In this video, I share my experience throughout the course of ECS 203 and what I have learnt about Curriculum and Pedagogy but also how I will apply this new knowledge as an educator. I discuss the learnt curriculum models, learning theories, and also the impact of commonsense that were earlier discussed in my ECS 203 blogs.

Please enjoy listening to my learning journey throughout this semester!

Part 1 (Numeracy): Using Gale’s lecture, Poirier’s article, and Bear’s article, identify at least three ways in which Inuit mathematics challenge Eurocentric ideas about the purpose of mathematics and the way we learn it:

Inuit mathematic are very diverse from the mathematics we have learnt in our Western lens. Firstly they use a base-20 numeral system and they divide mathematics into two separate universes of “the world of day-to-day life and the ‘southern’ mathematical world”. This challenges the Eurocentric view of mathematics that math only has one correct “answer” or way of viewing. Within Inuit mathematics they also have different views on numbers according to context which unlike in mathematics in the Eurocentric view, the number one simply has one meaning no matter the context it is placed in. Another way Inuit mathematics challenge Eurocentric views is through their act of measuring. Inuit women don’t use measuring units and rely on certain parts of their body to measure lengths. For example shown in the text, they use their palm for measurement when making parkas and use the base of the neck to help make a correctly fitted parka. Overall Inuit mathematics is very subjective and based on context around them where Western Europeans see math as “linear, singular, static and objective”. This is also shown through their version of the calendar. Their length of one month depends on “how long it takes a natural event to take place” and they associate months with everyday activities that they repeat each year unlike a set-in-stone lunar or solar calendar.

Part 2 (Literacy): Which “single stories” were present in your own schooling? Whose truth mattered? What biases and lenses do you bring to the classroom? How might we unlearn / work against these biases?:

Some “single stories” that were present in my schooling were all about European settlers or Shakespearean stories. From looking back on what I read, it seemed that the truth that mattered was the white Europeans (mainly men) as we had little to none POC or Indigenous people representations within our literature. With the white European storylines we also had no representation of LGBTQ+ people or different religions besides Christianity. This is greatly unsettling to now think back on as I couldn’t see anything wrong with it before because I did not understand the impact a single story can have on others. Biases or lenses I bring to the classroom as white privileged middle-class female is the lens of my privilege and that I as a white person will never fully understand or be directly affected by injustices due to my race or status and also may not be able to fully see them right away as I am not directly affected by them. To  unlearn/work against these biases I will continue to educate myself on the injustices around me and challenge oppression by not being silent about them and sharing the information I learn. I hope to have many diverse stories within my classroom and have these stories coming from direct sources other than reading stories only written by deceased white men. Having stories shared that are written by all different people will help my students see themselves in these stories and make real connections. I will also strive to give them options on what they want to read about so they can pick a story that they can truly connect to and not have to try and connect to a viewpoint that has nothing to do with them.

Dear Dr. Cappello’s Intern,

I am very sorry to hear about your experience with not only trying to teach treaty education within your classroom and not receiving good feedback from your students but also the lack of support you have received from your fellow colleagues. I disagree with what your Coop said about how there is no purpose in teaching treaty education due to the lack of First Nation students as that can create more oppression against First Nations as we will create more ignorant students who are not aware of the issues surrounding our First Nation’s communities.

There is a huge purpose of teaching Treaty Education or FNMI content where there are few or no First Nations, Metis, or Inuit people present because the history of the Indigenous people is a part of all of us as we all live on Indigenous land making us all treaty people. Teaching this to students also creates more knowledgeable students on the topic of Indigenous people and their history which can help challenge oppression and stigmas.

The phrase “we are all treaty people” means to me that all of us in Canada play a major part in reconciliation, no matter who we are because we all live on treaty land. We must educate ourselves and each other to respect our Indigenous communities and by doing so we can continue to heal these communities that have been greatly broken and mistreated.

