READER RESPONSE #2
Domain I, Competency 001
Subcompetencies 1, 2, 9, 11
Session 2 Reader Response
Kathy Hainey LT3
Chapter 2 of Jacobsen’s Methods for Teaching focuses on three areas. Those areas are the sources of goals, the three domains, and content in the cognitive domain. As I was originally working my way through the chapter, I did not see the reasoning behind the progression of this chapter. After going back through it again and taking notes, the purpose became clearer to me. While I agree with much of what the author postulated, I did question a few of his conclusions.
This chapter presented the three sources of goals as though they were separate, with the child and society being more important than academics. I believe that the three can, and should, be interconnected in a classroom that is meeting all the students’ needs. Each source of goals has merit and meets students’ needs in some regards, but a complete, well-rounded lesson should consider all of these sources in order to present a complete picture of the lesson. For example, in teaching history many facts are present and some need to be memorized. Incorporating the social aspects of the history at the time give the facts context, hopefully helping the students learn from the past. By the same token, discussing the causes of the Plague can relate to the child directly in ways to prevent the spread of disease. My interest in history was fed by a high school teacher who always discussed WHY historical things happened as they did. He also would discuss how a crisis came to be by including the social, political and personal factors behind the crisis. By understanding the whole picture, I was able to understand, and enjoy, history.
While the three domains of psychomotor, affective and cognitive were introduced, only the cognitive was discussed in this chapter. The differences between abstractions and facts were considered, with concepts and generalizations introduced. I felt that the author gave short shrift to facts in this portion of the chapter, also. The ability to think abstractly is necessary, but there must be some facts involved to utilize "mental templates". In January 2002, a new GED test was released that required much more analytical thinking than the previous test. Some of the focus of my teaching shifted, but the students still needed facts on which to base their analysis. Teaching a student to think and analyze can relate to the adage, "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime." Yes, abstract thinking is very important, but not to the point of denigrating factual knowledge, in my opinion.
Have others who read this chapter had similar reactions to the author’s perceived biases? Do any of you who are teaching in a regular classroom now see things the same as the author? Why?