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Philosophy of Learning ( Foci: friends)

Teachers’ focus:
Intentionally I put the picture of paddy, parallel to my philosophy which is originated from my culture (read; Malay culture) that associates paddy with teachers’ ethics. The heavy the paddy is, the lower it bows. It means simply, teacher must be humble regardless of vast knowledge that he/she has.
I will pin point later the needs for teachers to be humble, but let me first introduce the concept of learning. Learning involves three aspects; teacher, students, and information. It is ridiculous to say that teacher or students come in empty. Both of them are filled with information, however, regardless of much information that teacher or students have, both will be considered empty until the information is transferred to another continuum which is called knowledge. Simply, knowledge is information that is acted upon. At the end, if you don’t act upon this information, sadly to say, you are merely just super micro chips that store zillions of information. This will help us to reflect that the main goal of education/learning is not to produce super micro chips as we have those abundant in computer labs or inside your bags (read: I-phone).
Of course, you will deny me that you are merely an I-phone or Intel Pentium. This should put you into a realization of how I determine and evaluate learning then in order to ensure the goal of learning is not just a factory that produce I-phone because I phone should be/must be/is merely an application of higher order thinking being(read: human). We are the subject not the object.

If we realize this concept that we are the subject, we need to examine what elements/what we comprise of. If we treat ourselves according to these elements, we need to evaluate our education and learning from these elements as well because it is logic to do so. I create questions for us to clarify, reflect and see directions on what I meant from my discourse above. Put in mind always, they are the subject, not the I-phone anymore.

a)What is reality for you? What is reality for your students? Do you think if reality for you is just merely black and white (read: empirical), you students must be nodding their heads to agree?
Notices as well not necessarily nodding their heads mean giving consent. I have a buddy from sub-continent (India and Pakistan) that move his head left to right continuously when being asked closed ended question.

If you cannot understand the examples above, just think of handshaking styles that vary across cultures.

Don’t just understand, but change the structure of your thinking so that you can goes along with your students’ continuum. Changing the structure of your thinking means you are changing your perception. Once it is changed, your behavior and attitudes towards students’ learning will be different. It means your structure of teaching and learning for students will be focusing on what matters to them.

Behold! What matters to them do not necessarily mean what they want. I will clarify how it is understood.

-Student: I want to take this Art course.
-Teacher: O.K but you don’t need it. You already had one similar to it prior
coming to United States. You need another course which is higher
level and important to develop your critical thinking skills.
-Student: But, I want to get an A.
-Teacher: What makes you think that you’ll get B? I am confident you can do it.
Importantly, I don’t want you to just think you can water down the subject to achieve what you want. And, remember, this is one of the most difficult courses in the masters and doctoral programs. So, getting a “B” would not be a bad thing. No matter how hard we try at things, none of us are perfect at everything. Just give it your best effort and seek help as needed.

b) Do you think that even you and your students think reality will not be the same between you and your students but sadly due to ineffective assessments that merely upon paper and pencil examination, reality(read: curriculum) that you mention to them in classroom will be empirical as well?

I have been thinking due to this element, we tend to produce monster instead of human.
Scientists (top echelon in usual paper and pencil examination) instead of producing something else more beneficial keep producing weapons of mass destruction in the names of security and defense. What an irony!

c)Do you want them to adapt to what you have in mind/textbooks (read: hidden curriculum/objectives/agenda)? Don’t you think the goal of education is to educate, cherish and celebrate our students and engaging them to the path of freedom?

I despise classroom management notion of thinking/modes.

My metaphor for classroom management is like a worker in a factory that sooner will -due to the cruelty of his/her nature, depletes his/her motivation.

Depletion of his/her motivation will make him/her keep sleeping, just dreaming within his/her continuum. He/she is just a zombie, easy to control and manipulated. Where is now his/her sense of freedom?

d)After reading my discourse, do you realize now how much do you need your students? You are nothing without them. Now, do you agree that you must be a paddy? The heavy the paddy is, the lower it bows?

wah, sungguh tenang aku sejak akhir akhir ini. Ini semua gara gara ketagihan terhadap facebook sudah berakhir. lebih masa untuk menghabiskan masa aku dengan membaca dan membuat kajian ilmiah, cuma aku tidak sepantas dan seproaktif menulis hasil hasil kajian yang aku temui. Ada beberapa faktor yang menjadikan aku sedemikian;

a) buku buku yang dibaca kebanyakkannya berbahasa Inggeris, aku dapati pembaca daripada Malaysia kurang gemar untuk membaca ulasan atau komen yang berbahasa Inggeris melainkan ianya sesuatu yang benar benar mendapat keuntungan dan manfaat bagi mereka. Aku kira ini benar memandangkan petunjuk google analytic yang aku letakkan dalam website aku ini lebih menjurus kepada melekapnya pembaca yang membacanya dalam bahasa Melayu.

