Category: Didactic Teaching

Reflexive/Ergative Pedagogy

4/30/2021

Reflexive/ergative pedagogy is the practice of teaching whereby students' relationship with their instructor is dialogical; learners experience the following (as described by Mary Kalantzis and William Cope in their New Learning module (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, n.d.)):

1. considerable scope and responsibility for epistemic action
2. artifacts and knowledge representations constructed by the learner and the processes of their construction
3. focus on the social sources of knowledge
4. multiple epistemic processes

I have created assignments that included knowledge production in the form of artifacts and reflection. I give students multiple ways to interact with concepts; and they often have a choice as to how they may present what they have learned. In the classroom, I have used the concept of the social mind through small group work.

Kalantzis and Cope write about philosophers and educators, John Dewey, Maria Montessori and Rabindranath Tagore, as representatives of reflexive pedagogy. “They represent in certain senses a revival of the dialogical, where the agency of the learner is at play in a dialectic between teacher and learner, the to-be-learned and the learning” (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, n.d.)

Jean-Baptiste, K. C. (2019, November 2). Dialogical relationship between instructor and learner. [Image]

What underlies the idea that learning should include a dialogical relationship between learner and teacher is the belief that students, adults and children, have enough knowledge or capabilities to actively contribute to their learning.

John Dewey saw schools as “instrumentalities through which the school itself shall be made a genuine form of active community life, instead of a place set apart in which to learn lessons” (Kalantzis, and Cope, n.d.-a). For Dewey, learning was about the near and, what he deemed, probable future. Students built on their experiences by learning or expanding skills that were relevant to a probable future. Evidence of his belief system which molded his pedagogical theory can be seen in his writing about walking through a kitchen being used by students learning to prepare meals.

John Dewey. Underwood & Underwood, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (negative no. LC-USZ62-51525)

[By] the introduction into the school of various forms of active occupation … the entire spirit of the school is renewed.

It has a chance to affiliate itself with life, to become the child’s habitat, where he learns through directed learning, instead of being only a place to learn lessons having an abstract and remote reference to some possible living to be done in the future. It gets a chance to be a miniature community, and embryonic society. To do this means to make each one of our schools an embryonic community life, active with the types of occupation that reflect the life of larger society (Kalantzis, and Cope, n.d.-a).

No one would argue that some educational topics are pragmatic and necessary.

Maria Montessori’s ideas came from scientific observations of children. She opened a daycare called A Children’s House. The design of A Children’s House and its program were based “on her observations that young children learn best in a homelike setting, filled with developmentally appropriate materials that provide experiences contributing to the growth of self-motivated, independent learners” (The Montessori Group, n.d.). Montessori’s philosophy of education was student-centered, and similar to Dewey felt that the natural setting was similar to the design of a home. In the Montessori method, the role of the teacher includes maintaining this homelike environment.

Maria Montessori: Portrait. (n.d.) [Image]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maria_Montessori_(portrait).jpg

The role of a Montessori teacher is that of an observer whose ultimate goal is to intervene less and less as the child develops. The teacher’s first objective is to prepare and organize the learning environment to meet the needs and interests of the children as well as promote independence. The focus is on the children, not on teachers teaching. Through careful observation and planning, Montessori teachers remain constantly alert to the direction each child is heading and actively works to help them succeed (North Star Montessori Elementary School, n.d.)

For Rabindranath Tagore, the “main objective of his school – Shantiniketan was to cultivate a love for nature, to impart knowledge and wisdom in one’s native language, provide freedom of mind, heart and will, a natural ambience” (C., T., 2018). “When Maria Montessori visited the school in 1939, she declared that she was in complete sympathy with its founder’s philosophy of education (Kalantzis and Cope, n.d.-b).

Rabindranath Tagore. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc

Christine Kupfer (2016) writes that Tagore felt that “children need indefiniteness, surprises and discovering the world first-hand without a clearly prescribed purpose.” Tagore believed that that was how children learned their first language and could learn other things this same way (Kupfer, 2016, p. 63). In order to achieve this, Kupfer (2016, p. 65) quotes from Tagore’s ‘The First Anniversary of Sriniketan’, The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore, Volume 4, A Miscellany, ed. by Nityapriya Ghosh (Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 2006 [1924]), pp. 493-498 (pp. 497-8):

this institution should be a perpetual creation by the cooperative enthusi-asm of teachers and students growing with the growth of their soul; a world in itself, self-sustaining, independent, rich with ever-renewing life, radiating life across space and time, attracting and maintaining round it a planetary system of dependent bodies.

