Week 4 Questions Re: Resnick/Young/SalomonPerkins readings

In Resnick, the role of schooling in economic preparation is discussed:

“Some critics of current practices hold that no formal training in the art and science of pedagogy is required, that everything necessary can be learned through on-thejob teaching practice by an individual with deep knowledge of the subject matter to be taught (emphasis added)”

QUESTION: Where might that deep knowledge be obtained, if not in the schools?”

I reflected on this question, and although my educational paradigm is through foundational learning in the schools, I was intrigued by a conversation with a colleague from India regarding Caste systems, formal and informal learning, and advancement.

The gist of the conversatlion was that people are born into one station in life – the doctors, the laborers, the lawyers, etc. When I asked about possiblities, I was told that for the most part, the doctors train the doctors, and all learning in that field is acquired on-the-job from others in the caste/field. To “break in” to medical work that required being a doctor, there needs to be someone in the caste/field who will befriend you and take you under their wing, and once they have acquired that stature, their families would follow, and therefore the next generation would belong to a different station in life.*

It was stated that this is not easy to do, because it is difficult to find someone willing to invest time in the lifelong learning process that would be required to obtain proficiency to the level of the mentor being willing to accept and represent you to the community as a competent professional in that field, therefore, most people stay put, where they are.

I likened this explanation to the early 20th century European immigrants who set up shoss and businesses on America’s East Coast and in Midwestern towns. The businesses became the backbone of the families, and the children were trained in the families’ livelihoods. Formal schooling came about at a later date.

So my initial question of “where would the subject matter expertise come from” goes full-circle to “the apprenticeship model”. So I think I might agree --- more thought needed.

*(This is definitely an oversimplification of a very complex system, but for sake of our question and answer session on India, my colleague agreed that my understanding was “a good enough overview of the Caste system for the level of depth in our conversation.”

Question 2:
In Young’s article on ecological learning and contexts, it was stated:

“an ecological presumption is that a sensitive exploring agent can pick up the affordance of an environment directly through exploration, discovery, and differentiation (Gibson & Spelk, 1983). So the learning environment and associated tool, activities, and instruction that are designed for instruction should serve to highlight important distinctions and focus the students’ attention on previously unnoticed uses for things in the world.”

Where does this leave us in regards to replicational studies? If nothing new is learned in a replicated experiment, does this mean that nothing has been learned? I would like to think, instead, that support of existing information can also be considered new learning.