Learning involves the social construct of knowledge, so guiding students to reason democratically, continually question, and make meaning from a critical analysis of everything they learn, establishes autonomy, self-regulation, purpose, and increases the awareness of students, so that they become branches of learning, rather than objects, of the world. So, this is similar to the old adage, “Be in the world, not of the world”, which relates to dispelling conformity to social norms or patterns of the world, but be transformed by the renewing and empowering of knowledge.
There are a number of racially diverse students that are part of learning communities in which cultural capital is frequently accompanied, and commonly differ from typical norms and world-views, so it’s vital to place the need of the student as primary. Critical reflection aids in placing racially diverse students needs and considerations primary through an analysis of self or critical critique of beliefs and behaviors, so it’s imperative to acknowledge the impact of your worldview and the influence it will reflect on the construction of students’ conception of self and the forming of their beliefs formed into knowledge by discussion.
What resonated most was Paulo indicated that learning isn’t necessarily dichotomous in which it’s amiss to accept one side, because knowledge isn’t restricted to solely reason, content, emotions, or fallacies, but should seek connections between understandings, interactions, and emotions. I really appreciate Paulo’s notion that teaching isn’t about transfer, but the construction of knowledge and possibilities. As educators we are tasked with identifying students’ prior knowledge and creating environments for students to construct new knowledge or add to existing knowledge, so it’s necessary for us to understand our students’ diverse world-views in effort to make their learning more meaningful as well as identify ways they are able to learn, construct, and produce their knowledge.
Learning is a self-governing process to some degree, so we should eliminate some of the reliance on the teacher to prevent authority dependence. The end goal is to empower and establish student’s ownership on their learning, so in effort to do so, a collaborative relationship should be constructed to make learning more meaningful as it applies to their cultural background, experiences, discipline, and world-views. So, this is similar to the old adage used in the advertising world, “In order to know the consumer, we have to be the consumer”, which relates to the teachers becoming learners, and the learners becoming teachers.
I really liked the point that you made about our goal as educators is to empower and establish student's ownership in their learning. As a GTA, I think this is something that I strive for on a daily basis because I know the value that students have in taking my class. While they might not recognize it during our time together throughout the semester, I have found that students will often come back and mention how helpful the course has been outside of the classroom (I teach the dreaded public speaking). My methodology behind teaching was similar to what you mentioned about 'knowing the consumer by becoming the consumer' in that I approach teaching as I would like to be taught myself. I think its important to realize as educators, that we were once in the shoes of our students and think back to those that influenced us the most and try to embody those qualities/characteristics as we move forward in our teaching careers.
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