This is an idea for a concept of cooperative teaching, which Loyal has been working with that he has asked for feedback on. Perhaps some of you have some ideas. We will spend some time on this in class tonight. I would like him to tell us what some of his acronyms mean in this peice as well. Dr. Andy
Here is the text of the idea in Loyal's own words:
Cooperative Education
In Education we have the method called cooperative learning. Is it possible that we also have cooperative teaching as well a cooperative education? The author of this document has such a dream. The following ideas is how this would look. This dream would seek first to work this out amongst Christian schools. For the ethos of Christianity should lead Christian to desire this. For this dream is based on a concept that schools belong and are a part of the community – not a business. This is a central teaching in both Old and New Testaments.
What would be the goals?
Cooperative Curriculum Development
Bible based
Thailand adapted
mulch-cultural
English based
Cooperative Teacher Coaching
send new teachers to work a day with experienced teachers either inn the sake school or in one of the cooperative schools.
Trade a teacher for a day
Cooperative Subject Focus Groups
meet once a month to share ideas and discus problems about teaching that subject
a parent should be in these groups preferably one who has a degree in that subject. Parents hearing problems can be a source of understanding and maybe find creative ways for parents to help.
Cooperative website
blog by subject
worksheets by subject
SNOT system of files connected to lesson planer schools can use
Lesson plan sharing by subject
Lesson plan think tank by subject – when trying to get an idea a place to suggest and request – or share unfinished ideas to others to cooperatively work on.
Educational concerns by topic
Cooperative Bookmarks by subject
follows SNOT
in html so all bowzers can read
has format of link with description (use dt/dd commands)
linux news for teachers
Cooperative PTA
Parents world
1. how2 help kids by subject
2. how2 help teachers by subject
3. how to help school development
Students World
1. how2 teachers help students learn
2. how2 parents help students learn
Teacher world
1. how 2 parents help teachers
2. how2 students help teachers
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4 comments:
Loyal, I am glad we covered this idea in class and I appreciate your taking the time to outline some of your ideas for improving educational practices. Please keep me in the loop as to how things go with this. Best Wishes, Andy
Sad that a ED6007 of 1/2010 that I enjoyed so very much came to an end today. I'm old and ugly enough (as we say in the good old lucky country) to know that no party lasts forever, however, what surprised me was the immense fun I had during a course labeled "core subject". With these parting feelings, I would like to be the devil's advocate and make comments on some of the applications of Loyal's heartwarming ideas and presentation:
1) Tonight, Loyal made a comment about involving parents in the preparation of the curriculum. Even though I agree with sharing information with the parents having value, I can not say that this is a good idea. For professionals, this resembles letting laypeople decide on the course of a complicated brain surgery with a neurosurgeon. When it comes to curriculum development, this should be left to education specialists who are trained in this area. Romantic ideas such as this look good on paper, but in real life, the end results of such a decision is impossibly infinite. I sure would like a team of skilled neurosurgeons and nurses operate on me, not Somchai from across the house.
2) Loyal's ideas about lesson plan sharing and think tank are great, but hard to implement in real life. In a world where cultural identities are becoming more and more blurred and where the borders between humans and minds are vanishing rapidly, there are still many differences between Eastern and Western ways of life which makes it quite hard to establish a "one-size-fits-all" approach to a unified and globalized lesson plan. Even looking at Thai education, we can see a variety of different curricula being utilized all across the country. So, from an administrator's point of view, such an offer of a solution might be nothing more than an elusive red herring.
3) Loyal's vision of cooperative teaching is an utopic situation, albeit having some ideas that deserve merit such as cooperative teacher coaching. Unfortunately, the overall picture falls short of considering the dark side of humanity and related ill feelings of jealousy, anger, revenge, dislike, hate, etc. I wish that I could have shared Loyal's vision wholeheartedly, however bitter past experience and own personal observations sway me otherwise. I am sure that Loyal will be able to find peers who share his vision, however I will probably not be a part of that group.
Kind regards,
Dr. Murat Kiymaz
muratkiymaz@gmail.com
I have always appreciated your honest and straightforward approach, Dr. Mark, thanks for the feedback on the course, and I am sure that knowing some of the limitations of his ideas will have value for Loyal. Andy
I'd just like to share my personal opinion regarding a few things here:
1)Regarding involvement of parents for the preparation of the curriculum, I think it's a good idea to a certain extent. I can relate to the management style of a school, where the management is open to the parents' ideas but it doesn't mean that you should always give a vote to the parents. In business, it's similar to how a certain part of Google Inc. operates; if they find anything fascinating regardless of the contributor, they will appreciate excellent ideas.
2)Regarding parents cooperating for example once a month, It is a very good idea but I think it would be hard to implement in reality. I don't know about private schools, but in some of the international schools, administrators are happy that parents can make it at least to the PTA's if nothing else.
3)Regarding cooperation within the school itself; we might make excellent plans but if we don't have the right person for the job who can lead the school in a way where the plan is implemented, then all those plans become futile.
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