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stefhyena's review
5.0
This book was excellent, so I will start with what I didn't like about it. There is a scientific part of my brain that does not like the scientific method and facts being dismissed so readily (for all that I do realise facts ought to be critiqued and problematised). However if we take the art-based ways of knowing in this book and team them with what Marilyn Fleer said in another book I read recently, we would have a pretty holistic approach.
I personally, often don't like the sort of precious and cutesy tone of documentation in books like this and some workplaces and reggio books. I often think the conclusions enthusiastically jumped to are fanciful rather than evidence based and we risk coming across as irrational and over-emotive which does the profession no good. At the same time, behind the very effusive language is often hard work and sound thinking (I know because I have been part of producing these sorts of documents). I do think history will make fun of us for the preciousness though and I feel frustrated in how we construct our own gender as educators when we write in this way.
So reading this book had that uncomfortable and resentful confrontation of one of the things I don;t enjoy about my profession. Nevertheless the book was very sensibly set out with instructions for how to introduce a range of techniques and media- it was both flexible enough for a skilled teacher to do it her own way and specific enough for a beginning teacher to know exactly what to do. The latter part of the book changed and became more an example of how inquiries can look. Pelo is correct to do that, since there is no way you can give a blueprint of an inquiry before the event.
I have used some of the ideas in this book, and rereading a couple of years after doing that, with more teaching experience I feel I could repeat them better (of course it would help if I had been allowed to work with 4-6 children as the book advises, not 14 including some very reluctant ones or ones with additional needs...in that sense the book may be advice for a better setting than some of us find ourselves in, but the ideas are sound).
There is a systematic flow from materials, setting up, teaching/experiencing the activity, cleaning up and documenting. There is a respect for the child within how the flow is set out and an understanding of the need to be both an individual person, and a contributor to a community. There is the movement from individual work to collaboration which I am interested in doing better. What is not addressed is how to ensure that the same exciting or easy to work with children don;t always get to be centred in every inquiry, but how to ensure all children are given an opportunity to be centred. I think Pelo probably in practice does think about this to some degree (not Beck in the final chapter) but I would like to see that more clearly and have it discussed as in practice I think most people don't think about it enough or do it at all well...and studies tell us that white, wealthy, males tend to get the most amount of positive teacher time even when the teacher means to be inclusive. Also it seemed to me that some of the groups in the book were chosen to be only girls or only boys partly with some unspoken stereotypical assumptions.
All of this was stuff that I wish I could sit down with the author over a pint and discuss, and maybe learn from her if she has done more work on it than is shown in the book, or otherwise challenge her to address it better. In any case this is a thought provoking book and has a lot to offer. I will be recommending it to people I work with (and I think they will enjoy it)
I personally, often don't like the sort of precious and cutesy tone of documentation in books like this and some workplaces and reggio books. I often think the conclusions enthusiastically jumped to are fanciful rather than evidence based and we risk coming across as irrational and over-emotive which does the profession no good. At the same time, behind the very effusive language is often hard work and sound thinking (I know because I have been part of producing these sorts of documents). I do think history will make fun of us for the preciousness though and I feel frustrated in how we construct our own gender as educators when we write in this way.
So reading this book had that uncomfortable and resentful confrontation of one of the things I don;t enjoy about my profession. Nevertheless the book was very sensibly set out with instructions for how to introduce a range of techniques and media- it was both flexible enough for a skilled teacher to do it her own way and specific enough for a beginning teacher to know exactly what to do. The latter part of the book changed and became more an example of how inquiries can look. Pelo is correct to do that, since there is no way you can give a blueprint of an inquiry before the event.
I have used some of the ideas in this book, and rereading a couple of years after doing that, with more teaching experience I feel I could repeat them better (of course it would help if I had been allowed to work with 4-6 children as the book advises, not 14 including some very reluctant ones or ones with additional needs...in that sense the book may be advice for a better setting than some of us find ourselves in, but the ideas are sound).
There is a systematic flow from materials, setting up, teaching/experiencing the activity, cleaning up and documenting. There is a respect for the child within how the flow is set out and an understanding of the need to be both an individual person, and a contributor to a community. There is the movement from individual work to collaboration which I am interested in doing better. What is not addressed is how to ensure that the same exciting or easy to work with children don;t always get to be centred in every inquiry, but how to ensure all children are given an opportunity to be centred. I think Pelo probably in practice does think about this to some degree (not Beck in the final chapter) but I would like to see that more clearly and have it discussed as in practice I think most people don't think about it enough or do it at all well...and studies tell us that white, wealthy, males tend to get the most amount of positive teacher time even when the teacher means to be inclusive. Also it seemed to me that some of the groups in the book were chosen to be only girls or only boys partly with some unspoken stereotypical assumptions.
All of this was stuff that I wish I could sit down with the author over a pint and discuss, and maybe learn from her if she has done more work on it than is shown in the book, or otherwise challenge her to address it better. In any case this is a thought provoking book and has a lot to offer. I will be recommending it to people I work with (and I think they will enjoy it)
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