1. School's purpose id to socialize children to the world we live in

2. Then there is the academic purpose/idea

3. And last there is the developmental aspect of education.

** Egan believes that the problem with these ideas is that they are mutually incompatible and that this incompatibility explains why education is hard to do

* Egan claims that we have typically looked at education as part of a balance. The idea being that if not able to be balanced then ultimately the compromise is the best solution. He says that these ideas are traditional ideas and they are not hacking it for us. He offers that we need to give up that each of these ideas for 3 bad ideas does necessarily make a good idea. He clarifies that confused ideas make for confused solutions.

** Egan is huge on developing of the imagination in children. He says that the world is wonderful and that it should not be so difficult to show kids that the world is wonderful. he has written several books about developing imagination.

** Egan likens education to the process of giving children tool kits. These tool kits can be anything from oral language, cognitive, storytelling skills, metaphor, images in mind to express ideas, sense of mystery, or story structure. He describes education equal to picking up as many tools as many as possible. he puts forth the idea of children choosing a topic each year and building on that topic over the year, so that in the next 12 years, every child will know as much on that topic as most people n the world.

** Egan out forth the imagination as crucial to children learning about the world around them. Yet, he claims the imagination can work only with what you know. The more you know the richer you can imagine.

** He became curious about education by asking questions such as why kids collect cards. He says there is very little out there about how children make sense of the world.

** Egan proposes that the problem of today's schools is that they do not get a sense of that wonder and asks "how you can make everyday teaching infused with wonder"

** In commenting on the PISA (international testing of industrialized countries) he says that we need to look on what is being tested. He says of course a child at a private school, where wealthy kids go, are doing superbly well on the 5 paragraph essay for they teach it to death. He says, of course, if the finite goal is measurable, it's not hard to reach the goal. He adds that in Singapore they do great on the tests, but that a great deal (of schools) is dreary beyond belief". He ends with saying that "This is a not an education triumph one we should be seeking to emulate." Oh! what a breath of fresh air this guy is. At this quote I made up my mind to buy one of his books.....I'm sold!!

** On questions about the role of technology in education, he says that "education is a conversation amongst generation, but that crucial to education is a conversation, face to face conversation is always going to be crucial to education."

** The most important message Egan left me with was his view on nature of knowledge. He proposes that no knowledge can be in books, on the Internet. He calls those things carrier of we 'codes'. He says books, Internet are invented ways we have found to express our knowledge. He says that the only source of knowledge is in human mind. He says schools often confuse codes and knowledge. "We see as satisfactory the repeat of certain kinds of codes are rewarded. We reward people for something that could be meaningless. We accept code in place of knowledge. He sees the role of the teacher as needing to "resuscitate knowledge from code. Instead of getting kids to replicate code, to seek meaning."

Fascinating Larry Cuban on Education Reform

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I listened to an online interview with one of the great education thinkers, Larry Cuban online, He is emeritus Professor of Education at Stanford University, and the author of the 2001 book “Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom.” His blog is at http://larrycuban.wordpress.com/about/, In his own words: "I am a former high school social studies teacher (14 years), district superintendent (7 years) and university professor (20 years). I have published op-ed pieces, scholarly articles and books on classroom teaching, history of school reform, how policy gets translated into practice, and teacher and student use of technologies in K-12 and college. "My most recent research projects have been a study of school reform in Austin (TX) 1954-2009 and of a large comprehensive high school in (CO) being converted into several small ones between 2001-2009. The Austin book, As Good as It Gets, is now available for purchase.

Notes and reactions to the interview:

Cuban snickered when presented with the idea that technology will be the next big "revolution" in education. Being in his 70s and having been in education all his life, he has heard it all before. He believes that schools are "not built to be transformed".

He explains this by saying that the "Fundamental mistake people make when they talk about schools is that they think schools are built around one mission; to gain knowledge and skills. He says this is no doubt an important mission, but he adds that school actually have multiple missions. These multiple missions may be anything from making citizens, securing core values of a community, making school avenue of social mobility.

* Cuban shared his experience blogging about education and explains that he has 3 criteria for himself when he writes, (1) that he writes clear, (2) maintains his writing less than 800 words, and (3) he takes a position. As a blogger it made me think about possibly setting up a similar set of criteria.

* One very interesting aspect of the interview was Cuban's ideas about school reform. A book he has written in the past addressed the "dirty secrets of turn around chools".

He agrees that yes, there are ways to turn around schools and get low to mod to high scores, yet MOST schools will not stay turned around due to the instability of the changes that occur in school. He also attributes this inability to keep scores up to the lack of the kind of expertise and skills and capacity needed in these places. He adds that there are not a "cadre of people that can get job done, dust hands and leave schools, these are not atttractive venues for experienced people.

