2019. 5. 15.

Professional Literature 2 - Google Docs

As I was going through different journals to find a teaching strategy that could be

integrated into my unit teaching, this particular article stood out. “The Fallacies of Open:

Participatory Design, Infrastructure and the Pursuit of Radical Possibility” was written by

Stephanie West-Puckett, Anna Smith, Christina Cantrill, and Mia Zamora (2018). The authors

targets this article to all the educators without a specific grade level. Their purpose was to tell all

the educators to learn about ‘open learning’. Open learning is to have multiple learning pathways

and the focus is placed on the needs of the learner as recognized by the learners. The authors

states, “open learning has been associated with additional qualities and values for openness:

accessibility, asynchronous engagement, participation, self-determined engagement, and freedom

of pace” (Wes-Puckett, Smith, Cantrill, & Zamora, 2018, p.205).

Wes-Puckett, Smith, Cantrill and Zamora’s article emphasizes greatly about how teaching

needs to be connected and relatable for learners. It is not just the content that the teachers teach

them, but also the learning comes from the activities or even socializing with their peers. The

peer-based community can build and help out the students to make critical decision and connect

to their lives (Wes-Puckett, Smith, Cantrill, & Zamora, 2018). As I was reading through the

article, I thought that this would be a perfect fit for my teaching unit. I am doing a unit on

informational writing or nonfiction. It would be a great chance to build a relationship between

students and learn from one and another. The article mentions how not only the teachers can be

ones to teach, but the students can also learn from their peers. Therefore, the students pairing up

to read each other’s work and giving feedback would a perfect setting for the students to learn

from their peers. Also, the authors wrote that the content that the students are learning should be

connectable. This means the lesson should not only make sense logically but also to be able to

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2019. 5. 15. Professional Literature 2 - Google Docs

apply and connect students’ real-world situation. The authors want the teachers to be able to let

the students see how the contents tie into their own lives in and out of school. I would try to tie

this into my teaching by having lots of student-based collaborations and group discussions, so

the students are able to learn from each other. In addition, as I am teaching, I will bring in as

many real-world examples such as what to do when there is an fire, learning about money system

or traffic rules, so the students have somewhere to tie the contents with their own lives. Overall,

this article has helped me to broaden my view of teaching and pedagogy which I am excited to

apply and integrate into my teaching unit in the future.

Source:

West-Puckett, S., Smith, A., Cantrill, C., & Zamora, M. (2018). The fallacies of open:

Participatory design, infrastructuring, and the pursuit of radical possibility. Contemporary

Issues in Technology & Teacher Education, 18(2). Retrieved from

https://www.citejournal.org/volume-18/issue-2-18/english-language-arts/the-fallacies-of-

open-participatory-design-infrastructuring-and-the-pursuit-of-radical-possibility

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