Knowledge and me ....and how that translates to my students

This week the question that intrigued me while doing reading and reflective learning module for my M.A. Professional Practice (Dance Pedagogy) through Middlesex University, was the interpretation of Knowledge. How I viewed my own knowledge. What value I gave my knowledge. And how I shared this knowledge with my students in the past.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Definition of  Knowledge

1a(1) : the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association

(2): acquaintance with or understanding of a science, art, or technique

b(1) : the fact or condition of being aware of something

(2) : the range of one's information or understanding answered to the best of my 

knowledge

c

: 

the circumstance or condition of apprehending truth or fact through reasoning

:

cognition

d

: 

the fact or condition of having information or of being learned a person of unusual 

knowledge

According to Wikipedia

Knowledge is a familiarity, awareness, or understanding of someone or something, such as facts, information, descriptions, or skills, which is acquired through experience or education by perceiving, discovering, or learning. Knowledge can refer to a theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. It can be implicit (as with practical skill or expertise) or explicit (as with the theoretical understanding of a subject) 

When trying to define what I thought my "knowledge" was, I was asked to think about

how we are "taught" to think about knowledge

. This indeed started quite a reflective thought process and discussion in my brain that quite literally interrupted my sleep for a few days.

I grew up in a very authoritarian society. We were taught that the teacher knows best. No-one questioned. It was an era of a very

objectivist approach

to teaching. According to

Anthony William (Tony) Bates

in his book

“

Teaching in a Digital Age

”, October 2019, 2

nd

Edition,  

https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/

,

an objectivist teacher has to be “very much in control of what and how students learn, choosing what is important to learn, the sequence, the learning activities, and how learners are to be assessed.” To a large degree, I feel the traditional ballet classroom has remained an authoritarian and objectivist domain – we tend to teach how we were taught. Bates also discusses how o

ur underlying beliefs and values are usually shared by other experts in a subject domain, and how its these that tend to shape our approach to teaching.

Teaching today however, is now seen as a highly complex occupation with a need for adaptation to different contexts and

allowance for different styles of learners

in different situations.  Teachers may still deliberately choose to use a more objectivist approach with novice students but will need to pull in other methods of imparting knowledge as these student’s progress past basic skills.  Bates discusses how students today have so many more sources of information than we ever had. A new challenge for us teachers of today is also being able to guide and help students in the management of this

vast amounts of knowledge

. Students need to learn how to analyse, sort, organise and apply appropriate information in their own profession and own domain. What tools can we teachers give them so they can eventually take over this responsibility themselves and be motivated to pursue eternal learning in an ever evolving world.

Reflecting

back on my own teaching practice, I ponder, did I dictate too much?  Did I impose too much of my own values or beliefs in what I thought was essential knowledge to share and make important to others? I can remember students liking or not liking a guest teacher based on the criteria to which I had told them makes a good teacher or a good class. Was I  imposing my standards of what good knowledge was?  Was I being too much of an objectivist teacher and not engaging in being open minded for the value of other teaching techniques or modalities?

But perhaps I confuse knowledge and education?

 A wonderful blog by

Manisha Kumar "Difference Between Knowledge and Education." DifferenceBetween.net. May 23, 2011

http://www.differencebetween.net/language/difference-between-knowledge-and-education/

talks about the difference between knowledge and education.

The article lays out knowledge and education as synonyms and

that both are correlated to each other

but  with a subtle difference between them. Knowledge is gained from life experiences and age while education is learned from the books and may never be experienced. 

Education is formal process whereas knowledge is informal experience. Education is a process of gaining knowledge for some useful application whereas knowledge is facts acquired from good education, peers, consultations and extensive reading.

Thinking about this explanation, I try correlate it to my views on ballet training. A ballet syllabus or curriculum sets out what pupils ought to learn. It is experienced. So, there is thus a fundamental connection between knowledge and syllabi/curriculum. But its also formal and codified, so its an education too. If I’m honest, I feel that this is where we as ballet teachers use the objectivist domain to gain foundations, but then we need to make sure we go beyond these boundaries creatively to produce a student who will thrive in today’s professional world. Indeed,

fellow MA candidates brought up the subject of contemporary ballet invading the classical ballet classroom.  Students seem much more

engaged

in this genre than in traditional ballet. How do improve student engagement in a traditional ballet classroom? Can we blend the objectivist approach within our traditional classes so we can teach our students the beauty of solid foundational training that that you then use as a launch pad to explore, from a place of strength,  the un-barriered world of contemporary ballet that is ever-changing and dynamic.

There is still so much for me to explore, challenge and understand in the journey through knowledge and education. But that is perhaps the power of both knowledge and education – if you can be open to being an

eternal learner

your world keeps expanding. We teachers, first and foremost, need to remain passionate about this journey, and that will hopefully inspire our students to have an everlasting desire to explore the learning journey too!