Life Philosophies Really Do Matter
I just figured out one piece of the puzzle for why I was such a bad fit for my previous job. In essence, my employer and I had different philosophies toward how to manage the project and group meetings. It's amazing, but I realized this after reading an excerpt out of a book on different approaches to reading instruction:
"In whole language lessons, students would direct the emphasis of the lesson from the beginning, with the teacher's role to be to 'lead from behind.'" Stal, S. (1997). Instructional Models in Reading. (pg. 13)
I thought back on one of the meetings that I led, in which I had prepared an extensive paper on the research on cloze assessments. I structured the presentation to start with a theoretical question of validity and then progress from simple to complex research findings that culminated in an overall conclusion that cloze could be used to isolate reading comprehension processes.
To me, the meeting finally followed some structure with enough information for us to come to a reasonable conclusion instead of arguing in circles forever. But then my supervisor dropped by right after the meeting and told me that he thought I should have led the meeting differently. According to him, I should have identified the key points and placed them on one sheet with reference to the supporting information on another page. Then I should have asked the group members what key point they wanted to discuss first, and let them direct our progression through the presentation.
I was absolutely appalled. I told him that if we did it that way the members wouldn't bother to look at the supporting information, and we would probably never get to all of the information and key points. Instead, they would focus on a couple of points and start making arguments based on their intuitions rather on the information. I realize that he wanted me to "let the students lead," because he follows the life philosophy of Whole Language. Apparently, Whole Language is a philosophy, not a methodology. I am a Phonics person, and I think I should be leading and directing the group members into an understanding that they don't have.
Clearly, we were not compatible, and life philosophies really do matter, otherwise I still might be working there.
"In whole language lessons, students would direct the emphasis of the lesson from the beginning, with the teacher's role to be to 'lead from behind.'" Stal, S. (1997). Instructional Models in Reading. (pg. 13)
I thought back on one of the meetings that I led, in which I had prepared an extensive paper on the research on cloze assessments. I structured the presentation to start with a theoretical question of validity and then progress from simple to complex research findings that culminated in an overall conclusion that cloze could be used to isolate reading comprehension processes.
To me, the meeting finally followed some structure with enough information for us to come to a reasonable conclusion instead of arguing in circles forever. But then my supervisor dropped by right after the meeting and told me that he thought I should have led the meeting differently. According to him, I should have identified the key points and placed them on one sheet with reference to the supporting information on another page. Then I should have asked the group members what key point they wanted to discuss first, and let them direct our progression through the presentation.
I was absolutely appalled. I told him that if we did it that way the members wouldn't bother to look at the supporting information, and we would probably never get to all of the information and key points. Instead, they would focus on a couple of points and start making arguments based on their intuitions rather on the information. I realize that he wanted me to "let the students lead," because he follows the life philosophy of Whole Language. Apparently, Whole Language is a philosophy, not a methodology. I am a Phonics person, and I think I should be leading and directing the group members into an understanding that they don't have.
Clearly, we were not compatible, and life philosophies really do matter, otherwise I still might be working there.
posted by kiki @ 3:31 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
sometimes things weren't meant to be. We all have life philosophies for a reason
Thanks, at least I learned a lot from being in that job.
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