Chapter 4 Designs for Knowledge

Purpose – teaching discipline –Structures as frameworks for understanding multiple contents –Habits of mind or processes so students learn to do Use variety of discourse forms as modes of thinking

Ways of knowing Simulations in education –Not simple, mechanical linear systems –Complex, changeable systems –Important to understand structures and processes –Important to understand the systems and processes – not the names or facts –Must learn to think

Educational reform Little has changed Conventional wisdom persists Knowledge is discrete body of essential knowledge and skills –Competency-based curriculum + direct instruction + standardized tests = measurement-driven teaching and higher test scores

Focuses on Breadth Disciplinary learning –Collections of facts, concepts and theories –Memorized –Regurgitated Give students access to the “intellectual heart” of a discipline Depth of a topic rather than shallow facts

Learning about structures Focuses on depth – central theories or operations –that explain specific cases –form organizing principles for study of discipline Allows other things to be related to it meaningfully Whyville ???

Food purchased at the grocer, the grill, or the Whyville Cafeteria Virtual health consequences: –Appearances altered if diet poor –Motivated to discover the source of their illness and correct it.

Why teach structure? If content is related to structure, –it is more understandable –it will be remembered –it facilitates transfer of learning (Dig). –Dig it: –

Purpose of Dig Class divided into two competing teams Students create two lost civilizations and their artifacts Each team "salts" their artifacts in ground Opposing teams dig up others’ artifacts Opposing team analyzes artifacts

Lessons Learned Lost civilization's interrelationship of cultural patterns: –economics, –government, –family, –language, –religion and –recreation

Design and create artifacts Place in ground according to archaeological principles Scientifically excavate, restore, analyze and reconstruct artifacts

Narrative Discourse & the Disciplines Narrative – primary mode of thought In collectively sharing a story, we create shared, social realities Tell stories about the world and our place in it Narrative imposes structure on life’s events

Narrative Discourse & the Disciplines Through stories we discover –Who we are –The way of the world –Motives –Values –Beginnings –Endings