Mandhir Singh Sambhi

Pre-Class Writing Assignment 6 - June 21, 2018

1. What is the author's main argument in this chapter?

○ Apart from an instructor’s pedagogical views, student perspective also
determines the success of a planned curriculum.
○ The author highlights many misconceptions that drive student
assumptions and expectations, expectations that they learn during high
school (or even earlier) and cannot unlearn for post-secondary.
i. Teaching as telling is the prevalent model in high schools, and
students grow to expect the a similar approach in post-secondary
education.
1. Chalk and talk, copy and regurgitate textbook info, and
teacher control over students.
2. Students tend to waste time and keep class time
disorganized, take teacher offtrack
3. “Assumptions about knowledge and learning not only
structured students’ expectations for appropriate
instructional methods (lecture and recitation) and course
content (facts to be tested), but also shaped their
perspective on what kinds of relevant to learning the course
material.”(p.98)
*Funny, since activities they object to were designed to help
students explore knowledge and foster their own analytical
capacities.

○ Immaturity and naivety among new students further propagates the

difference in opinion between students and instructors since students can
be very vocal or aggressive about their expectations and demands.
i. Ie. disrupting class time, constantly asking for directions etc.
○ More mature students may be more accepting of teachers’ approaches,
but they also find “chalk and talk” methods more appealing.

2. What parts of this chapter did you find most interesting, and why?
○ I really appreciated that the author discussed failures of teaching
techniques, however wisely planned. Even though the Lori and Beth were
attempting innovative and progressive teaching styles, the learners could
not benefit from it because of their . Although most students were only
relieved to have completed the course, they could not adopt the skills the
educator tried to impart onto them. The author described real-life
challenges teachers face in implementing a progressive curriculum.
 Mandhir Singh Sambhi

3. Does this chapter illuminate aspects of the curriculum of the classrooms taught
by Lori Brown and Beth? Explain.
○ Although the proverb 'You can lead a horse to water but you can't make
him drink' might apply, I would like to find out how we can influence the
“horse” to “drink the water” too. If students are persistent about their
concept of teaching, should educators just make the best of the situation
or actively work to break those misconceptions?
○ Reading about these Lori and Beth’s instructional approaches in this
chapter makes it even more imperative that curriculum promoting
independent thinking be taught earlier in education so that students grow
up accustomed to this style. Where educators face socio-political
obstacles when trying to implement a new curriculum, where teachers
may struggle through their own pedagogical opinions and beliefs, they
also have to keep in mind how students expect teaching to be. I feel that
in order to make a curriculum successful, it must satisfy many, if not all the
expectations of all the stakeholders in the education of students. So, if a
progressive curriculum is to become a part of the education culture, it
should be implemented not from post-secondary down to elementary, but
rather upwards from elementary levels.
______________

gaps /miscommunication what students understand and what teacher understands

about something.

Teachers weren’t able to address the gaps because they didn’t understand where this
resistance was coming from.

Are we supposed to look at teacher’s inability to perceive, or the students’ inability to

share? “This was a total recipe for disaster”

Related to curriculum?