MOAR referencing

At the start of every class I pick up my trusty whiteboard marker and write a list of what I will be covering in the lesson. This keeps me on track as well as providing my students with an overview of what they will be learning during the session. Earlier this week, in amongst things like "spelling", "annotated bibligraphy" and "essay structure" I had written "MOAR referencing". Being a fan of the internet lolcats/I can haz cheeseburger phenomenon I felt I was being humorous and witty (particularly since it was getting to the point where my dear students were chock-a-block full of all things referencing - both intext and reference list citation). So it was with comic intent that I chose to spell "more" lolcat style rather than in the "more" academically acceptable way. I assumed that everyone was familiar with lolcats, so imagine my mild surprise when a young man very politely raised his hand and asked me why I had spelled "more" as "moar". Imagine my further surprise when upon further questioning of the class I discovered that they were not indeed either familiar or enamoured with "teh funnee talking kittehs". I had made a rookie mistake, assuming that my students had the same cultural capital and knowledge that I did. I had done the same thing the day before, when (during a session on referencing again) I was befuddled by the confused looks when I kept referring to "n.d.". Finally, I realised that what I assumed was straightforward, everyone-knows-this information ("n.d. stands for "no date") was no such thing. Once I quickly explained it (along with n.p. for no page) we were all set and back on the same page. Do I have a point in regaling you with these anecdotes about my teaching week? Well, sort of - in a very basic way. It's this: as educators, we cannot assume anything of our students. It is very easy to forget that what is easy and self-explanatory to us is foreign, alien and downright confusing to students. As tertiary educators we live and breathe a particular culture that like all cultures has its own practices, jargon and discourses. When we throw a student into that culture, we need to take the time to gradually induct them into our culture. They are strangers in a sometimes very strange land.Of course this is not to say that our students do not arrive in our classrooms without complex and interesting cultures of their own. They do. And it is the capacity we have as educators to find points of connection between these various cultures that can make tertiary education such a rich experience for all concerned.

Celebrating education

Today sees the Graduation ceremony for CQUniversity at the Bundaberg campus. The ceremony is held in the early evening at the Moncrieff Theatre in the centre of town. After my class this morning I had a surprise visitor from one of the graduates. This was a mature age student who completed our STEPS Program a few years ago and has since completed a Bachelor of Property with CQUni. A family man who previously worked in the Building Industry, it was wonderful to see he had finished his degree (mostly via external study). It seemed like yesterday that he was re-entering the wonderful world of education with the STEPS Program and now, just a few short years later, he has a degree. I asked him what he was doing at the moment. Perfectly contented, he told me he was doing some labouring and building work. So one could easily assume that his higher education experience had not really changed him in any way at all. I doubt however that this is the case. Even though he has not found work in the local area in the field of his degree, he is to be commended for completing it while balancing a demanding work and home life. I have no doubt that he will continue to look for work that relates to his study, but in the meantime the completion of a higher education qualification has added value to his family, his local community, and most of all himself. It is tremendously important that we remember that sometimes education is not solely about getting a higher paid job or a promotion. It can also be about less tangible results - setting an example for your children and others around you that it is possible to take on a long term task and persevere - seeing it through to the end. Education in all its forms enriches the culture of our regional communities and those who live in them. For that reason, it should be celebrated, in and of itself.

Back to basics

It's been a fascinating week in terms of the academic writing skills and learning more about the teaching of literacy in schools. As a lecturer in the STEPS program teaching Language and Learning I am often surprised at the basic literacy skills that our students present with. This is not to say that they are bad writers. Often, many of our students have a real flair for expressing themselves in the written form; however, this is hindered by their lack of understanding of the basics of sentence structure, punctuation, grammar etc. Something has been missed somewhere when it is a revelation for students when you explain the difference between "it's" and its. Or sometimes, you see the lightbulbs go off when we go through the difference between their, there and they're, or even very basic things like finding verbs in sentences. Not being in the discipline of education per se, I wonder at how this is taught in the current English curriculum in schools. Is it? Having a conversation with a primary music teacher yesterday, I was quizzing him about the place and priority that schools place on the all important Naplan testing. He was telling me that students in Year 3 are expected to be able to construct some sort of "argument" in their writing. I haven't seen the details of this but I was shocked. Surely, that's a higher level task that can wait until students are a little way past their 8th birthday. Is there a fashion for literacy tasks to be so complex that students can no longer see the trees for the forest? I'm not sure on the answer to any of these questions. What I do believe however, is that there is an absolute need for the foundations and basics of literacy to be in place before moving on to higher order tasks.

I had a similar experience yesterday while I was teaching a student the piano (which is something I do in my spare time). This student has been learning for many years from another teacher so I have only recently taken over her tuition. The first few lessons are a process of me finding out what she knows and doesn't know. We have been spending a fair amount of time in the first weeks fixing problems with rhythm and counting. Once I had explained a couple of different things, she was away and flying with new pieces, rhythm all present and correct. Last week, we began work on the first year theory of music book. This is where students learn note names, note values, ties, slurs, rests etc - in fact, all the basics. At the start of the lesson, the student said she had experienced some trouble with the homework. When we had a look at it, suddenly all her difficulties in playing correctly rhythmically were explained. No one had ever gone through the basic fundamentals of this with her. Or, if they had, they hadn't made sure that she clearly understood it before throwing something more complicated at her. I see a real resonance here with the challenges my own writing students face in class. We must all walk before we can run.It's a cliche but it's true nonetheless. Otherwise, will trip over our apostrophes or our syncopation and that's no good for anyone.