This
week the question that intrigued me while doing reading and reflective learning
module for my M.A. Professional Practice (Dance Pedagogy) through Middlesex
University, was the interpretation of knowledge. How I viewed my own
knowledge. What value I gave my knowledge. And how I shared this knowledge with
my students in the past.
1a(1): the fact or
condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association
(2): acquaintance
with or understanding of a science, art, or technique
b(1): the fact or
condition of being aware of something
(2): the range of
one's information or understanding answered to the best of my knowledge
c: the
circumstance or condition of apprehending truth or fact through
reasoning: cognition
d: the fact or
condition of having information or of being learned a person of unusual knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity, awareness, or
understanding of someone or something, such as facts, information,
descriptions, or skills, which is acquired through experience or education by
perceiving, discovering, or learning. Knowledge can refer to a theoretical or
practical understanding of a subject. It can be implicit (as with practical
skill or expertise) or explicit (as with the theoretical understanding of a
subject)
When
trying to define what I thought my "knowledge" was, I was asked to
think about how we are "taught" to think about knowledge. This
indeed started quite a reflective thought process and discussion in my brain
that quite literally interrupted my sleep for a few days.
I grew
up in a very authoritarian society. We were taught that the teacher knows best.
No-one questioned. It was an era of a very objectivist approach to
teaching. According to Anthony William (Tony) Bates in his book
“Teaching in a
Digital Age”, October 2019, 2nd Edition, https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/
, an objectivist teacher has to be
“very much in control of what and how students learn, choosing what is
important to learn, the sequence, the learning activities, and how
learners are to be assessed.” To a large degree, I feel the traditional
ballet classroom has remained an authoritarian and objectivist domain – we
tend to teach how we were taught. Bates also discusses how our
underlying beliefs and values are usually shared by other experts in a subject
domain, and how its these that tend to shape our approach to teaching.
Teaching today however, is now seen as a highly
complex occupation with a need for adaptation to different contexts and allowance
for different styles of learners in different situations. Teachers
may still deliberately choose to use a more objectivist approach with novice students
but will need to pull in other methods of imparting knowledge as these student’s
progress past basic skills. Bates discusses how students today have so
many more sources of information than we ever had. A new challenge for us
teachers of today is also being able to guide and help students in the
management of this vast amounts of knowledge. Students need to learn how
to analyse, sort, organise and apply appropriate information in their own
profession and own domain. What tools can we teachers give them so they can
eventually take over this responsibility themselves and be motivated to pursue
eternal learning in an ever evolving world.
Reflecting
back on my own teaching practice, I ponder, did I dictate too much? Did I
impose too much of my own values or beliefs in what I thought was essential
knowledge to share and make important to others? I can remember students liking
or not liking a guest teacher based on the criteria to which I had told them
makes a good teacher or a good class. Was I imposing my standards of what
good knowledge was? Was I being too much of an objectivist teacher and
not engaging in being open minded for the value of other teaching techniques or
modalities?
But perhaps I confuse knowledge and education?
A
wonderful blog by Manisha Kumar "Difference Between Knowledge
and Education." DifferenceBetween.net. May 23, 2011 http://www.differencebetween.net/language/difference-between-knowledge-and-education/
talks about the
difference between knowledge and education.
The
article lays out knowledge and education as synonyms and that both
are correlated to each other but with a subtle
difference between them. Knowledge is gained from life experiences
and age while education is learned from the books and may never be
experienced. Education is formal process whereas knowledge is
informal experience. Education is a process of gaining knowledge for some
useful application whereas knowledge is facts acquired from good education,
peers, consultations and extensive reading.
Thinking
about this explanation, I try correlate it to my views on ballet training.
A ballet syllabus or curriculum sets out what pupils ought to learn. It is
experienced. So, there is thus a fundamental connection between knowledge and
syllabi/curriculum. But its also formal and codified, so its an education too.
If I’m honest, I feel that this is where we as ballet teachers use the
objectivist domain to gain foundations, but then we need to make sure we
go beyond these boundaries creatively to produce a student who will thrive in
today’s professional world. Indeed, fellow MA candidates brought up the subject of
contemporary ballet invading the classical ballet classroom. Students
seem much more engaged in this genre than in traditional ballet. How do
improve student engagement in a traditional ballet classroom? Can we blend the
objectivist approach within our traditional classes so we can teach our
students the beauty of solid foundational training that that you then use as a
launch pad to explore, from a place of strength, the un-barriered world
of contemporary ballet that is ever-changing and dynamic.
There is still so much for me to explore,
challenge and understand in the journey through knowledge and education. But
that is perhaps the power of both knowledge and education – if you can be open
to being an eternal learner your world keeps expanding. We teachers,
first and foremost, need to remain passionate about this journey, and that will
hopefully inspire our students to have an everlasting desire to explore the
learning journey too!
Great to see your blog up and running.
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