* Cuban suggests that teachers learn best from one another. He adds that there are respectful ways to help teachers that are not ways not coming from vendors or or policymakers do not want to go that route at all. He simplifies his sensible advice to bettering schools as (1) give teachers the tools they need, (2) have them work together and (3) give them support.

* Cuban is a self-professed techno-skeptic Which means that he does not believe the answers to all education problems will come from education. He strongly be lives that in the end it's still needs to be about the standards, the curriculum and then if you can use technology to help in these areas then by all means use them, but he is very strongly against thinking of them as THE answer.

I will be following his blog from now on......I have a new guru.

Open letter to Mayor Gray on Education

Dear Mayor Gray,

As a parent of a child in the District as well as a teacher working for the District I feel a renewed sense of hope in DCPS. I hold hope that the new administration has what it takes to unite teachers, administrators and District efforts towards one common goal of making DC the one of the top public school district in the country.

I absolutely agreed with Kaya Henderson in that you can teach using any platform across the academic spectrum, yet, if the kids can't do the basics in the end it's no good. I also agree that accountability needs to happen in some form to insure top quality service is being provided to the children. Where I see a disconnect happening is that in trying to sift out the bad teachers the good ones are getting trampled, and from what I'm seeing, great teachers who can leave, are leaving the District.

In trying to find solutions to this issue I have read a lot on what top countries are doing and what exactly make them so effective? Let's take Finland, for example. Finland has a system where it's so hard to become a teacher, but once you become a teacher you are fully trusted to teach. In Japan, teachers work collaboratively on best practice goals and observe each other to perfect their practice. I feel the solution to the disconnect I mentioned above lies in these types of solutions where teachers are in charge, or at least more heavily involved in their own professional growth and improving of practices as part of their assessment.

As a teacher of 13 years I work on my practice daily. I teach the same lesson to different kids and each time I tweak my practice to make it better and more effective. In addition, I also read books on education, follow policy, read current research trends, I joined a PLN group online to collaborate with other educators around the country and joined a PLC at work to constantly refresh my soul and my practice....this is why I became a teacher. Good and great teachers naturally want to do better all the time. The ability to work on my own practice and my own goals as a professional is just as important to me as the teaching part, they are inextricably connected.

I loved it when Chancellor Henderson said on her online interview on the DCPS site that she wants other districts to envy our educational system and want to steal our teachers instead of the other way around; which is what is happening now. I believe and know the District has a potential to be the best public school system in the country in testing, in teacher quality, but also first in innovation. I recently read a quote from a Shanghai principal on the PISA (The international test used to compare US and other countries):

“Developed countries like the U.S. shouldn’t be too surprised by these results. They’re just one index, one measure that shows off the good points of Shanghai’s and China’s education system. But the results can’t cover up our problems,” he says. Liu is very frank about those problems — the continuing reliance on rote learning, the lack of analysis or critical thinking — and he says the system is in dire need of reform. “Why don’t Chinese students dare to think? Because we insist on telling them everything. We’re not getting our kids to go and find things out for themselves,” he says. As well as the limitations of the Chinese education system, Liu says, it was only students in Shanghai who took the PISA tests, and Shanghai has some of the best schools in China.

When I read this I thought, "So the Chinese (who seem to shine in standardized tests) want to be more like us!!, not the other way around?" When I read this I was also deeply inspired. I knew then that The District could be the best in the country, and also best in the world if we can somehow get all parts of the system to work together in a system that honors all participants. Although I love the simplicity of the TEACH components within IMPACT, it's unavoidable 'gotcha' quality disinvites teachers from the proverbial table and places them front and center of the problem.

America has innovation, creativity, free thinkers, that is where we shine as a nation. In innovation lies the fire that will light up the future for the entire nation and beyond; a future we do not yet know or even envision. I feel we could be top in authentic education by working on 2 aspects, (1) DC has the richest resources in the whole country in our backyards and for free; the Smithsonian museums. As an excellent elementary art teacher who does an amazing job meaningfully weaving history, science, L.A. and math in my curriculum I was disappointed to learn that DCPS does not even have a head of art department. How are teachers to then connect with these institutions and take full advantage of what they offer?

(2) DC has some of the amazing and awe-inspiring teachers; it's DC's second richest resource. Why not take these teachers with a proven record in authentic whole-child education, who can do it all, who can inspire the mind, who can help kids not only memorize facts but to think, analyze, and make kids into self learners and have them be part of the solution. Why not use these teachers to create a collaborative mentoring system that is so rigorous, so demanding for all teachers that once they 'pass' they are trusted to teach. The mentoring system will be like the National Board certification of the teacher assessment world.

