Author: Sabrina Lindley

leader- olivia

participants- sabrina lindley

In this discussion we talked about WRT 120 and how it helped us this semester. We said that writing 120 helped us to understand education and our classes better by reading Percy and Freire. I got a better understanding of what good education is. We also said that having meetings with our professor helped us to become better writers by getting feedback and critiques on our work. The discussion groups also helped me to understand the content of Percy and Freire better by learning other students’ perspectives on the content. I also enjoyed the writing discussion groups because we got to get out of the classroom and go to different locations and meet other students in a different environment. Writing 120 was very beneficial to me and definitely improved my writing skills and I will take all that I learned and apply it to my next semester WRT 200 course.

1:00pm went to Adam Griffins discussion with Ava Hill, leader did not show up.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ThGOYB9v6Rj5YXz0IDhKmYUDUvcHzagYunWQO8NXSOU/edit?usp=sharing

constructive- “unnecessary factors involved” in the intro is confusing, you should elaborate on what these unnecessary factors are.

Percy- I like the quote about sovereignty and how you related it to the fact that courses are not made for everyone. 

Praise- I like how you connected sovereignty to classes outside of ones major, I agree that the student has more power when they can choose classes they are not being forced to take, I would give an example of a major and a course outside of the major that benefits the student to make this stronger. 

praise- I really like the connection between a job and transformative learning because people often forget the benefits of a job besides to make money.

constructive- how can teachers ensure that students are actually discussing the course content when they are not there to observe the discussion?

Percy- good quote from Percy about sovereign individuals and a good explanation- that students need experiences for themselves 

Sabrina Lindley

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cgTAcRH0-mHgAbeVl6vspPgKG2c-hnbxcIlkk8QlpIo/edit?usp=sharing

Bella DiPasquale

Praise- Good example of a beneficial field trip for business management students, rather than a museum going to meet with someone who runs their own business.

Constructive- By cancelling class to let the students hold a discussion group, how can the teacher ensure that the students will actually attend and actually discuss the course content.

Use on Percy- This is a good quote to use for Percy about restoring access to sonnet and dogfish, but the quote needs to be explained more on how it relates to the topic.

Makayla Medycki, Maura Kelly and Gwen Jordan

Praise- good example of a class benefiting from a club- Student Dietetics Program. This shows how nutrition students can use the course material and apply it to their own lives by learning outside the classroom. 

Constructive- give examples of a class that would benefit from a real example of a work study program.

Use on Percy- This is a good quote from Percy because it refers to exercise in familiarity, it supports that in order to learn something it is important that we can use it in a familiar way in our lives rather than memorizing and forgetting the material. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v3frEylzLknTzC6CB1TmHinfQr1Y6Yeq9Yw8eec7kZs/edit?usp=sharing

Emily Foley’s Team

Constructive- How does education beyond the major apply to a student’s focus? How can students gain focus from this? Needs more explanation

Praise- using the “cookie cutter” analogy is a good depiction of saying that there is no variation in learning, it is a good visualization support for individualism

Percy- good quote by Percy about poetry student finding dogfish on desk. By surprising students, they are able to get other perspectives on different learning subjects.

 

David MacMullen

Constructive- Internships are a good idea to learn outside of the classroom- but this only applies to upper class man because freshman are not prepared yet to participate in internships in their field.

Positive- I like the idea of off and on campus community to build characteristics for professional jobs and learn real world things rather than just textbook information.

Use of Percy- quote about “creative power” is a good way to support the idea of on and off campus activities to express yourself in a different environment other than the classroom.  

