Searching as Strategic Exploration

Topic: Effects of Divorce on Children

This lesson plan is designed for first year university students. The Topic or theme they will be working with is: The impact that divorce has on children. 

At the end of the session, students should be able to:

• Identify people or organisations that may produce information about a topic and where information can be found
• Make use of divergent (brainstorm) and convergent (select best source) thinking when searching for information based on their information needs
• Use a variety of search language to yield appropriate results

Activities:

Students will be required to:

1.  Consider at least five people and/or organisations that may be interested in information on what impact divorce has on children and also who might produce information on this topic.
2. Identify possible sources to locate a book, journal article and website that may produce relevant information on the given topic and consider which research tools, databases or search engines they will have to consult or make use of to obtain this information. They will then need to justify why they have selected the tools/platforms they have selected. 
3. Brainstorm various subject headings and keywords that they can use to retrieve relevant information for their topic using the various databases and then write a short essay where they compare and contrast the information retrieved from both searches, also stating which they prefer and why.

Dispositions:

Activity one and two enables students to develop mental flexibility whereby they have to think for themselves before consulting any sources. Activity one further enables students to seek guidance from professionals or experts in the field by considering who might be interested and who might produce the information they seek, whereas activity two enhances students thinking by allowing students to think about which avenues to explore when searching for specific information that may be available in different formats. Activity three helps students realise that searching is not always a straightforward task and it may not always be successful the first time, thus it is important to be able to use different search language when searching for results and to know when and how to refine search terms so that the results are more accurate.

Class Activity

Searching as Exploration

Question 1
Who would be interested in information about the effects of parental incarceration on young children? (5)

• Psychologists - as it would help them understand the children better and also better the services they offer. 
• Parents - if one or both parents have been imprisoned, it will help them identify or understand certain behaviours their child/ren may display
• Educators - it would assist educators better understand and manage children who may have been negatively affected by the imprisonment of their parent/s.
• Social workers - because they deal with children and families, this information will be helpful for them when making decisions about custody and permanent or temporal care.  
• Librarians - if borrowers were to enquire about this, it would help the librarian to have a better understanding of what information and information sources might be helpful for the borrower to use.
• Students/researchers - Students may have been given an assignment or researchers may be researching this area. 
• Journalists - this could be a good story to run for a magazine or newspaper.

Question2

How  and where would the groups that you identified disseminate the information that they produced on the topic? (5) eg. websites, government publications 

Information may be distributed or circulated in a number of different ways depending on who is circulating the information and for what purpose. Thus, information can be disseminated via websites, newsletters, pamphlets, government publications, newspapers and magazines. 

Psychologist might have a website where they can highlight some important factors, especially those that strengthens justification for why children need need professional help.

Social workers may distribute this information in the form of a government/newsletter or organisational/pamphlet that they can hand out when doing outreach or home visits, also availing them at their offices by reception or having them lie in the waiting room while partents/caregivers are waiting to be seen.

Journalists may release information pertaining to the effects of parental incarceration in the form of newspaper or magazine articles whether doing a story on someone who was affected, or reporting on general facts. 

Information Creation as a Proccess

Media Formats

SlideShare

Reference: Mokoena, D. (2015). The soweto uprising. SlideShare.com

Link: https://www.slideshare.net/DineoMokoena/the-soweto-uprising-of-1976-54559121?qid=50146866-ba53-41b9-87d8-810acace0a7c&v=&b=&from_search=2

I have chosen this presentation based on the fact that it briefly summarises certain events of the day students decided to stand up and fight for what they believed in. I also liked the images used in the presentation because it gives us a visual representation of what transpired and what students were subjected to. Also, LinkedIn is a site where users are subject to producing work that is accurate and not in violation of any rights of third parties. 

Newspaper article

Reference: Bokala, W. (1976) 'Anti-Afrikaans pupils go on strike in soweto', The World,18 May

Link: http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/bokala-w-1976-anti-afrikaans-pupils-go-strike-soweto-world18-may

This newspaper article was selected as a favoured sources, due to the fact that it was published in The World, which was originally named The Bantu World, a black daily newspaper based in Johannesburg. This is the city where the uprising first begun and and reports on news from the perspective of those who were victimised by the forced education system and highlights the frustration they felt that led them to such fury-driven acts. 