To close, last week I heard a lecture given by Dr. Sir Ken Robinson through TED talks. In it he talks about education needing to move from a 'factory model' to an 'agricultural' model. He offers a new paradigm for education. He believes education needs to be likened away from the factory/fast food model and switch over the an agricultural model. We can't make the plants grow, but we can create the conditions in which good growing could happen. I believe the answer to both teacher retention and improving the scores lies in this very powerful analogy. Let's start worrying more about getting the conditions of learning where they need to be to maximize learning and stop putting the majority of our efforts on the gathering of the data.

Notes on Where is Math 2.0?

As Nora napped today I listened to and interview with Maria Droujkova about Math 2.0. Maria is a founder of Natural Math. Natural Math is

" a network of people interested in making meaningful, useful, beautiful and fun mathematics. The current and recent projects of Natural Math include Math Clubs, an open online resource called Family Multiplication Study, participatory book/multimedia projects on Multiplication Models and Early Algebra, courses connecting mathematics with programming, game design, physics, ecology and art, and a study of mathematics in social networks called "Where is Math 2.0?" The five closely connected parts of the Natural Math framework are mathematical authoring, community mathematics, humanistic mathematics, executable mathematics, and psychology of mathematics education."
and more info about her,

"Maria grew up in the Ukraine, where she was active in Math and Science Olympiads and young scientist organizations. Her undergraduate work at Moscow State University was on bifurcation theory, a branch of differential equations theory. Maria continued studying mathematics at Tulane University in New Orleans, while focusing more on mathematics education. For her doctorate work at North Carolina State University, she looked at roles of metaphors in the growth of mathematical understanding. Maria organizes events, workshops and seminars, runs research projects, and helps people from toddlers to professors in their endeavors. Maria lives in Cary, North Carolina with Dmitri, her husband and colleague of twenty years, and their ten-year-old daughter Katherine."

The interview was titled, " Where is Math 2.0?" and the link to the interview is here.

The interview began with Maria defining 'social objects' and Math 2.0. Math 2.0 is a forum online where people interact around a social object in the topic of math. The social object would be the product that may come out of that forum.

The math 2.0 forum allows people to communicate and collaborate around a social object which may be anything from a book, a problem, or perhaps even a YouTube video.

What was most important about the idea of social objects is the fact that most math that happens in school does not actually allow children to create. As a teacher of art I see a huge gap for me to fill in this area. I can absolutely create social objects. In most math platforms in schools you engage in it and when you leave there has been no trace of you having been on it.....like the math drill sites online.

I really liked this interview for I have never even thought about math in terms of today's technology and social media. Apparently the social web is filled with a plethora of forums geared towards language, activities around the written work, different media, photography, game development, arts, anthropology. Yet, there is still very limited social mathematics happening on the web. There are plenty of sites when kids can practice math exercises online yet we do not yet see kids creating any math-related projects online.

What would it be like.....Teaching in 2030?

Warning: notes below may be verbatim from what the Author said during interview. These are notes from his lecture.

In aiming to sharpen my knowledge around the issues of education policy and child-centered reform, I often listen to leaders in the field online. I just listened to an MP3 interview with Barnett Berry and John Holland through http://www.stevehargadon.com. Barnett Berry is President and CEO of the Center for Teaching Quality, offers his knowledge and insights about America's efforts to build a real teaching profession.

Barnett has been working I education for 55 years and an advocate for the profession. He calls teaching, the teaching that "makes all other professions possible". Center for Teaching Quality is a think tanks of educators that seek to inform ed. policy. Their aim is to elevate voices of accomplished teachers. The

book is called Teaching 2030: What We Must Do for Our Students and Our Public Schools─Now and in the Future, (just ordered it!!) Excepts from the book can be found here.

**Berry speaks about a new type of teacher leadership, in which teachers take ownership of her own professionalism. He says that the entities now driving education policy do not trust teachers, yet, the public does. He predicts toward a more differentiated education profession, in which we elevate the workforce and blur lines that separate the teacher and the administration.

**The Authors also states that Waiting for Superman, the movie, offered false dychotomies, dysfunctional issues,and was pure 20th century thinking and action. He urges us to get above that debate and to get people on both sides to move forward together on a more transcendental form of way. He likens the current educational situation in this country to a factory model, a system in one thing is tweeked to get a desired outcome. Berry says we need to have the abilty to accept different views and to work together to get multiple possible positive outcomes.

