Framing Questions for November 15, 2010 Class
from Joy
Pitzer College Visit –
- Discuss your reactions to last week’s visit to Pitzer College. How does the Pitzer classroom compare to the Johnston classroom?
Course Readings –
(Students to facilitate discussions on their assigned readings – additional questions welcome.)
- Parker Palmer writes: The question is not “What made your mentor great,” but “What was it about you that allowed great mentoring to happen?” Tell the story of your mentor. Who was he or she? Was he or she a gifted teacher? What was it about you that allowed great mentoring to happen.
- Palmer emphasizes the importance of the inner life of the teacher – how critical is it that as teachers, we embrace our fears and anxieties, our perceived faults? How do we do this and how does this enable us to become better teachers?
- Yash Owada refers to learning as a reciprocal relationship between the professor and learner. To what extent is the process of teaching and learning (“learning how to learn”) as important as the content of what we teach?
- In reflecting upon their classroom experiences at Evergreen and Antioch, the students in John McCann’s chapter speak of interdisciplinary programs as being “a natural way to learn.” How do interdisciplinary, connected pedagogical approaches provide for more authentic learning?
- John McCann and William H. Newell both emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary education in their chapters. How do McCann and Newell’s approaches and perspectives differ (consider style, voice).
- Please add your framing questions on Finkel's book, Teaching with Your Mouth Shut.