Video Interview

Reference: Wiley, D. (2006). Interview with Obed Bapela. Overcoming Apartheid - Building Democracy

Link: http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/video.php?id=65-24F-95

This video was selected based on the fact that it gives a first-hand account of how Bantu Education was experienced by one of the people who was subjected to this Act that was passed. With Obed being a product of Bantu Education, he is seen as an authoritative figure based on his personal experience and recollection of that period of his life.

Article (PDF)

Reference: Gool, J. (1966). The crimes of bantu education in south africa. Unity Movement Publication.
Link: http://www.apdusa.org.za/wp-content/books/crimes.of.bantu.education.pdf

This article was selected based on the nature thereof. Apart from giving a detailed description of the Bantu Education Act and how it affected our people, it also highlights the criminal injustice done to all black South African youth whereby they were robbed of equality and also deprived of the rightful education they deserved.

Podcast

Reference: SABC Digital News. (2013). Dr Albetina Luthile speak about the impact of Bantu Education 60 years later. SoundCloud.com

Link: https://soundcloud.com/sabc-digital-news/dr-albetina-luthili-on-bantu

This podcast was selected based on the fact that SABC News is a trusted news station and the speakers being interviewed were both authoritative figures, based on their lived experiences and observations of Bantu Education and how it still affects people today - 60 years later. The one speaker speaks from a pre-Bantu Education perspective, while the other speaks from the perspective of being a product of the then unjust education system. 

Conversions

Article to Blog Post

I have chosen to convert the article by Jane Gool into a blog post. This was not a difficult task. I have changed the name of the post and have reworded the body of the post, so as to avoid issues of plagiarism, and any copyright issues that may arise. 

The blog post can be found at Bantu Education: A Criminal Injustice

Video to Newspaper/Presentation
I have chosen to convert the video interview with Obed Bapela into a newspaper article/presentation (on prezi.com). This task was time consuming as I had to listen to the video and transcribe what was being said by the interviewee. Again, considering issues around plagiarism and copyright, the transcript was used to gain understanding as to what the interview was about, but everything was re-written in my own words.
The presentation can be viewed at Education Matters

Bantu Education: A Criminal Injustice

"Perhaps the greatest crime that can be inflicted on any people is to strike a blow at its youth - the most defenseless" - Jane Gool.

As we well know that the youth can be considered a force to be reckoned with. This was witnessed with the fight against Apartheid, where the youth fought equally hard to see that justice is brought to all. This fight was particularly fueled by the passing of Bantu Education Act which was passed in 1953, under the leadership of Verwoerd and was designed with the intent of depriving our youth from obtaining an equal, quality education (Gool, 1966). The justification of the government being that black people were being misled by the education system into thinking that there were opportunities and a place for them within a European society, which was not the case (Gool, 1966).

Black students were forced to learn some of their subjects in Afrikaans, and what made this worse is that they were being taught by teachers who were not skilled in the language which profusely impacted their learning and caused significant hindrances, particularly with subjects such as mathematics and arithmetic, and history, to name a few (Gool, 1966). Not only was the quality of the education severely inferior, the infrastructure was also of an inferior standard, as these black students were largely taught in tents, halls, stoeps, or otherwise dilapidated buildings (Gool, 1966). Though the hunger for education among these students was so great, there was no opportunity for that hunger to be satisfied, as the government exerted every effort to keep these youth oppressed and deprived of the one thing they desired most - knowledge (Gool, 1966).

After decades of being subjected to this educational injustice, students took to the streets and decided to fight back and stand up for their beliefs - to stand up for their rights. Many students sacrificed their education, and even their lives to ensure that justice was served. It was these brave acts of courage that broke the chains of Apartheid in education and paved the way to freedom for them, and freedom for all.

Reference: Gool, J. (1966). The crimes of bantu education in south africa. Unity Movement Publication.