Dewey’s, Montessori’s and Tagore’s educational philosophy were reactions to didactic teaching whereby the teacher is the main source of information and students are passive recipients.

Jean-Baptiste, K. C. (2019, November 8). Main interaction between teacher and learner in a didactic relationship. [Image].

Kalantzis and Cope in their New Learning module (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, n.d.) lists four essential components of didactic teaching:

1. For there to be “direct instructional guidance”, the balance of control of a learning environment must be with the instructor,—hence the synoptic, monological artifacts of the lecture and the textbook
2. There is a focus on cognition, and mostly at times, one particular aspect of cognition, long term memory—measurable per the artifact and ritual of closed-book, summative examination
3. The focus is on the individual learner because long term memory is singularly individual
4. There is an emphasis on a narrow range epistemic processes by means of which a learner can demonstrate that they can replicate disciplinary knowledge—which in this pedagogical mode is limited to remembering facts, appropriately applying definitions, and correctly deducing answers by the application received theorems, and faithful application of the “procedures of the discipline”. This is pedagogy of mimesis or knowledge replication

Kalantzis and Cope (2018) in a presentation at 2018 symposium contrast didactic pedagogy to reflexive/ergative pedagogy.

Table 1.
Didactic/Mimetic	Reflexive/Ergative
Teacher-centered learner as knowledge consumer	Learner as agent, participant learner as knowledge producer
Knowledge transmission and replication, long term memory	Knowledge as discoverable, navigation, critical discernment; devices as “cognitive prostheses”—social memory and immediate calculation
Knowledge as fact, correctly executable theorem, definition, cognitive focus	Knowledge as judgment, argumentation, reasoning, focus on knowledge representations, “works” (ergative)
Individual minds	Social, dialogical minds
Long cycle feedback, retrospective and judgmental (summative assessment)	Short cycle feedback, prospective and constructive (reflexivity, recursive feedback, formative assessment)

Table 1 created from Kalantzis, M., & Cope, W. (2018). Multiliteracies: Meaning making and literacy learning in the era of digitaltext. Paper presented at University-Wide Teaching and Learning Symposium organized by Center of Teaching, Learning andTechnology. https://ctlt.illinoisstate.edu/downloads/symposium/2018/Kalantzsis-Cope%20Morning.pdf

As one moves from didactic to reflexive/ergative the student can express their agency more liberally. Self-discovery is encouraged. Technology makes long-term memory less necessary. In a world of diverse students from different cultures, in the reflexive/ergative model, knowledge is seen as judgment which is subject to argument, and justification instead of absolute fact. The different perspectives of the same event are acknowledged. The role of a community in learning is emphasized and encouraged. Assessments occur before the end of term or project and are an active part of the learning process.

In the world of Adult Education, reflexive/ergative pedagogy is embedded in many course curricula. An example of this is a course called Career Foundations. This course was designed to help students learn and establish career pathways that include entry into college with the purpose of obtaining a credential or degree. The course was specifically designed to be studentcentered. Students do most of the work as they analyze their skills, interests; research various industries and jobs then decide which one is best for them, then chart out a career pathway that will lead them to the career they want.

The course was created jointly by City Colleges of Chicago and the not-for-profit organization, Women Employed. A report by Women Employed (n.d.) states:

Career Foundations course empowered students to take control of the course itself and thus, their own goals, first by setting their own standards in the four key areas of attendance, punctuality, focused teamwork, and homework completion, and sharing how they would help each other meet their goals when they ran into problems.

Two other examples of the application of reflexive/ergative pedagogy are apprenticeships/on-the-job training and bridge classes. Bridge classes are courses created to bridge the gap in education between an adult learner’s current educational level and the math/science/technology and language arts knowledge needed to succeed in a chosen career. Bridge students learn contextualized STEM and language arts related to their chosen industry.

An innovative application of reflexive/ergative pedagogy is the flipped classroom. Though the flipped classroom has grown in popularity, it is not the standard. In a flipped classroom the student has considerable responsibility to obtain knowledge outside the classroom. The student then comes to the classroom and must be ready to either share the work that they have done and/or work on a project in a group setting. If the project is intentionally ill-defined then the student may have to use multiple knowledge gathering processes to complete the project or solve a problem.

The Montessori method of education focuses on self-discovery, hands-on learning and collaboration. Tagore and Dewey share these beliefs about pedagogy. In a longitudinal study that looked at Montessori schools, it was observed that “although not different at the first test point, over time the Montessori children fared better on measures of academic achievement, social understanding, and mastery orientation (Lillard, Heise, Richey, Tong, Hart, and Bray, 2017).

