Vella, Jane (1994). Learning To Listen, Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialog in Educating Adults. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers.
3–4: “A principle, the philosopher tells us, is the beginning of an action.” Her twelve principles of teaching adults across culture [all this is a direct quote]:
- Needs assessment: participation of the learners in naming what is to be learned
- Safety in the environment and the process
- A sound relationship between teacher and learner for learning and development
- Careful attention to sequence of content and reinforcement
- Praxis: action with reflection or learning by doing
- Respect for learners as subjects of their own learning
- Cognitive, affective, and psychomotor aspects: ideas, feelings, actions
- Immediacy of the learning
- Clear roles and role development
- Teamwork: using small groups
- Engagement of the learners in what they are learning
- Accountability: how do they know they know?
4–5: Needs assessment: Thomas Hutchinson, U Mass (1978) talked about asking “the WWW question: who needs what as defined by whom?” Balancing T need to develop appropriate curriculum with S need for relevant teaching. “How do we listen to adult learners before we design a course for them, so that their themes are heard and respected?”
She goes on to outline fundamentals of the other bulleted principles, writes about how those principles inform her teaching practice, and then has a chapter each with a case study. It seems an interesting and useful book, and I want to read it now but I don’t have time. I’ll add it to my shopping cart.
Heath, Shirley Brice (1994). Ways with Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Often cited as a classic in works about pragmatics, this book compares and contrasts two communities in the Piedmont region of the Carolinas: one white and working class, one black and working class. She and others in the community noticed “differences in the language use and general behavior patterns of children and adults…” which “set the stage for to to encourage them to examine their own ways of using language with their children at home and to record language interactions as thoroughly and accurately as possible…” One area they examine was “communicative situations in their classrooms and the textile mills.” (3)
“This book argues that in Roadville and Trackton the different ways children learned to use language were dependent on the ways in which each community structure their families, defined the roles that community members could assume, and played out their concepts of childhood that guided child socialization.” (11)
It seems like an intriguing ethnography, with chapters covering such issues as how children learn to talk in each of the two communities, exploring the first year, the different experiences of boys and girls, the place of children and so one. There are chapters on learning how to talk, teaching how to talk, children’s games, oral traditions, and also on the role of subject as ethnographer.
I want to buy this one too. I’ll go add it to my shopping cart. Whoah… it’s pricey.
Mirror for Man by Clyde Kluckholn (Harvard prof) is a charming old (late 50s; out of print) book that introduces laypeople to anthropology.
Genre across the Curriculum edited by Anne Herrington and Charles Moran is a dense examination of the genre method in writing classes. I’m going to try to Xerox two pages out of the book, which have some good writing topic ideas, totally overlooking the methodology they’re teaching.