Americans are really good at utilizing informational resources that are in scarce supply or in strange places, to create greater, better organized informational resources. We grow up in this informational environment and so become quite adept at manipulating it.
Likewise, Mozambicans seem to be adept at utilizing scarce physical resources to create better...things. My students, every last one, are incredibly resourceful because they've grown up in an environment that calls for doing a lot with a little.
In school, I ask my students to manipulate information like Americans would. And can I expect them to know how? I guarantee almost every single American would be at a loss when faced with a concrete wall, something to attach to the concrete wall, and no hardware store (answer: hammer a hole using a railroad tie nail, and fill it with the skinned branch of an acacia tree, screwing into the branch.) As they see my "real world" knowledge as sometimes poor, I need to have the same patience that they show me as I teach what I consider to be "real world" knowledge.
And just teaching - it's a process that every human does, just like learning. Though I'm getting closer to that basic, universal ability to teach and seeing what it really involves (and seeing that a certain amount of theater is necessary), I'm still pretty far away from figuring out how basic learning happens and how I can use it in class. I think I've figured out that it's a much slower process in terms of facts, memorizing and such, than our curricula reflect. Though in terms of concepts, I think we underestimate what students are capable of when we relate concepts to already familiar situations.
This theory-over-substance view can be prohibitive if I let myself believe it's an all-or-nothing proposition. That is to say, if I can't teach a curriculum that is concept-based, I shouldn't put my best effort into teaching. But I shouldn't think that way - just like the curriculum is not completely fact-based, my lessons would necessarily sometimes focus on raw facts.
So although I'm getting closer to figuring out the "ideal learner" and how to teach to that learner, my main challenge will continue to be balancing the curriculum.
Peace
John