To approach teaching treaty education within the classroom, I would start with sharing with the students how this greatly affects all of us as we are all treaty people. Creating a connection and showing the students how this affects them will bring engagement and self reflection. I would also suggest incorporating storytelling from an Indigenous person as hearing the stories actually told by someone who is at a first hand account will emphasize the impact this has on Indigenous people. Lastly, create space for discussion and recognize students may not know as much as they are expected to about treaties. As learnt through this week’s videos it may be hard to discuss these treaty education concepts without the students even knowing the basics yet.

Regards,

Reid

Behaviourism Theory:

The learning theory of behaviourism is based around human behaviour and how we learn through observation, measurement and stimuli. They use certain stimuli to invoke behaviour, the article expressed the main idea of behaviourism is “certain behavioural responses become associated in a mechanistic and invariant way with specific stimuli”. Behaviorism works through using reinforcement such as giving feedback on assignments or getting a correct answer in a multiple-choice test. Reinforcement is used through reward or punishment associated with certain stimuli or a behavioral response.

Cognitivism Theory:

Cognitivism is focused on identifying and describing mental processes that can be used in learning, thinking and behaviour. A cognitivism theorist, Bloom and his colleagues created three “domains of learning” for cognitivism. These include cognitive (thinking), affective (feeling), and psycho-motor (doing). They believe there is a process of learning and it progresses through levels of learning to understanding and then to experiencing it or doing it. They focus on teaching students how to learn and to create stronger mental processes for learning. They also believe these mental processes are “hard-wired” however they can be changed through experiences.

Constructivism Theory:

Lastly constructivism was stated to “emphasise the importance of consciousness, free will and social influences on learning.” They believe that knowledge comes from your own perceptions and that we construct new knowledge with our own perspectives besides just learning through memorization. Reflection is an important factor in this learning theory and constructivism works best through social interaction and lets people challenge their own perspectives with others around them. With personal meaning and reflections, a person’s environment is also an important factor in constructivism as they learn from what’s in their environment and their experiences within their environment.

Behaviorism->as a product:

Behaviorism closely relates to the curriculum model of “as a product”. As a product focuses on efficiency and conforming to the common sense of a society. Within the model of a product, memorization and performing accordingly are main aspects which connect to behaviorism. The use of stimuli and use of reward and punishment create a conforming classroom who focus on doing what will give them the reward and moves them away from creating their own ideas and perspectives.

Cognitivism->as a process:

Cognitivism relates to the curriculum model of “as a process”. Cognitivism as stated before focuses on mental processes and teaching learners how to learn by expanding their mental processing. This can create critical thinkers and focuses on the learning process which is a main idea of the “as a process” model. Within cognitivism, it somewhat relate to “as a product” however it goes deeper with more than just absorbing and regurgitating information but also evaluating it and actively participating in what they have learnt.

Constructivism->as a praxis:

Constructivism has a main theme of free will and how social influence has an effect on learning. Within this theory, personal meaning and making sense of their environment and experiences is what they believe helps a student learn and helps a student construct knowledge. Engagement and learning in different ways are main aspects of the “as a praxis” model which are reflected in constructivism. This theory expresses how relating their previous information and reflecting on new information is how they learn and this relates to “as a praxis” as it is very focused on personal growth and moves away from conforming to one straight way of thinking.

What learning theories did I see reflected in my own schooling experiences?:

Reflecting back to my own school experience, I believe I had the behaviorism and cognitivism learning theory. We heavily focused on knowing the information, striving for the reward of a good mark but also growing our knowledge through actively participating within it. Every new math class or science class we went further with what we already knew and used that to help us learn more which reflects the cognitivism theory. It may have been due to my focus on taking science related classes that I didn’t have much social interaction such as group work and mainly focused on knowing the information and using it with assignments or tests. We barely focused on self reflection and mainly focused on achieving high grades on tests and assignments. Our personal perspectives weren’t an important factor, just expanding your knowledge and being able to use it accordingly.