b) aku sibuk dan aku dapati bahan bacaan yang aku baca biasanya lebih menjurus kepada perkara perkara merbahaya. Strategi ketenteraan, perang gerila, agama sesat, dan lain lain lagi. Aku mengambil masa yang lebih lama untuk meluahkan idea idea tersebut, khuatir pula nanti di anggap/di cop sebagai ancaman kepada negara. Tafsiran pembaca rata ratanya berbeda.

hakikatnya aku telah mengadakan beberapa ujikaji dan meta analysis, dan pernah satu ketika aku tagkan perkataan yang berbaur sex dalam salah satu nota aku ( walhal nota aku sifatnya suci murni) dan wah, yang datang berkunjung amat ramai. Oh pastinya sama ada dari Malaysia atau Indonesia kerana perkataan perkataan lucahnya ialah dalam kedua dua bahasa itu. Hahahaha.

Kecewa sungguh aku dengan buku yang ditulis oleh Daniel Goleman ini. Aku mencari cari perkaitan sains yang diceritakannya dengan idea idea dalam bukunya ini tapi hampa. Tidak ada sesuatu yang baru. Indeed penghayatan senyuman itu satu sedekah daripada hadis Rasulullah s.a.w lebih aku hargai daripada idea ideanya yang berulang ulang, seolah olah membaca Chicken Soup for The Soul.

lama juga aku dalam pencarian erti dunia, baru pagi ini aku ketemu..
tapi yang sedihnya, aku mempelajarinya dalam keadaan yang sukar.. mungkin nature aku sendiri yang degil..

persepsi dunia yang ditampilkan dalam nashid itu benar, umpama bayang bayang, semakin dikejar semakin menjauh. terpaku aku sejenak kerana perkara ini pernah dinyatakan oleh shah alam, namun yang dimaksudkan ketika itu wanita, cuma aku sahaja yang merefleksikan kepada dunia.

berlainan pula dengan syurga, ianya realiti. apa sahaja yang realiti hakikatnya sukar. nak bangun solat malam sukar, nak maintain baca quran sukar. ibu segala galanya mudah sahaja. semuanya dalam solat kerana kuncinya solat itu mencegah perkara munkar.

andaikata tetap dalam perkara mungkar, maknanya solatnya belum sempurna. sempurna itu banyak tafsirannya.. sebagaimana dalam maknya bagi khusyu’. khusyu’ itu lahir dari doa tak berhenti meminta ampun dan akui serta sedar diri diri ini lemah..

Ini pengalaman aku sendiri. Mahukan perubahan. aku cuba dan alhamdulillah tidak give up. nantilah aku cerita dalam tulisan aku yang lain, dah pukul 3 pagi nih. nak tidur dulu.

Assalamualaikum pembaca,

Usai menghantar Ishak pulang ke Sri Lanka, berpeluang mengadakan diskusi dengan Yan sepanjang 2 jam perjalanan dari Kansas City ke Manhattan. Ternyata pertukaran ilmu sepanjang 2 jam itu membuahkan hasil, aku bersengkang mata melihat dokumentari berkesan berkaitan dengan Dajjal.

Daripada hadis Rasulullah s.a.w yang maksudnya bahawa dajjal itu sifatnya bermata satu, dan Tuhanmu sempurna daripada segala kekurangan sifat tersebut. Juga seingat aku daripada ulasan hadis hadis lain yang menyatakan di antara realiti dan palsu, kesemuanya bercampur baur; di tangannya api, yang api itu air. di tangannya air, yang air itu api.

Mungkin pembaca keliru maka benarkan aku perjelaskan di sini. Contoh realiti yang tidak benar kita lihat sahaja apabila menjamah ke dalam mulut Mc D. Tidak kira burger atau nugget. Sebelum kita jamah burger tersebut, kita di suakan pula dengan nasi goreng( masakan isteri) tapi memerlukan lebih kurang 45 minit, baru boleh makan.

pasti yang kita pilih adalah Mc D, ianya simple dan sedap. Masakan isteri tidak menjamin perkara di atas; kebarangkalian ianya tidak sedap di atas faktor faktor berikut:

a) ianya terlebih garam.
b) mood tak baik kerana ‘rela’ hati membasuh tahi anak. ( anak berak 5 minit sebelum makanan terhidang)
c) faktor faktor lain yang negatif.

Pilihan Mc D yang di buat sebenarnya adalah kerana beberapa faktor pula dengan jaminan dan kawalan bahawa masakan isteri tidak mengandungi kolestrol lemak tepu tinggi, daging yang digunakan adalah zabihah lagi halal dan menjimat duit dan menambahkan rasa sayang kepada isteri. Kemungkinan Mc D akan menambah rasa sayang kepada bini? Hahaha, andaikata yang menjadi cashier Mc D itu gedik, sayang bini kepada kita pula akan semakin menjauh kerana cemburu.

Fikirkan tentang realiti.

