Understanding the 'unsaid'

My reply to ChristinA (check out her blog- Talk-in-interaction')

I think silence is quite natural but we don't understand it very well. we make assumptions about what the silence-'unsaid'- means and we then interpret. for my way of operating, it became perplexing/puzzling as the roundtables were an invitation to unpack pst learning. some chose not to do this verbally. hence the study! so, it has lots to do with what some say is a verbal concept map that needs to be thrwn out and 'caught back'; others are engaged but the conversation moves on, takes a new turn; and others have not found their voice in this forum. maybe this form of reflective practice can alienate some? There is also something about using the silence as wait-time. I noticed when transcribing the roundtable talk that I would fill in the silences with a 'stream of questions'. I now tend to be more comfortable with the silence during wait-time, although last semester, one pst said 'please put us out of our misery'! (There was squirmimg, nervous laoughter, eye contact, heads down...)I used this to deal explicity with the concept of waiting, as I guess I am trying to model practices that might be useful for psts. In one way the psts wanted to 'fix it up'.
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Where have I been?

Where have I been? What, no blog entries for four months? I could say it has just been the regular: teaching, research, writing (articles for conferences; PhD), family, but really it has been more than that

Family- energising, yep!

This semester has been what I could call a living contradiction (thanks Jack Whitehead)- one that has both systematically energised and de-energised my being. Attending, and presenting at, my first American Educational Research Association Conference in Montreal in April (what a hoot, but be aware; plan your week as for a new-comer this could be a lonely time) connected me with a sense of the global and the cogs that help to define the academic world. Caught up with, and was introduced to, some inspirational people who belong to the Self-Study Special Interest Group. I experienced an academic and professional generosity, rigour and scrutiny that has helped me to further conceptualise my research and take my thinking, and learning about the learning, to different places. Yep, energising!

On my return, I managed to settle to the task of PhD writing and (re)shaped the chapter on how authority of experience (see for example, Munby and Russell, 1994) is conceived and constructed by learners. Some aspects of this will be presented next week at the International Study Association of teachers and Teaching (ISATT) in Sydney. Yep, energising!

Last week Prof. Geert Kelchtermans - Belgium- (a keynote at ISATT) visited the University of Ballarat and presented a seminar about micro-politics and the early career teacher; some fascinating research, conceptually framed around personal interpretive frameworks . Connecting the global with the local. Yep, energising!

How then can one be so energised and yet simultaneously feel de-energised? I think I need to look at the space where experience, adrenalin, reflection, teaching and research intersect and sort out a balance. I was always known as someone who time-managed well- could keep all the balls in the air, as they say. Some have landed and gosh, they are difficult to pick up!

So,
I've finished teaching and just collated the marks- over 200 papers/portfolios for the third year "Learning and Teaching Mathematics Unit". Relief.
I've finished the paper/presentation for ISATT
I've sorted out my PhD study plan for the semester (thanks to John and others who continue to be patient listeners)
I've organised my teaching load for next semester so that it is compact; leaves me with blocks of time to write

Time will tell

Stealing the Apple

Multiple perspectives again!
Transcripts/anecdotal notes/journal entries- and reflection on these- not only increase the 'density' of understanding about learning but also provide the privilege of 'revisiting, reframing and rethinking' as ChristinA mentions. Reading ChristinA's transcript about Ivan and peanut butter (in response to the teacher's question, "Where would you find it?", Ivan responds the supermarket)brings me back to the very first roundtable session we conducted almost two years ago. Jess as a preservice teacher shared an experience that connected with her peers- trying to teach 'subtraction' with a group of prep children. Her planning/ preparation had been thorough; she spent the previous week meeting the teacher and students. She had constructed a felt board tree to use as a teaching aid in the development of this concept. She placed apples on the tree and asked "What would happen if I took two apples away?" and one child responded with "That would be stealing". This completely threw Jess and the roundtable was spent unpacking this experience. (Useful here was the ALACT framework, Korthagen, 2001)
Now I (re)wonder about multiple perspectives here! The child, the preservice teacher, the peers at the roundtable...and me.

Multiple perspectives

Developing the 'multiple perspectives task' as a tool to further understand the learning.

Critical reflective practice- which is core to Self-Study- has been the entre into exploring the impact of reflecting on, in and for practice. Taking one moment/incident/event and working with this has provided insights into learning that I have not previously considered and poses more questions for me as teacher educator. This realisation should not surprise me, but in many ways it does. The experience of analysing the data, from another perspective, is challenging.

I need to be more mindful of the how preservice teachers are interpreting and experiencing that which has been asked. What has emerged from the data relating to the Roundtable session where Dee, in her own words, dominated the talk, was:
1. an awareness of a lack of response from the peergroup: "real problem here but unsure if my peers relate or even care about this issue"; and " I feel as if I need more input from others to help me sort this out"
2. a 'self imposed' regulation on input which became obvious in the following roundtable session:" I carried some guilt...around having spoken for a greater length...I was also aware on not overstepping some clear boundaries...set by some of the students in the peer group...I made a decision that the following week I would refrain from commenting more than once in order to lessen some of the potential tensions..."
3. when she asked a question, what was she really wanting? A response? An acknowledgement? As there was minimal inter-peer discussion, this has then created the need to analyse the data and the 'questioning'
So, how did the experience of participating in this roundtable feel? As ChritinA has stated, questions have 'social work' to do- what was the work of her questions?

My ongoing pursuit!

silence

yes- an interesting 'space' has emerged. silence has always been an issue for me but the type of silence and the 'why' has been intriguing. i have written about this in relation to the roundtables (Ch 6) This leads to further analysis of the role of the tr educator, what happens when this vacuum emerges and how this is interpreted by the psts. what factors then, contribute to the dialogue/lack of? The role of the tr ed is then to monitor this carefully- for me this means making the ALACT reflective technique integral; evaluating my role

And the analysis of data discussion. it is difficult to approach 'analysis' from another perspective. subjectivity of qualitative data- making decisions about the how, what and why. In many ways im using the multiple perspectives task/analysis as a means of developing an understanding of approaching/analysing incidents/data, differently.

Reworking the transcript!

What a challenge. multiple perspectives task needs to be reworked- looking at categorizing the transcript rather than having preconceived categories- from the bottom up! Fun