Monday
On Monday, we went to Victoria and visited the BC Museum. It took us about 2 hours to look around the natural history and human history exhibition. The most interesting things were Mammoth and indigenous people of Canada. Our students also had a great time on the ferry, because it was the first time for most of them to travel by ferry. I took us nearly one and a half hour to across the Channel. So most of our time was spent on road or boat.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, during the time of check in, one student asked about the religion system in Canada. Andrea hesitated whether should talk about this. Tony encouraged her to have a try and she gave use a useful introduction of the family trees and history of different religions in BC. Tony highlighted the idea of religious tolerance, which means people can respect and be tolerant to others’ religions.
Unfortunately, a terrible terrorist attack happened in Quebec, in which one man killed six people and injured another five in a Quebec mosque on Sunday. Click here to know more.
Here is the statement by the Prime Minister of Canada on Sunday.
Diversity is our strength, and religious tolerance is a value that we, as Canadians, hold dear.After Tuesday’s class, I found UBC faculties and students got together on the square and express their feelings and ideas about the event. Slogans such as “Hate is not the answer!” “LOVE” “Connection” were written on the posters. Several speakers were invited to give a public speech. More than one hundred audience circled around.
Well, these things were accidentally connected in my mind, which push me to think the goal of our education, the role of college in society, the beliefs behind our teaching practices.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, we visited the Richmond High School. Their students of grade 12 showed us around and introduced their school. Our college students also visited several classes and had a nice talk with their students.
Thursday
Teachers’ professional development needs to be autonomous.
Teachers should make their classroom a more public place rather than a private place. Although new teacher may take their time to do so.
school system vs education agenda(教育系统与教育使命)
A history of my approach to teaching(Tony)
As a beginning teacher. I believed in technical rationality.
Graduate school. I encountered constructivism.
More recently, I learned about complexity science
Classroom as Complex systems: its not an entirely new idea!
Four theoretical principles of complex phenomena or system:
1 an emphasis on a non-linear frameworks(Davis, 2004)
2 cogintion is not simply representative of what we know but a continual bringing forth of what we know through the process of engagement(Capra,2002)
3 open system maintain themselves by being is a state of disquilibrium yet they remain stable nonetheless(Prigogne,1984)
4 spontaneous emergence of order from apparent random or unrelated events(2001)
What does your classroom look like？
- networks(peer, buddy, teacher, parents)
- self-regulation(negotiated curriculum)
- feedback loops(pairs, groups, whole class)
- disequilibrium(edge of chaos? generative)
- nested(student, class, program)
If a classroom or teaching and learning represent complex systems and if we fail to acknowledge them as such….
…then we are probably failing to allow for, recognize, or take advantage of the emergence of complexity as it arise in our practice.
Five features of complexity that enhance the possibility of emergence
Internal redundancy - commonality …shared understantding
Internal diversity -variety … a rich pool of ideas
Neighborhood interactions -engagement …ideas bumping up against one another
Decentralized control -democratization … collective authoring
Enabling constraints playing field …a generative space
Four implications for classroom:
1 surrendering certainty(open eye)
2 An emphasis on inquiry(the effort to articulate what we don’t know)
3 Acknowledge Complicity(迭代交互影响)
4 Allow for improvisation
Graduate life in UBC and how to apply for UBC
Friday
Presentation Report
Flash mob
Certificate ceremony
Feedback Survey
Pictures together and say Goodbye.