Leader- Gabby

Participants- Jason, David, Robbie, Jake H, Jenna, Christian, Jake D, Kenzie, Juliana

In this discussion group we talked about everyone taking the beaten track or the shortcut that does not make it short anymore. We talked about the benefits and downsides of the different tracks. The benefits of not taking the beaten track is that you can have your own unique experience, rather than the typical track that most tourists take. The downside of taking a shortcut is that you are not getting the full experience because you are “skipping” over parts of the experience. You can not get the full effect of something when you take the shortcut. This can be applied to learning processes too, teachers posting a powerpoint and not engaging students in the lesson is a form of a shortcut because they are taking the easy way out rather than helping the students get the full effect. When people take shortcuts they tend to ignore other people and don’t get other perspectives because they are only interested in reaching the end goal faster. Not taking the beaten track can also inspire creativity because you are not taking the path that you already have a preformed opinion about.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gCIQYpsIQNHWjwR5hzTDke3iuy8vNacxOT6MPL1ys7g/edit?usp=sharing

Participants: Kenzie Neiderer, Haley Myers, David MacMullen

Leader: Makaya Medycki did not show

In this discussion group we responded to the prompt of what could change an experience for someone based on Percy’s The Loss of the Creature. Percy uses the example of the Grand Canyon to explain that seeing a landmark is the best for the first person who sees it. For those who see postcards and tourist books of a landmark, form a preconceived idea of what it will look like, therefore not making it a good experience when they see it for the first time. Having background information on the place will make you create a preformed opinion in your head of the place you are going to see. He also says that the experience is the best for the first person who discovered the Canyon because they did not go with a tourist guide, where you can only take a certain path. The first person to discover a place can go off the beaten track and get the most out of the experience. The location of where you live also affects your experience of seeing a landmark, because if you see something everyday, it will not be as great as someone who sees it for the first time. Percy also stresses that the problem with seeing is not other people or the world, the problem is inside the seers mind.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VgmO0PtE9oa6ef9yfzfVWBj6h9IR1Smpz3YCPqTGhBU/edit

Freire advocates for learning practices that are based on student initiative and action. At West Chester University, students can greatly benefit from a Psychology course however not through its current learning style. At WCU, the Psychology 100 syllabus states that one of the main goals of the course is for students to “apply their knowledge of psychological concepts, theory, and research to real world settings.” This clearly shows that the goal of the course is not content, the goal of the course is real life application. The issue is that the course is not currently allowing this to be accomplished. Psychology is being taught in a passive way where the professor is reading from powerpoint slides without any application of the information to reality. Students have access to the powerpoints, therefore they are not even attending class, making Psychology not a course that students are benefitting from. Students are unable to utilize the benefits of Psychology in real life through this current learning style. Psychology teaches about the human mind and behavior, therefore it could help students better understand behavior and help them interact with their peers more effectively. Students would benefit from a flipped classroom style where they can do independent reading so that the Psychology courses class time can be used to apply what they read to reality by collaborating with other students, asking teachers for clarification, and participating in activities that demonstrate how the brain works with behavior. 

Psychology is currently a course that is demonstrating Freire’s “banking” concept of education. The “banking” concept of education refers to education that only “allows the students to extend as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits… it is the people themselves who are being filed away through the lack of creativity, transformation, and knowledge in this (at best) misguided system (page 1).” A flipped classroom learning style would help to resolve this issue. Students can comprehend the textbook information on their own time and use class time to apply the material to reality. They can apply the information to reality in class by presenting students with problematic scenarios and have them collaborate in groups to see how they would solve the problem. This exercise would help students observe how others would react and see different perspectives. This is an essential component of psychology because psychology can be very helpful to develop strategies for personal growth and success. By talking through how we would solve an issue, we will become more aware of our own thoughts and therefore be better equipped to develop habits and strategies for success. 

In Psychology we learn about different variables in the environment that affect how we behave, so therefore changing the environment of the group activities could also be beneficial. For example, activities could be done in a crowded loud environment, a quiet room alone, a group with strangers, and one with people you are familiar with. A Psychology course would also benefit from beginning class with a puzzle or a memory game to get the brain stimulated by different exercises, during these activities the teacher could present the students with different distractions to see how variables affect thought processes. Another subject topic that is taught in Psychology is how reinforcement and punishment affects the occurrence of a behavior. This is hard to comprehend from a textbook, but this could easily be displayed in class through presenting students with different reinforcements or punishments to their behavior and see how those components determine how they would act, if they would continue the same behavior or change their behavior.  Collaboration with a diverse group of students is essential because it would allow students to see how different cultural backgrounds affect behavior. It is also important to have individual in class activities as well as group activities because the teacher must accommodate to introverts and extroverts so that everyone can benefit from the class time. 

