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EDUCATION 830 ASSSIGNMENT B THE NEED FOR CHANGE: WHAT IS PROBLEMATIC ABOUT RATIONALIZATION

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Rationalization was born out of the sciences. Its sole purpose is to predict and control the outcome of a treatment just as a scientist or researcher uses various methods to produce the most desired effect. The scientist is in the position of authority. It is only natural then, that a nation whose focus is on industrial output and economic advancement, would adopt this as a model for evaluating its educational programs. But, if we cycle back to the true definition of democracy, which is one that allows the individual a voice in their development, shouldnt it follow that the citizen be charged with the responsibility of determining that outcome? If we limit our understanding of what it means to be educated, to one who is can support the vagaries of the market, anything outside of that does not count as valuable in a monetized world. Because of the narrow focus in the curriculum, education has not been for the development of the person, but for the mass production of people to serve state goals.

As educators, it goes without saying that this is not what we believe. The sole purpose of the individual is not to be an economic being but rather an autonomous, self-directed, and motivated person who advances compassion, humanity and kindness. What is imperative is that programs be geared towards thinking that engages their emotions and loyalties to their communities. What we want is higher level learning that questions the status quo that questions western capitalist constructs and puts forward another model for society other than the factory-output one. We want intelligent people who behave as global citizens and environmental stewards, not just workers, tax-payers and consumers. In saying this, if we are married to meeting prescribed objectives, we limit the potential of the individual. We forego what might be wonderful and unique that might reshape our current ways of thinking. Who are we as educators to limit the potential of these students? Plato once defined a slave as someone who executes the purposes of another. I would say that in a free democratic state, at least a part of the role

EDUCATION 830 ASSSIGNMENT B

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of education is to help youngsters define their own purposes. (Plato in Eisner, 2001, p. 371) To deny this is to go against the very core of democracy. IMAGINATIVE EDUCATION SETS THE BAR HIGHER Although Kieran Egans Imaginative Education program does not aim to democratize learning or emancipate student-citizens, that does tend to be a byproduct of its design. When a teacher starts a romantic framework with a heroic quality, s/he is engaging students first at their emotions; emotions are what everyone has so in that sense, it democratizes learning in the classroom. But Egans main goal is to use emotions to situate the learner in some way at which to view the topic. The emotion is the access point. Not only does the heroic quality engage the imagination, it is the umbrella concept from which individual lessons containing new academic concepts will be based. For this reason, IE cannot be accused of de-emphasizing the teaching of academic concepts. But because planning frameworks engage the human emotion, it has the added effect of developing the human personality. Current evaluative procedures do not factor in human emotions as a tool for thinking. It uses bubble sheets, close-ended questions, regurgitation of facts and rewards a student for re-telling the information in the same way it was delivered. But what is wonderful about engaging the emotion is that it results in thinking that is unique, rich in description, and wider in scope. It raises the potential for each student.

If we are invested in advancing the highest potential of our students, our attention to them is constant. We cannot rely on summative evaluation to determine whether a student has learned what a Ministry authored package says they should have learned. That is barely a snapshot limited to a context, frozen to one moment, and a stranger is usually holding the camera. An IE program demands that educators take a number of snapshots throughout, using a number of cognitive tools for which the student can make meaning and represent their understandings. Our pictures of their learning would take the form of a living scrapbook which records a story of their journey in understanding the concepts we teach

EDUCATION 830 ASSSIGNMENT B

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them. It would account for the enacted curriculum those qualities, understandings, and patterns of meaning that comprise of school experience as it is played out day-to-day levels of classroom practice (Einsner, 2000, in Stufflebaum, 2000, p. 196). If we were to use current methods of program evaluation, these meaning-making representations would be overlooked. And if we are true educators who believe in the transformation of our students understandings we would be regularly checking in on that development. To draw from Eisners sports analogy, a fan of baseball or golf, for example, attends to how well games are played and not just the final score (Eisner, 2001, p. 204). IE demands that we be fans of learning, guiding intently, allowing a number of opportunities for our students to win and be challenged.

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