Blog Post 2: Tyler Rationale

Throughout all of elementary and high school I’d say that the Tyler theory was present, and now knowing what it is was very prominent. Teachers often had been saying how they had to hit all these topics and fit tests in by certain dates so that we could “meet curriculum”. This was all throughout even including some teachers cutting out minor “not as important points” because they were running low on time. Many of the benchmarks for our comprehension were done through tests, especially in the more core classes. They also had the same expectations for every student regardless of every student’s difference and needs.

Tylers rationale limits a lot of what students can do to grow and learn at their own pace. It also doesn’t help teachers to be able to teach the students at a rate that they’ll learn at as they need to always be keeping up with the curriculum and what needs to be done by when to meet every topic. Tylers plan does have some useful aspects as it does try to improve on what past models looked like and was a step in the right direction, however that was years ago and as of today more modern steps could be taken to help education not be living in the past.

Blog Post 1: Commonsense

Kumashiro refers to commonsense as what we here in Canada and North America are used to day to day. When we wake up, when we eat, go to school it’s all what we grew up learning. Our social norms seem like commonsense to us but it’s always something to keep in mind when we meet people from other countries and places of origin. Especially when going into teaching it is important to be aware of commonsense to us and be open to other ideas and methods of class. Also, it’s important to keep in mind the common sense of the situation and not to be critical in specific situations as it is not always well known to all people. It is also important to make sure they understand where you are coming from and equally for you to make sure you know where they come from in your own common knowledge. Coming into this I have a typical western view on common sense, and as for pedagogy I have a decent understanding of it and think of it almost as a philosophy for teaching.