In this blog, I reflect on my experience in ECS 203. I talk about what I learned and came to understand my approach as a future educator. My first blog had almost no knowledge of the curriculum process or what pedagogy was. The best came to be blog seven, allowing me to think more critically about pedagogy and the curriculum. I mention a quote and point from each blog in the video above, and I continue to explain my journey through the class. At the start of the journey, we had a common sense I came to the conclusion that “…common sense is a localized acceptance of explicit and implicit standards which makes society comfortable and work effectively” (McAlpin, “Blog #1,” 2023). I then learned that we need to question this everywhere we go, and we need to understand how common sense affects our daily thoughts and the curriculum.
When I started, I thought pedagogy was simply my approach to teaching. It is much more than that, and it should be. I should change my pedagogy over time and learn from my experiences. I should research and find new pedagogies to help find optimal ones for classes, and at this moment, my favourite flavour is critical pedagogy but I am aware there are many more. This way I can also find a pedagogy that I like and can build into my own. For curriculum, I initially thought it was random outcomes, but they are actually a political tool by governments in a sense. Curriculums and direction can change with the government in power, and the curriculum is more of a tool to shape society now. As well, the curriculum is the explicit and implicit lessons that affect how society deems success. I learned about the null curriculum and the hidden curriculum. These were important topic ideas that are not changed in school as much as they should be. This is because null and hidden curricula are not tangible or seeable without inspection.
I continue my education by constantly finding new topics that challenge my beliefs and morals. A large topic discussed today is treaty education and gender. I have come to learn that treaty education holds a special place in my heart and I hold it near to many other histories I read. I hope to encourage the growth of treaty education throughout Canada, and I want to bring the treaty education curriculum to life. The topic of gender was spoken about in class and I have been struggling with the topic for some time. I am not too sure if I completely understand the ideas and beliefs behind gender ideology, so I want to do more research into it. The couple classes that discuss the topic brought rise to conflicting emotions because I do not understand and I feel I never will as a cis-gender male.
Working towards a goal is a topic I chose in this video. I spoke about incorporating students into their learning more. I had a good experience in high school with a teacher that used the constructivism model very well. The teacher gave us an objective in a drafting class and let us figure it out. It was working too well because we went through the next class curriculum meant for the next semester. I hope to have that issue when I teach, so I want to embrace the idea of constructivism and incorporate it in other ways like in history class. Although, history class will primarily be cognitivist because I enjoy lectures and talking about Napoleon Bonaparte. I will have to take the student needs and want before my own because they are there to learn and find their place in the world. I am simply there to guide them.
After all, I want students to be able to stand up to everyone with the strength of words. I want to do this for all students including those with different common sense, morals, different first languages, and The world needs logical individuals that are ready for a challenge, and I hope to produce and help students get to a level of confidence and clarity that they can out-debate anyone. I do not want students to be fooled by anyone being able to protect their basic human rights. The past has shown that words are the best way to change the course of history before too large of events occur. Students will be able to protect their constitutional rights and freedoms through the tools provided by my critical pedagogy and practice my constructivism approach.
Feel free to look at my favourite blog: (Link)
Feel free to critique my first (least favourite) blog: (Link)
Script for video (Link)
References
Levin, B. (2008). Curriculum policy and the politics of what should be learned in schools. In F. Connelly, M. He & J. Phillion (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction (pp. 7 – 24). Sage. http://www.corwin.com/upm-data/16905_Chapter_1.pdf
McAlpin, Ethan. (2023, January 6). “Blog #1 – Common Sense: Localized Common Sense and the Importance of Its Examination.” Edusites. https://edusites.uregina.ca/ethanmcalpin/2023/01/06/common-sense-localized-common-sense-and-the-importance-of-examination-it/
McAlpin, Ethan. (2023, February 17). “Blog #7 – Hip Hop Pedagogy, Critical Pedagogy, and Praxis.” Edusites. https://edusites.uregina.ca/ethanmcalpin/2023/02/17/blog-7-hip-hop-pedagogy-critical-pedagogy-and-praxis/
McAlpin, Ethan. (2023, March 3). “Blog #8 – Relevance of the Information: Sense of Place and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy” Edusites. https://edusites.uregina.ca/ethanmcalpin/2023/03/03/blog-8-relevance-of-the-information-sense-of-place-and-culturally-relevant-pedagogy/
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