Reading 2-

GLIT 6727  

Foundations of Literacy Learning I                                                    

Julia Blushak

 

READING NUMBER 2

Manning, Andrew

Curriculum as Conversation

Keynote Address, Western Australian Reading Conference, May 22, 1993

 

Personal Response

 

-read this and made notes a month ago while at beach -- felt thrilled by the approach then

-re-reading and appraising after some doubts about the process in this course, will see how it strikes now

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--the article is a bit dated, but interesting and still potent as a defense for vigilant practices for learning

 

-’learning that goes on over coffee, over lunch’ is a profound observation, evident here at the university

 

-listening and relating in volleys of thought and insight creates a wider space for understanding, for

allowing meanings to occur

 

-I’ve drawn a moebius loop to graphically capture the tracing of generative possibilities that could truly keep going between one and another in dialogue

 

-Learning p. 5 - Piaget’s notion of accommodation/assimilation echo in other theories ie; Buddhist sense of change being uncomfortable yet necessary - the EDGE of change causes stress and suffering (dukha) but also allows potential for insight/awareness

 

-we are always trying out meanings, measuring their ‘rightness’ and then modifying them

 

-learning happens (yes, it’ was said way back then) the best scenario is a space/attitude that’s open

 

-can a learner sense this space, or is it there to be released, not relearned?

 

-silence, gaps, carefully crafted biases exist ie: creativity is condoned yet not truly valued in education

 

-language sustains the sense of ‘I’ then ‘I’ plus ‘I’ plus ‘I’ - hopefully arrive at ‘we’

 

-’what we learn begins in community’ is more than metaphor - it is the ‘we’ that grounds us

 

-ability to negotiate meaning and knowledge indicates healthy thinking

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-applied theory is very exciting and powerful ie: conversation with a faculty member

whose research grant needs serious rethinking brings me to a place of balancing on the edge of someone elses curved learning path and my own understanding -- we struggle to find a language that even a stranger would find approachable from their own viewpoint -- the ideas and concepts float between us as we play a mental puzzle game -- ultimately negotiation and consensus will not leave either of us frustrated or

disappointed