QQTP #2

Skinner: Quotes “Maiutic practices have their place. Just how much help the teacher should give the student as he acquires new forms of behavior is a delicate question. The teacher should wait for the student to respond rather than to rush to tell him what he is to do or say. As Comenius put it, the more the teacher teaches, the less the student learns.” (Skinner, 220) -​ I found this quote to be very insightful in a huge part of what develops the adolescents critical thinking skills. Being able to work through a challenge on your own and come to a conclusion without being forced into one is highly important. “One of the advantages in being dependent on things rather than people is that the time and energy of people are saved. The child who must be reminded that it is time to go to school is dependent upon his parents, but the child who has learned to respond to clocks and other temporal properties of the world around him (not a “sense of time”) is dependent upon thingsm and he makes fewer demands of his parents.” (Skinner, 221) -​ I feel like this quote portrays the misconception that kids who do not rely on parents are just naturally smarter and know these things, like a sense of time. BUT, I think it means that teacahing children to use their resources instead, is even more essential. Like in school - often it is thought that you have to memorize everything and know every answer, but if you are able to use your resources to come to a conclusion and think about it in a unique way, that is where actual intellectual development occurs. For example, using the school library to create a research project and display that new information in a new way, while using texts as the source of info. -​ The text also further says dependence on items is not independence, which is quite true too. -​ This one is more of a talking point but I would say it kind of dips into both categories Questions: How would these beliefs of shaping the mind fit into what we already do today? Talking point: I found the quote about the baby with the knife to be super impactful. It says that if you make the environment safer (baby proof) you will protect them in that environment but what happens when they go out into the real world and encounter a knife? My interpretation of this has to do with over-bearing parents in education. My mom often talks about how when she was a teacher 20 years ago, it looked completely different to now - in regard to parents' involvement. Now parents are often out spoken and interfere as much as possible. They might think they are protecting their kid in this environment now, but what happens when their child grows up and something seems “unfair”? Friere Quote “Experiencing firsthand the hunger and poverty that characterized recife during the 1930s, Freire fell behind in school and was thought by some to be mentally retarded” I chose this quote because it reminded me of bronfrenbrenners model (ed psych!) and how the immediate environment surrounding one can deeply impact how they experience life in general. His SES was inhibiting his potential in school, as it still does to some today. Questions: Why does Friere believe dialogue is essential to learning? What does he mean by the power of word enabling all of us to live a fuller life? Talking point The quote on page 215 relates to our class discussion on WHY we attend school: “Problem posing education affirms men as beings in the process of becoming - as unfinished, uncompleted beings in and with a likewise unfinished reality. Indeed, in contrast to other animals who are unfinished, but not historical, men know themselves to be unfinished: they are aware of their of their incompetion.” -​ We go to school to become completed beings. More specifically, to grow into socially competent and educated adults. These goals contribute to the forward motion of society.