Link: http://www.apdusa.org.za/wp-content/books/crimes.of.bantu.education.pdf

Information Has Value

The Impact of Bantu Education on Society

"Education is

no doubt, 

something we cannot do without" 

-Anastashia

Education is and always will be an invaluable tool toward building a bigger and better society. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that everyone is afforded the opportunity to be educated and give them a chance in the world. Though education is more accessible now, it is no secret that this was not always, the case, and the quality of  education was not evenly distributed. The Bantu Education Act brought black schools under the control of the government who forced schools to adopt a racially discriminatory curriculum in order to continue receiving funding. Black schools were subjected to poor quality education and training based on the "belief" that they did not require training for work that they would never be allowed to do (Kallaway, 2002)

Reference: Kallaway, Peter, ed. The History of Education under Apartheid, 1948-1994 : the Doors of Learning and Culture shall be Opened. New York: P. Lang, 2002.

Images:

Image on Pixabay

Under the creative commons license (CC0), this image is free to use and modify for all purposes without attributing/acknowledging the original creator or source.

Image by Babak Fakhamzadeh

Under the creative commons license (CC BY-NC 2.0), this image is for non-commercial use only, thus no profits can be made using this image. The image is however, free to be used an adapted in any way. Users may not place any additional restrictions on the re-use of this image. 

Image by GDJ

This image is free to use and modify as it is in the public domain (openclipart) and users who have contributed their images have waved their rights. 

Image by Sam Nzima

Under the creative commons license (CC by 2.0 Generic) this image is free to share and modify for commercial and non-commercial use, provided the creator is appropriately credited and any changes made are indicated. No further limitations may be placed on this image. 

Image by Unknown

This image was shared under the creative commons license and has no restrictions in terms of re-use and modifications. It can be used for commercial and non-commercial use. Attributions are to be made to the Centre for Jewsish History @ NYC. 

Media

Newspaper Article

Phefeni student boycott in Soweto in May 1976

YouTube

Resistance to Bantu Education by Sam Desmarais

This video was published by Sam Dismarais (2017) and is issued under the standard YouTube license. YouTube allows all users to mark their original work with a creative commons license which grants the YouTube community permission to use and modify your videos.

Article

Click on image to read article by Jane Gool

Podcast

Click on Image to listen to podcast

News Website

Open Education Sources

Slideshare.com is a site whereby people freely share powerpoint slides and presentations.
Slideshare presentation on South Africa under the Apartheid Regime.

Authority Is Constructed

Topic: The Impact of Bantu Education on Society

Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this lesson, students must be able to...

• Define different types of authority, eg. subject expertise (scholarship), society position (public office/title), or special experience (participating in historical event)
• Use markers of authority to determine the credibility of sources
• Recognise that authoritative content may be formal or informal and may include audio-visual and non-print sources.

Activities:

1. Based on preliminary examples, students will work in groups of 2-3 and will be asked to locate at least 1 scholarly article, 1 report given by an education specialist (or website) and an interview/documentary with an individual who has been affected by Bantu Education.
2. Using the collected sources, students will be asked to critique and answer a series of questions (based on the CRAAP scale) about author/spokesperson and context of the information sourced. 
3. Students are required to consult social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, etc. to sources information for their research. 

Relation to Knowledge Practices:

1. Students will be taught to identify different different types of authoritative sources of information.
2. Students will learn to evaluate information sources for reliability and credibility.
3. Students will be able to recognise the value of various information sources based on their needs, even though they might not be formal sources, or that sought from academic platforms.

Dispositions:

Activity 1 and 3 will help students maintain an open mind when consulting various sources of information and information platforms. They will also be taught that different types of information can be more or less valuable based on the initial need of the research. 

Research as Inquiry

Introduction: 

A group of first year students were given a research project whereby they have to investigate AOD abuse and risky sexual behaviour and decide whether or not there is a link between the two.

Outcomes:

At the end of the lesson students must be able to...