According to the Levin article, how are school curricula developed and implemented? What new information/perspectives does this reading provide about the development and implementation of school curriculum?:

According to the Levin’s article school curricula implementation is political in nature and is organized around two objectives of general goals and specific learning activities and objectives. The implementation of school curricula is mainly based around larger issues and that is because of the lack of time to discuss issues in detail because of all the immense important factors governments have to already deal with. This leads to swift decisions that sometimes can be made with little discussion and information. As learnt through this article there is an immense pressure of what issue to contribute to next and that creates implementation “to get short shifted”. This article also provides information on how every education policy is a political decision that can be controversial and how most education policies are made with no public discussion.

Surprises and Concerns:

The lack of public discussion surprises me as changes in the school curricula should be based around what the teachers and students feel they need changed and what they find important. Without discussion, how will these political parties know what is needed in a school curriculum and how will students and teachers have a voice to support different ideas. It concerns me with these political leaders in charge as they may not care to put effort in seeing what needs to be changed as they are not the ones to be directly affected by it or they have a fear of what is too controversial so they decide to not speak out and request change.

Connections and Tensions of the Development of the Treaty Education Curriculum:

Some connections I can make between the article and the implementation of Treaty Education in Saskatchewan is that the Treaty education contains general goals of what is to be taught about treaty education and support how the implementation of school curricula is based around major issues as the lack of information and support around Indigenous people has been been a major issue in Canada. Some tensions I imagine that were part of the development was that implementation of school curricula is very political and that as stated in the article, governments make choices based on what voters want and that “doing the unpopular is precisely how a government gets defeated in the next election”. Challenging injustice and oppression is a highly controversial topic to act on and often political leaders may think the easier way out is to ignore them. With the implementation of the Treaty Education curriculum I imagine there was major controversy of why it was needed because of the lack of information there has been around it and also with the constant historical dismissal of a voice for Indigenous people.

What does it mean to be a “good” student according to the commonsense?:

To be a good student according to commonsense, you are supposed to have good behaviour, listen attentively, never disrupt the class, be respectful of your classmates and teachers, and all around conform to social norms of the traditional ways of the classroom. You need to do well in the traditional ways of teaching and test taking which involves being good with memorizing and “saying the right things” which can be quite unfair. Kuamshiro describes that there is this “desired” type of student that school systems have pressured him to produce and that to be a good student you need to fit into these “common sense” rules of being a student. Kumashiro says to receive good grades in school you have to say the “right things in the right ways”, which can be challenging for students who may not succeed in these traditional ways of the classroom and also for students have more creative or diverse outlooks on certain topics that may not be categorized as the “right way” to look at it. Overall to be labelled as a “good” student you have to be able to conform to strict schedule and normalities of school and not try to leave or challenge the traditional ways of schooling.

Which students are privileged by this definition of the good student?:

One of Kumashiro’s students, who he referred to as M, exposes how some students are more privileged than others by this definition of a “good student”. Student’s who easily conform to these social norms of sitting quietly for hours and are able to be attentive and follow instructions thrive in being a good student because they are privileged with good listening skills. However with M, they seem to work better in less structured class time because that is what environment they can work and learn best in. Students who have grown up in communities that have these traditional viewpoints will be privileged with attentive and good listening skills as they are familiar with this. Some student’s who may have a rough home life resulting in have not been taught these listening skills or student’s who may struggle with learning disabilities that may affect their ability to focus will struggle with being quiet at the correct times or understanding these social norms around them because they are not familiar with them or doing this mentally or physically is hard for them. This is completely unfair as these are not due to the kids own faults and we should not just automatically label them as a “bad” kid because they aren’t privileged with these attentive learning skills and ability to conform to these harsh traditional values.

How is the “good” student shaped by historical factors?:

In the history of education, schools have always been surrounded with strict lecture based learning, tests and assignments based on what the students have learnt, and focus on creating students who can listen and produce the material that has been taught. With this history of lecture based learning and continuing that traditional way, it has created the ideal “good” student who is someone who can listen to what is taught while not creating discourse on the topic and produce their known knowledge through an assignment or test. As this way of school has continued to remain almost the same, the ideal “good student” has also remained the same.

