“They [students] are first encouraged to find meaning based on their past experience (legitimizing what they know)…after a certain amount of experience—at the point that they begin to become dissatisfied with their own limitations—they are asked to develop their own voices…” (2).
I really feel a strong attachment to this quote. Perhaps, it is because--yet again!--it harkens back to Dewey's philosophy on the importance of previous knowledge in the construction of new experiences and cognitive frameworks for viewing the world. What resonates with me is this idea that experiencing visual stimuli first has meaning because it is placed within the context of our past experiences and that it legitimizes what we know. I find it comforting that by looking we can solidify, justify, and in some way find a semblance of pride in the things of the world we have already come to know as "true and real." I believe one true joy of educating is that we can provide opportunities for our students to validate themselves in the form of validating their knowledge or at least the process of how they come to know what they know. There is great power there, a power that we cannot and must not ignore.
Yet, a greater power lies in the construction of new knowledge based upon new stimuli. I find it intriguing that the point in which we veer off the path of comfort and stability in the construction of our knowledge is the point in which we become dissatisfied with what we presently know. Is there a way to calculate when this process happens for our students? If so, how can we use that to our advantage? How can we harness that energy to make for more meaningful new experiences?
Yet, a greater power lies in the construction of new knowledge based upon new stimuli. I find it intriguing that the point in which we veer off the path of comfort and stability in the construction of our knowledge is the point in which we become dissatisfied with what we presently know. Is there a way to calculate when this process happens for our students? If so, how can we use that to our advantage? How can we harness that energy to make for more meaningful new experiences?
I think it is very telling that you've been able to see Dewey's work so clearly in the VTS materials. This is a testament to the ways in which you've been thinking about his work and how you can see it come alive in other processes. YAY!
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