• Formulate research questions based on gaps in existing research
• Use various research methods to find relevant information
• Draw reasonable conclusions based on the information they have gathered

Activities:

1. Students are given a preliminary list of 5 sources on AOD abuse and risky sexual behaviour to begin their research with. They are then required to critically examine these sources and identify gaps or under-researched areas of investigation. Once that has been done, they will need to formulate at least two research questions as possible areas of investigation for their projects.
2. Students are required to construct and administer 20 surveys to an age group of their choice. They will also be required to interview a minimum of 5 people and transcribe the interviews. Both surveys and interview questions will be around substance abuse and risky sexual behaviour, to access the possibility of a link between the two.
3. Students are then to write an essay whereby they express their opinion on the given research topic.

Relation to Knowledge Practices:

1. Activity 1 helps students to critically examine existing research and identify gaps and weaknesses that exist, which will help them identify areas of investigation for their own research and formulate a research question therefrom. 
2. Students will become familiar with various research methods and the valuable information they each offer. Mind mapping also allows students to organise their thoughts and ideas, and information.
3. Activity 3 helps students to examine information they have and draw their own conclusions and form their own opinions. 

Dispositions:

Through the various activities students students will learn think about research as an open-ended engagement with information. Through activity one, students will be able to thoroughly and critically examine existing information, so as to identify gaps or weaknesses that exist. This will also help them formulate their own ideas as to what areas can be investigated. Activities two will also help students identify their own intellectual limitations and also explore various research methods and become familiar with the limitations or restrictions (ethics and regulations) that may sometimes govern these sources, for example, consent for surveys and special conditions around live interviews. Lastly, activity 1-3 will help students appreciate their own intellectual abilities through being able to critique the work of others and also make their own meaningful contributions to the intellectual world.

Scholarship As Conversation

Introduction

The popularity of alcohol and other drug (AOD) use is constantly on the increase, especially among the youth. Many start off thinking that experimenting with AOD's is something "cool" and that they can stop whenever they want to, not knowing where that road might eventually lead to. Addiction is also one of the most debated topics whereby it is seen in many different lights...

Outcomes

At the end of this lesson:

• Students must be able to critically evaluate contributions made by others in a participatory environment.
• Students must be able to cite the contributing works of others in the production of their own knowledge and information.
• Students will be able to recognise that they are active participants contributing to scholarly conversation, rather than passive recipients of scholarly information.

Activities

1. An addiction therapist from a local rehabilitation centre will speak to students about why addiction is understood as being a brain disease. A neuroscientist will also be asked to speak to students about why addiction is a choice. Each talk will be 30-40min followed by a 10 min question and answer session.
2. Students will be required to write an essay whereby they critically examine the opposing views of addiction. They will then be divided into 2/3 groups whereby they will then present what they have learned about addiction and what their own views are.
3. Students will be required to create a blog whereby they express their views and also report on any new/additional research or information that they have found. They will then be required to comment on each others posts. 

Relation to Knowledge Practices

• Activity one will be a discussion on opposing views of addiction. Through the question and answer session, students will be able to critique and clarify issues and points raised and formulate their own opinion. This will also enable students to engage with the facilitators as well as each other. 
• Activity two will allow students to critically examine existing research while also acknowledging and citing earlier contributions to the topic at hand. Through this activity, students will also be allowed to formulate their own ideas and opinions which they will share among each other.
• Activity three will allow students to recognise and realise that they are active participants in scholarly conversation through these blog posts and comments. 

Dispositions

through the various activities, students will be learning that scholarly conversation can take place in various forms, eg. lectures, blogging, presentations, research, etc. Students will also be able to recognise that scholarly conversation is ongoing, and that learning cannot take place with just one individual but collaborative efforts, whether through feedback on a blog, presentations of findings, rsearch for essays, or expert opinion. These various activities will also help students evaluate the various contributions of their fellow peers, experts, researchers, etc. Lastly, students are empowered, knowing that they are valuable contributors of knowledge and information rather than passive recipients thereof.

Scholarship As Conversation

What is meant by Scholarship as Conversation?

