Practicing reflection: Representing and critiquing the

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Practicing reflection Representing and
critiquing the real world in the professional
classroom
David FisherEnglish DepartmentIowa State
UniversityMarch 18, 2005
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Expansion of occupational and professional
programs

• Practical arts core replacing old liberal arts
  and sciences core at Doc-granting and
  Comprehensive Universities (Brint)
• Question
• Do simulations like ours un-problematically
  reproduce dominant social practices in the
  classroom? Alternatively, do classroom
  simulations afford opportunities for reflection
  and critique?

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Example Unproblematic representation

• To be successful, treat this class as a job. My
  role is to assign work, to provide instruction
  and guidance, and to evaluate finished products.
  Your duty is to come to work on time and do your
  tasks cheerfully and on schedule.

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Radical / critical critique of the real

• Resistance (Giroux)
• . . . mechanisms of social and cultural
  reproduction are never complete and are always
  faced with partially realized elements of
  opposition .
• Tyranny of the real (Herndl)
• If we recognize and explore the challenge
  presented by the relationship between discourse,
  teaching, and social reproduction, we may be able
  to discover ways to intervene and initiate
  cultural critique within our research and
  pedagogical practice. This would, of course,
  require that we expand our research goals and
  significantly alter our teaching .

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Representing reality in the classroom

• Student-centered learning environments (Jonassen)
• . . . simulate activity structure, the
  sociocultural context, and the mediation systems
  that are prominent in those activity systems.
• Attribution (Pardoe)
• If the tutor or students attribute an activity
  or experience to the wider profession, they will
  see it as significant insight and learning.
• Appreciative systems (Gee)
• . . . form the sorts of goals, desires,
  feelings, and values that insiders in that
  domain . . . typically have.

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Space and time (Changing) Social practices

• Human social activities, like some
  self-reproducing items in nature, are recursive.
  That is to say, they are not brought into being
  by social actors but continually recreated by
  them via the very means by which they express
  themselves as actors. (Giddens, 1984)

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Providing Spaces for actionCo-constructing the
real

• Hypertextual organizational representation
• Dynamic environment
• Document cycling

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Providing spaces for reflection and critique

• Representation of timee.g., given what happened
  what would you change?
• Critical seedse.g, anti-GMO emails, open-ended
  assignments
• Speech acts (performative utterances)e.g.,
  non-compete contract, public polls
• Weekly prompts (one other document)
• Shadow assignment sequence

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Reflection types

• Learninge.g., What would I do differently the
  next time?
• Instrumentale.g., How might I make things more
  efficient (in the environment)?
• Criticale.g., How would I work to change the
  institution or resist practices with which I
  dont agree?

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Learning Reflection
I don't think we placed enough emphasis on
framework as we were trying to get the right
answer. A framework eases communication, and
efficiently captures many of the ideas that we
were struggling with, and we just didn't focus
enough on our SWOT analysis. For me, this is one
of the things I take from the course.
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Instrumental reflection
If I were to send out a message to Omega
employees, I would probably use email. I think
most people are like me in that I check my email
multiple times daily. I am also more apt to read
an email rather than a letter or other paper that
I can easily set down and get covered up. With
email, I see it every time I open my inbox until
I read it and then get rid of it. I feel that
email is very effective as long as the message is
kept short and to the point.
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Critical reflection
I think Omega as a company should establish, and
write down, its policy and beliefs about the
ethics of GMOs. The statement would require
scientific facts of the safety of GMOs. This
statement should be posted on the Website and
referenced when an outside group or person is
questioning whether Omega's practices are
ethical. All employees should be instructed to
be familiar with the policy and to refer anyone
questioning Omega's stance to the Website.
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Ethics Statement
Genetic Modification (Engineering)Sales and
Marketing of ProductsResearch and
TestingAccounting and Financial
ReportingCommunication
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Ethics Statement
Genetic Modification (Engineering)   Any product
that is created should be studied across multiple
generations to ensure a safe release to the
public.   The country which has used native types
of species has specific rights to the organism
that is taken from that country.
Genetic Modification (Engineering)Sales and
Marketing of ProductsResearch and
TestingAccounting and Financial
ReportingCommunication
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Final Thought
Classroom representations of the real world can
afford spaces for both instrumental and critical
action and reflection. The way in which the
relationship between work and school is mediated
helps determine what shapes these spaces take and
how students fill them.