Freire also states that “Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication. If it is true that thought has meaning only when generated by action upon the world, the subordination of students to teachers becomes impossible (page 3).” Authentic thinking cannot be concerned about reality in the current learning styles of Psychology if students are just expected to listen to fifty minute lectures. In order to accomplish authentic learning students need to be able to utilize class time for collaboration and application of the information they are expected to understand.

Team: Sabrina Lindley

Topic #4

Freire advocates for learning practices that are based on student initiative and action. Students would benefit from reading the course information on their own and utilizing class time to apply what they learn to reality, collaborate with other students to learn different perspectives, and ask teachers for clarification. A psychology course can be changed to independent reading and then in class experiments and group activities to see how the brain works in action rather than from information in a textbook.

Quotes:

“This is the “banking” concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits. They do, it is true, have the opportunity to become collectors or cataloguers of the things they store. But in the last analysis, it is the people themselves who are filed away through the lack of creativity, transformation, and knowledge in this (at best) misguided system.”

“Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication. If it is true that thought has meaning only when generated by action upon the world, the subordination of students to teachers becomes impossible.”

Topic Proposal #1

Team: Sabrina Lindley  

Thesis: The space of education at West Chester University would benefit from making classrooms a more collaborative atmosphere by changing the formation of classroom equipment to allow students and teachers to share in the learning process and work with each other to express their creativity. 

Quotes:

“This is the “banking” concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits. They do, it is true, have the opportunity to become collectors or cataloguers of the things they store. But in the last analysis, it is the people themselves who are filed away through the lack of creativity, transformation, and knowledge in this (at best) misguided system.”

The teacher’s task is to organize a process which already occurs spontaneously, to “fill” the students by making deposits of information which he or she considers to constitute true knowledge. And since people “receive” the world as passive entities, education should make them more passive still, and adapt them to the world. The educated individual is the adapted person, because she or he is better “fit” for the world. Translated into practice, this concept is well suited to the purposes of the oppressors, whose tranquility rests on how well people fit the world the oppressors have created, and how little they question it.”

Group Members: Jeff, Me

In our discussion group we talked about how learning is a concept that requires a minimum of 2 people and communication must be involved. According to Freire, in order to learn effectively there must be interaction between everyone involved. The topics discussed must be real world topics that all people can relate to and understand. We also discussed how learning is more effective when you talk and explain the topic rather than sitting and listening to someone lecture on a topic. Listening to a lecture does not allow a student to relate it to real life or express creativity. There is no “student” or “teacher” because each person is talking and teaching the other person something. We discussed how learning is “doing,” being interactive in the learning process is most effective. From this discussion, I learned that learning is social and it is important to be involved and vocal in the learning process. If you talk and meet new people you will learn more and learn new perspectives on different topics.

Group members- Haley Clark, Amanda Regan, Sarah Veneziale, Meghan Kidd, Seamus Corkery, Olivia Vearling, Ava Hill

In our discussion group we discussed how humans are told to consume information and spit out the answer like a computer or robot. I agree with this because many teachers just project a power point and expect us to know and understand the material without giving explanations or real life applications. Teachers also call out random students to answer questions based on the material they just gave the students, expecting the students to quickly memorize the information. Students feel the pressure to just memorize and spit out the information like robots in order to pass the tests. Students become only concerned in passing a test instead of applying and understanding the information. However, it does not have to be this way, students can take the information and ask questions and ask the teachers to elaborate on the information so that they can get more out of the lesson. The banking concept of education causes students to be like a computer or robot because the education system limits students creativity by making us be “deposits” of information.