Another way a “good” student is shaped by historical factors is resulting from the student’s own educational history. If they were taught how to do something a certain way but later in their educational experience they are told to do it a completely different way, this can affect them because these new ways are not familiar to them resulting in them looking as if they are not a “good” student because they may not succeed in that categorized “correct” way to do something.

Kumashiro describes “commonsense” as the “facets of life” and things that everyone should know and what we take for granted as we are accustomed to them. It is extremely important to pay attention to commonsense because they are the rules of how a society works and without knowing them you will not be able to thrive and live in that society. They are the unlisted invisibly placed rules that are needed to be known in order to succeed and “fit in”. Without knowing the “commonsense” of where you are, you could end up offending someone or getting into trouble no matter if you didn’t know these rules were there.

Type of Curriculum Model Kumashiro Experienced in Nepal:

Kumashiro experienced the lecture-practice-exam approach as a model of curriculum with his time in Nepal. Kumashiro wanted to include his own activities he created but the class lessons had to be centred directly around the official textbooks and there was no room for her own additions. They were on a strict schedule of finishing one section per school day so they could complete the whole textbook and be ready for the end of the year exam. This end of the year exam is what allows them to pass onto the next grade level if they do well. The students in Nepal were very familiar with this process and when Kumashiro said that their grades were not just going to be marked around their tests but also assignments and projects, the students thought he was joking. Another aspect of a different type of curriculum model Kumashiro experienced was that school didn’t open till mid-February but he did not begin teaching till late-February when “enough” of the students were going.

Types of Curriculum Models in Canada:

The Canadian school system’s curriculum model that is the “commonsense” model is actually slightly similar to the lecture-practice-exam approach, however there is more flexibility. Our school systems have an intense focus on four main topics of mathematics, natural sciences, english/literature, and social studies. These four topics are what are the building blocks to the curriculum and seen as the most important areas to focus on. There are other additions of electives such as physical education, arts, or foreign language classes that students usually have an option to take. The classes are taught in four-walled rooms where students are to sit and listen to the lecture. The teacher is supposed to be knowledgeable of the concepts being taught and know more on the topic then the student. The teacher is also to be highly respected in the classroom. We also have end of the year exams to test students on their knowledge of the concepts, however that is not the only contribution to a student’s mark. In our school systems we also have assignments, projects, group discussions, presentations and many more aspects that can also be a part of a student’s mark. The Canadian school schedule starts in the early mornings and runs till the mid-afternoon from Monday to Friday with Summers off. 

Benefits to This Model:

Some benefits to this model are that focusing on the main concepts that we mainly use in our life will result in well-rounded and knowledgeable youth and with the addition of the electives it also gives the students a chance to see what area they enjoy doing. The different ways of assessment with assignments and projects being a part of their grade then just tests is great for student’s who may thrive in other types of activity more than others. This also teaches students listening and cooperation skills that they will use in their future careers.

Drawbacks to This Model:

Common to other types of social norms, schooling “commonsense” can benefit only certain groups while marginalizing others. If we continue to uphold this strict notion of “commonsense”, it can allow oppression to continue to thrive as it makes people think this is the way things are supposed to be and we cannot challenge it because it has always been done like this. Commonsense does not allow room for change or growth, it privileges a certain viewpoint and allows this certain viewpoint to dictate how things should go. For example strictly focusing on the Western ways of teaching science and mathematics can cause a barrier between other cultures as they may have other beliefs to how things should be viewed. Also the strict lecture based learning can be hard for students who may not have the same focus other students have. Focusing mainly on these four core subjects can also create lack of attention or funding to the other subjects such as art courses. Students may prefer art courses because that is what they’re strong in, but having it focused on the other courses they may not enjoy as much can create a barrier between the relationship of a student and their schooling.

Welcome to my portfolio! Here you will learn about me and what in my life has influenced me to become an educator and my journey throughout my education classes at the University Of Regina.