Chloe Marshall (2017) reviews research on the Montessori method, including earlier research by Lilliard. She points out the weaknesses in some of the research methodologies (for instance studies that look at students only in school).

In her conclusion Marshall (2017) states:

In sum, there are many methodological challenges to carrying out good quality educational research, including good quality research on the Montessori method. Arguably the most obvious challenge to emerge from the literature reviewed here is the practical difficulty of randomly allocating pupils to Montessori and non-Montessori schools in order to compare outcomes. The majority of studies have relied instead on trying to match pupils and teachers in Montessori and non-Montessori schools on a number of different variables, with the concomitant danger that unidentified factors have contributed to any difference in outcomes. Even if randomisation is achievable, studies need to be conducted on a large enough scale to not only allow generalisations to be made beyond the particular schools studied, but to also allow investigation of which children the Montessori method suits best. On a more optimistic note, recent experimental studies—whereby features of existing Montessori classrooms are manipulated in some way, or features of the Montessori method are added to non-Montessori classrooms—hold promise for investigating the effectiveness of particular elements of the Montessori method.

Dewey, Montessori and Tagore’s philosophies of education were a rebuke of didactic pedagogy. In playing devil’s advocate, how might a proponent of didactic pedagogy respond?

Teacher centered vs Learner as knowledge producer – When a student has zero experience in a subject it might save
significant time for instructors to teach foundational material such as general rules on pronunciation or word stress in a foreign language.

Knowledge transmission and replication vs Knowledge as discoverable – A piano teaches a student in a didactic manner the names of the keys on a piano and how to read notes written on a sheet music. Another student learns to play the same song without knowing the names of the notes or how to read a music sheet. The second student learns by listening to the song. Both learners would have to practice repeatedly to memorize the song. This is a moment when long-term memory is wanted. There are many subjects that benefit from repeated practice and long-term memory such as skills of a surgeon.

Knowledge as fact vs Knowledge as judgment – If all perceptions of events are valid then this can lead to what ideas deemed as dangerous by a community to have equal say and influence on an individual or society. Can a hate crime exist if a group of people believe it is okay to treat another group as inferior and worthy of scorn? Does everything need to be re-evaluated constantly or can some values be absolutely better than others? If the idea of value is excluded from the definition of knowledge, then what is the point of trying to avoid some history repeating itself?

Individual minds vs Social, dialogical minds – If the learning is 100% social, there is still the need for some individual
assessment to ascertain if a student is actually learning something substantive and not hiding lack of knowledge or
understanding. There are also factors that affect learning such as anxiety and stress. These experiences are felt individually.

Long cycle feedback that is retrospective and judgmental vs Short cycle feedback that is prospective and constructive - The two can co-exist. It does not have to be one or the other. A summative assessment at the end of long term will force students to revisit what they learned during the term which can reinforce the learning.

Alberto Piedra (2018) summarizes some of the criticisms leveled at John Dewey (some of which echoes what I stated before):

Some critics believed and still believe that under Dewey’s educational system students would fail to acquire basic academic skills and knowledge. Others were fearful that classroom order and the teacher’s authority would disappear. They probably constituted a minority at the time, but recent events seem to demonstrate that their concerns cannot be ignored. If society rejects or ignores the existence of an objective moral order and throws into the dustbin of history the concept of natural law, relativism takes its place and becomes the ethical norm of conduct in accordance with man’s own personal experience and/or observations. If to these two factors we add the lack of respect and contempt for authority, we have created the formula for chaos and eventually a totalitarianism of the worst kind. Society cannot survive without order and respect for legitimate authority both at the government level and primarily at the family level where children are expected to be taught the difference between right and wrong.

Another criticism of Dewey I would like to add has to do with the notion that learning should be about the near and probable future. Much focus in education is on what is considered teaching 21st-century skills. Many articles have reduced these skills to:

1. Critical thinking
2. Creativity
3. Collaboration
4. Communication

The reason for the focus on these competencies often given is that these are the skills most needed by students to adapt to a world that's ever-changing technology-wise and is more culturally diverse; therefore, the success of students post-formal education depends on their adaptablity to change, ability to apply what they've learned to new situations;and ability to work with others. Underlying this is the belief thatthe future is not as predictable as it may have been during Dewey's time.