Goffman( 1979) shares this view of advertising as an expression of a collective dream of a better reality. He maintains that advertisers try to display a “real” situation to bolster their claims about the quality and necessity of a product. they generally choose realistic scenes and transform them into imaginary ones by adding a dramatic background. Goffman points out that through private and public pictures, people immortalize the golden moments in their lives such as weddings and birthdays. Afterward, the pictures serve as proof a momentous event that an individual years for and identifies with. This leads advertisers to present people in such a way that their dreams are not subverted. Goffman, therefore describes advertising as a world of ” commercial realism”. In his view, this differs in two ways from people’s everyday behavior. first, in ” real life,” human behavior has a pronounced ritualistic streak. People live according to social ideals and present a stereotypical picture of themselves to the outside world. this is all the more so in advertising, which hyperritualizes. Second, advertising can be edited. Both in ” real life’ and in advertising, people present social ideals, but in ” real life,” people cannot edit their behavior sufficiently to supply a purified ritual of the social ideal. Thus Goffman asserts that advertising tries to depic social ideals as fully as possible and thereby project and idealized slice of life. (pg. 15)

Israel can boast many achievements,compared to other countries, in a variety of fields such as high-tech,medicine,academic research,arms development and agriculture. And yet, although the economy is flourishing, at least at the time of this writing( summer of 2007), and although Israel seems to have reached economic independence, the self confidence of Israelis is still problematic. Public discoursrse in Israel implies the feeling that without the support of the United States, this economic independence would vanish. Uncle Sam is perceived to be the principal barrier between Israel and sanctions or boycotts that could be imposed by the United Nations, its institutions and other countries and as the protector of Israel against the enforcement of an arrangement with the Palestinians that would harm Israel’s security ( Haaretz,4.5.07) This idea of United States, both in the past and at present, held by many Israelis, may explain the American myth structured in Israeli advertising.

In the winter of 2007, the value of the American dollar began to decline I the world and in Israel, resulting in a stronger Israeli shekel. Naturally, this had an effect on advertising in Israel and all of a sudden there were ads in praise of the shekel. This is an interesting development as in the past it was the American currency that dominated Israeli ads, even when the transaction was in shekels. For example, and advertisement for the Yashir Investment House showed a photograph of a one shekel coin, which had on it : “ I strong shekel.” On the left side of the ad was the text, “ Enjoying Israeli power.” Such texts resemble the use made by advertisements in the past of American currency and American power( “America is power”). In fact, one sees that when the local currency is stronger vis a vis the American currency, it becomes a source of pride and stars in advertising. A similar advertisement, which shares this trend , appeared for a financial company called EASYFOREX, encouraging investment in various transactions and enjoying the increased value of the shekel under the slogan, “ The dollar is down, hit it hard.” The ad shows a photograph of a plastic hammer hitting the dollar symbol, with the text, “ Independence 2007- the party goes on.” (pg. 125-126)
Reference:

First, A & Avraham E (2009) America In Jerusalem : Globalization, National Identity and Israeli Advertising Maryland: Lexingtoon Books

“Wisdom has many antecedents and forms and that the quest for it is endless.. Peshkin,pg.28
In this article, Peshkin tries to rebut authority’s belief that research has to be theory driven, hypothesis testing or generalization producing because qualitative researchers are being put off to write more due to this reason. He is in fact not defending but respecting qualitative research after reading Nodding’s notion in his book that says: “The search for justification often carries us farther and farther from the heart of morality.”
He puts the goodness of Qualitative Research into 4 major categories. However, I prefer to see it as outcomes. It does not differ between these two but I prefer to use my own term so that I could easily memorized. The 4 major outcomes will be:
a) Description
- Peshkin believes description is not the lowliest level of research as it is believed to be because from it comes- prescription which entails accuracy,sensitivity and comprehensiveness of its descriptive foundation.
- It helps us to understand process which many Positivists ‘fail’ to see.
- It helps us to discovering/uncovering many aspects that we always fail to see when dealing with quantitative such as communal function of certain community and etc.
- It provides setting and situation that not all the time can exist or made to exist in quantitative realm; a restrictive racist society.
b) Interpretation
- Qualitative research that can explain and interpret empirical generalization derived by quantitative techniques.
- Can engender new concepts but also elaborates existing concepts. For example, justifying existing theories of education and at the same time extend understanding to a new paradigm.
- Producing problem finding through insights.
- Theory development: develop a new theory from data collection and analysis rather than reflecting the already existing.

c) Verification
- Peshkin believes it is actually establishing the utility of ideas/theories not merely an assumption as believed by Schofield( 1998).
- It has been proven by John Ogbu’s works (1978) in Stockton, California and corroborated by a study in Fairfax. Ogbu’s study was about the academic failure of American minority students.

d) Evaluation
- It is confined to policies, practices and innovations and fully reflected by asking these questions;
- Have they been implemented? With what impact? What has the process been like? How do they work? For whom do they work? Are there exceptions?
- It helps us to see further; implications of policies,practices and innovations.
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