By Grant & Zeichner
What speaks to me about this article is the quest of educational research still focussed on finding effective instructional practices in addressing the needs of “all” students. Coming from a background in which volunteers from different walks of life played the role of educators, looking back now, there was clearly an absence of the dichotomies that the authors were referring to. What was abundantly present was not “what to teach” but “how to teach.” In other words, the “whats” followed the “hows”. In this environment, there were no competing forces in dictating what ought to be taught.
This is an important article with may ideas, but may be partially irrelevant today. For example, the composition of learners in many classrooms may be different from what it was in the 60s, 70s, or 80s. The needs and necessities of todays learners may be different. The three prerequisites (open mindedness, responsibility, wholeheartedness) mentioned in the article may not be sufficient enough for educators today. In addition to the three prerequisites, I think that educators’ attitudes towards social-emotional learning, mental health, and cultural differences has to be taken into account.
In order to further develop my ideas about critical thinking and teacher inquiry, I would begin by filtering through all the sources of information that are presented to me on a daily basis in the form of academic articles, classroom interactions, or listening to others’ ideas and opinions. Without a doubt, often times these sources are very convincing at first.
My educational experiences play a major role in what I would want to bring into a classroom. I would have to critically look into the numerous layers of my learning experiences in order to begin to identify what my beliefs are about knowledge, education, and learning. This means, critically evaluating both the pleasant and unpleasant learning experiences, my personal biases towards learning, and what roles my educational experiences play in becoming a teacher.