A blog post written on a Montessori school website (Meade, n.d.) discusses and responds to nine criticisms of the Montessori method. The listed criticisms are:

1. Montessori classrooms are chaotic
2. In Montessori classrooms, there is no curriculum to follow.
3. Montessori and unschooling are the same
4. The children in Montessori classrooms don’t get grades or take tests.
5. The Montessori method is only for preschoolers.
6. There are no rules in a Montessori classroom.
7. Children from Montessori programs aren’t ready for real schools and real life.
8. Montessori classrooms are confusing because they have students of different ages.
9. Montessori classrooms are just fun and games

In Tagore’s case some of the criticism is that his school focused too much on the spiritual and aesthetic. He chose as a location for his first school a forest glade. He “envisaged an integrated view of education in which the physical and the intellectual, the social and the moral were not seen as separate from one another, but as interrelated, as parts of a single comprehensive truth” (Jalan, 1976, p. 125).

Reflexive/ergative pedagogy moves from teacher-centered to student-centered learning. With its strong focus on knowledge production, it could be considered a combination of constructivism and authentic learning.

References

C., Thriveni. (2018, February 6). Raindranath Tagore’s philosophy on Indian education. In Bhoomi magazine.
http://bhoomimagazine.org/2018/02/06/rabindranath-tagores-philosophy-on-indian-education/

Encyclopædia Britannica. (n.d.). John Dewey. [Image]. https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-
Dewey/Instrumentalism#/media/1/160445/136338

Encyclopædia Britannica. (n.d.). Rabindranath Tagore. [Image]. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rabindranath-Tagore

Jalan, R.V. (1976). (Ph.D). Tagore: His educational theory and practice and its impact on Indian education.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c798/5762aecb00cd8a249b8d2c33492d9cb88b47.pdf

Jean-Baptiste, K. C. (2019, November 2). Dialogical relationship between instructor and learner. [Image]

Jean-Baptiste, K. C. (2019, November 8). Main interaction between teacher and learner in a didactic relationship. [Image].

Kalantzis, M., & Cope, W. (2018). Multiliteracies: Meaning making and literacy learning in the era of digital text. Paper
presented at University-Wide Teaching and Learning Symposium organized by Center of Teaching, Learning and Technology.
https://ctlt.illinoisstate.edu/downloads/symposium/2018/Kalantzsis-Cope%20Morning.pdf

Kalantzis, M., & Cope, W. (n.d.-a). John Dewey on progressive education. https://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-
2/supporting-material-1/john-dewey-on-progressive-education

Kalantzis, M., & Cope, W. (n.d.-b). Rabindranath Tagore’s School at Shantiniketan. https://newlearningonline.com/newlearning/
chapter-2/supporting-material-1/rabindranath-tagores-school-at-shantiniketan

Kupfer, C. (2016, November). Atmosphere in education: Tagore and the phenomenology of spheres. In Gitanjali & beyond, (1), 59-81. http://dx.doi.org/10.14297/gnb.1.1.59-81

Lillard, A.S., Heise Megan, J., Richey, E.M., Tong, X., Hart Alyssa, & Bray, P. M. (2017). Montessori preschool elevates and
equalizes child outcomes: A longitudinal study. In Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1783. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01783

Maria Montessori: Portrait. (n.d.) [Image]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maria_Montessori_(portrait).jpg
Marshall, C. (2017, October 27). Montessori education: A review of the evidence base. In npj Science Learn (2)11.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-017-0012-7

Mead, S. (n.d.). Montessori criticism debunked: 9 incorrect assumptions about student centered learning.
https://www.whitbyschool.org/passionforlearning/montessori-criticism-debunked-9-incorrect-assumptions-about-studentcentered-learning

North Star Montessori Elementary School. (n.d.) Role of teacher. https://northstarmontessori.ca/montessori-philosophy/role-ofteacher

Piedra, A.M. (2018, February 1). The tragedy of American education: the role of John Dewey.
https://www.iwp.edu/articles/2018/02/01/the-tragedy-of-american-education-the-role-of-john-dewey/

The Montessori Group. (n.d.) Origin of Montessori. http://www.montessorischools.org/montessori-overview/origin-ofmontessori/

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (n.d.). [New learning module by Mary Kalantzis and William Cope].
https://cgscholar.com/community/community_profiles/new-learning/community_updates/37105

Women Employed. (n.d.). Progress, pathways, & possibilities. https://d2kmvo39x6ghl9.cloudfront.net/wpcontent/
uploads/2019/05/ProgressPathwaysAndPossibilities-1.pdf

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