"Courted by Incapacity", my undersized sausage and authentic learning experiences.

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
Drive your cart and your plough over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
William Blake

I have often thought that in these 5 short lines Blake captures the essence of how best to live a life.  Blake’s verse also wraps up in 50 words the intent of 2 pages of text on the Key competencies in the New Zealand Draft Curriculum document.

[Key Competencies – the capabilities people need in order to live, learn, work and contribute as active members of their communities. - Managing self, Relating to others, Participating and contributing, Thinking, and Using language, symbols and texts].

If my email Inbox is anything to go by, “being courted by Incapacity” is a "rich and authentic" concern in the 21st Century.  I am pretty much inured to reading the daily spam mail suggestions that “my woody is short”, “my schlong is so small”, “my thing is lacking”, “my ramrod inadequate” and “my sausage undersized”.  But I will admit to suffering from performance anxiety, and being “courted by Incapacity” after realising that the rhetoric of "rich and authentic" had infiltrated the draft Curriculum

The proposed curriculum will allow them greater flexibility to develop new and innovative teaching approaches, and to engage all students in rich and authentic learning experiences” Hon Steve Maharey Minister of Education The New Zealand Curriculum Draft for Consultation 2006

For instance, whilst I have been developing textbook learning experiences that might meet the directions for learning in the new draft curriculum I have not been able to shake off a continual nagging disquiet that what I have developed might not meet the “richness and or authenticity” expectations of others.

Richness and authenticity are much-sought attributes of “the road of excess” for the 21st Century Learner.  They trump “educationally relevant” as a measure of what we should look for in a learning experience for a 21st Century learner that might lead to “the palace of wisdom”. 

But I worry about the "who" when thinking about the expectations of others wrt "richness and authenticity"

1.  Who determines the "richness and authenticity" of a learning experience?  Is it “teachers, principals, advisers, academics, policy makers, boards of trustees, communities, (including communities of interest), parents, or students”.

And then I worry again over the "how" - what are the criteria used to determine the richness and authenticity of a learning experience?  For example, in a "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly" type question

2. Is the “richness and authenticity” of a learning experience determined by the closeness of fit of the learning experience with

(a) The National Curriculum - touted as “the result of consultation with teachers, principals, advisers, academics, policy makers, boards of trustees, communities, (including communities of interest), parents, and students."
(b) The communities interpretation of the National Curriculum
(c) The school’s interpretation of the communities interpretation of the National Curriculum
(d)The science department’s interpretation of the school’s interpretation of the communities interpretation of the National Curriculum
(e) The science teacher’s interpretation of the science department’s interpretation of the school’s interpretation of the communities interpretation of the National Curriculum
(f) The learner’s interpretation of the science teacher’s interpretation of the science department’s interpretation of the school’s interpretation of the communities interpretation of the National Curriculum
(g) The parent's interpretation of the learner’s interpretation of the science teacher’s interpretation of the science department’s interpretation of the school’s interpretation of the communities interpretation of the National Curriculum
(h) All of the above
(i) None of the above silly, measures of "richness and authenticity" have always been largely determined by the media.

Comments

[Bill Kerr]

How's this for rich and authentic? The disposal of surplus sodium in 1947 . The lake is devoid of fish - LOL, before or after? Reminds me of the time I accidentally destroyed the very tiny fish in an acquarium set up by the lab assistant, by using it for a sodium demo. I was most surprised when she burst into the staffroom at recess with: "Who killed my fish?" Aah, the good old days before Occupational Health and Safety made us all moribund.

[Tony Forster]

Richness? I have my doubts. What is rich?

Relevant and authentic I do like but unless you discuss what the two words mean, they just become buzzwords with which to beat your enemies and to become complacent with your friends.

Relevant is relevant to the lives of your students, Myspace, skateboards, WoW. The students are the final judge of relevance.

Authentic is work with a real purpose, its a bit dissapointing when your pottery is bound for the clay bin at the end of the lesson.

[roseg]

My neice finds chocolate authentic and television commercials relevant. I just hope I'm rich, old and ugly enough to stop her choosing my nursing home when the time comes.

Interpretation is a very personal thing - you can only predict/intend/plan to a certain extent - the rest is up to the other party. Especially so, I would think, if you're then expecting them to manage themselves, think, contribute, relate to others and so on.

What would happen if we instead aimed for authentic, rich and relevant teaching experiences? Wouldn't that be a bit like ploughing over the bones of the dead - the knowledge police who can't hear or use the word "teacher" without reaching for a whistle? (These are, after all, the same people who were class monitors in childhood, are they not?)

That way at least someone gets some joy instead of everyone being equally unhappy in the hell of good intentions. And at best, it makes room for the learner to have their authentic experience instead of the one you've designed for them.

[cj]

Word Games 101

1. invent some superior terms - try e.g. the grandiloquent dictionary

2. Make a claim around curriculum, schooling, teaching, learning in relation using them, e.g. curriculum is not worth worrying about unless it is rectalgic and ruderal.

3. Use J.A. Peddiwell (1939) The Sabre-Tooth Curriculum, McGraw-Hill, New York. as a device to argue the problems of rich and whatever (you may need to NZise fish (fush), horse clubbing (....er)

[Artichoke]

Thanks Bill,The disposal of surplus sodium is fabulous - right up there with another favourite "rich and authentic" teaching resource the exploding whale

I do envy your ability to take out the lab technician's fish whilst communicating science ideas, I have a colleague who took out a seagull whilst doing something similar in a large bucket of water outside the science labs. "those were the days .."

I still regret allowing myself to be dissuaded from slinging lumps of mince into an audience of Auckland primary students viewing the exploding whale clip as part of a Whale and Dolphin study. I believe that it would have made the whole experience and the post-viewing discussion/ research both rich and (if we adopt a big picture view of mammal meat)- authentic.

However, I did manage to get a live goat into a staff meeting when the science department were running a session on the explicit thinking skills needed for experimental design - we were testing glues and goat is a great source of authentic glue making ingredients