**The good news, he states, is that more and more the work in education research circles around teacher input. Plus he's hopeful that the growing new technologies will allow teachers to better know what kids are able to document what kids know and for the ability for the public to be more aware of what it really takes to teach.

**In the coming decades Beery sees more students learning from students, teachers learning from teachers. He also predicts that teachers will need to be more involved in community, and become like part time community organizer. This need being driven purely by the growing divide between 'haves' and 'have-nots'.

**They both impart the importance of teacher voice in order to elevate teachers from the current role liked to a

factory employee. They described the expectations of the teacher's role as shown in Waiting for Superman unrealistic. They claim teachers cannot be caped crusaders.

**He further emphasized that the current educational model is a factory model where there are a few administrators, controlling slew of teachers that play the same roles in lockstep fashion. Berry is hopeful that the new technologies will become the seeds of change for the community for its ability to have a wider audience.

** In terms of accountability they say there needs to be new schema for accountability conmessurate with the 21st century student and that it's the teachers who need to do it for they know their students best.

**They offer a reshuffling of responsibilities os support personnel as a way to maximize on everyone;s expertise.

**The put forth this new concepts called, teacherpreneurism . Right now we have a socialist-style mentality in class in which all teachers all equal, giving teacher ideas in marketplace in education....that teachers can do things differently.

**They call for a need to utelize public engagement to elevate education dialogue with parents and the community. They think we should also invest on promoting the complexity of teaching, through a deliberate campaign.

**They offered a solution concerning unions in which they encourage them to have guilds, allowing them to essentially be the trustees of the profession.

**They made an excellent point in saying that Waiting for Superman never was able to tap into the hopefulness that teachers bring with them when they enter the field, yet, there are 100 of thousand ready to hear that message.

**They called for a reframing of the reform narrative? It needs to be about students and only teachers can talk about students...They also call a need for more student voice in matters of policy.

**Don't JUST look at DC, NYC for answers, but look at other countries, Finland, Brazil, to help inform this shift in narrative.

A productive week is a GOOD week

This has been a good week.....carved some time to be creative, have gotten things at work that will further feed my spirit, and managed to send out a birthday greeting to my niece.

Started a 2 new paintings. The tree goddess above is called 'self-portrait. An imagery I considered as close to me describing myself as I could get. I see myself, act and make decisions that are inextricably connected to earth and nature or informed by the natural process of nature.

I also started a second painting I call, 'anticipation'. It's about human relations with mango trees. When I lived in South America for 5 years as a child we had a mango tree. I remember the feeling of anticipation and bottled excitement we experienced under that tree. At any moment one of those large fruits could be released and fall on the ground. But that was also a great thing, for nothing is as rich tasting, and sweet as a ripe mango.

Nora, my 3-year old also made a tree goddess. I will have to help you 'interpret' her work. In the middle to the left are her 2 legs. Shortly above that are her 2 breasts (yes, the 2 bumps you see). The head is squished in there for she ran out of room despite my manu attempts to warn her about her lack of space. You cannot change a 3-year old's mind....period. The 2 'arms' are coming from the body right above the breast. There are 4 'roots' coming from the bottom and the rock-like structures right below at the center of the tree are also roots, yet, she 'decided' to make them circular and not long....These are not yet done....we will paint them and I will post developments in a later post.

Nora and Luke went to a birthday party this weekend and as a treat they got lollipops. They both love lollipops. I came home from work to see that Nora had drawn lollipops in a dancer's hands. The ball on top of the person's head is a ballerina bun and the bundle beside her on the right is a bag of lollipops....I love this drawing.

Close up of lollipops......always love the decisive lines in kids' drawings......I could simple never reproduce it in the same way even if I try....and believe me, I have.

Before we began painting last week I researched online how mango leaves look like....These are Nora's mango leaves....I think it's quite good and different....sort of more like a mango flower.

At work I the HSA (the PTA) funding to buy these books that will not make my teaching evermore. It's amazing now much richer teaching, and especially art teaching can be with visuals....

My niece turned 20 this past week.....we got busy painting and making her cards....here are 4 letters that went out the next morning, with the painting I did for her of a cake.

I have these new water soluble oil pastels.....and they are so much fun to play with....below are 2 DC-inspired watercolor style paintings I did on 12"x18" 120 lbs. paper.

Nora has been going on and off on her princess days. Some days she forgets all about it and some days she goes all out.....This was an 'all out' day and Chris asked me to pleeeaase take a picture to send to his mother....Of course as a total photo freak I took 50.....she posed a different pose for each.....without my prompting....here is my favorite one...