As a student or working professional, it is no secret that research is a crucial part of our academic and professional journeys. It is through research that new ideas are "formulated, debated and weighted" against each other to negotiate meaning. Much like the saying "there's always two sides to a story", concepts and queries generate varying opinions formulated from varying perspectives. Thus, it is essential for experts to seek out and consider these varying responses, raise questions and provide their own opinions, giving everyone a choice and a "voice", before making a final decision...thus scholarly conversation is born!

Information Creation

Like a never-ending story, information literate students recognise that the process of information creation is an ongoing journey rather than a final destination. They are also able to identify and acknowledge contributions made by others, and critically evaluate these contributions by identify barriers and gaps, highlighting and summarising changes in opinions and differences in perspective, and make meaningful contributions for further development.

Do we as students engage in scholarly conversation?

Absolutely! With the amount of research that we have to do for our academic careers, we are faced with information on a daily basis. With new developments occurring all the time, it is important to keep abreast with these changes. This is most commonly found when doing research for proposals or assignments that need to be completed. When researching a topic, you already know that there are different angles you can approach and you have to consider various expert opinions and highlight any contradictions that are noted. We also have an opportunity t make our own voices heard as we are required to draw conclusions and give our own interpretation of people's views and use them to strengthen our own arguments and opinions.

How can this concept be enhanced?

Students can be divided into several groups and given a particular article to read or topic to cover. They will then be questioned on the article and everyone interprets things differently, thus you will get a variety of viewpoints which may be totally different from what you as the instructor/facilitator imagined. This can be done in a classroom setting or tutorial group.

Much like scaffolding speaks about building up knowledge, information creation involves having a "conversation" with all the researchers which includes critically evaluating their contributions to the pool of knowledge, examining existing evidence supporting these theories or opinions, and also identifying differences, gaps and opportunities for new development. Understanding the vital role each voice plays, including our own, could lead to a transformation of how we view information and how we do research!

Crossing the THRESHOLD to New CONCEPTS

Like stepping out of darkness into the light, threshold concepts have been understood as
passing through a gateway toward a new level of learning. These concepts were introduced to the world of teaching and learning by British educationists, Meyer & Land, who considered these challenging "portal gateways" a must for students to cross if they were ever to become field experts and develop a professional identity. They further believed that this learning was not a once-off revelation or transformation, but a journey whereby there is a constant development of understanding and acquiring of knowledge - a series of steps along the way.

"A suspended state of learning"

Threshold concepts are what moves learners from being stuck in what Meyer & Land describes as a liminal space, which is challenging and unsettling, to enlightenment. Understanding where and why learners get stuck can help educators and librarians use their disciplinary expertise to guide, suggest, devise or implement helpful methods which assist learners with transcending the learning threshold.

Examples of Threshold Concepts in Disciplines

Geology: the scale of geological time
Writing/rhetoric studies: audience, purpose, situated practice, genre
Accounting: depreciation
Economics: opportunity costs
Biology: photosynthesis

Features of Threshold Concepts:

Transformative: explains a conceptual or mental shift that is characterised by a new way of thinking whereby the learner begins to think the way the professional does and not just as a student.

Example: Trainee chef learning about temperature control.

Integrative: refers to mastering a threshold concept allows learners to relate or make meaningful connections between different disciplines and their own which is referred to as "T" shaped learning. This helps learners make their own transformations within their own discipline by blending what they learn from other disciplines with what they know about their own.

Irreversible: simply put, once something is understood or learned, it cannot be forgotten or unlearned. 

Example: Adam and Eve. Once they ate the forbidden fruit and gained knowledge of good and evil, they could not simply undo this knowledge. 

Bounded: defines the boundaries of a particular discipline and trim the parameters of a curriculum. Concepts are considered unique to only that one discipline.

Example: Cultural studies would need to understand the barriers between high and low cultures, where as in English, there are no such concepts in English Literature. 

Troublesome: refers to difficulties encountered that cause learners to hit a "roadblock" in their learning.
Example: Learning statistics, students are taught techniques and formulas which they memorise in order to pass, however they fail to grasp the statistical lens which allows this world to make sense, so even if they manage to pass, they still don't understand the basic principles that separate statistics from mathematics.

Learning Theories

We all have our own theories. Theories of life, of love, ethics, etc. etc. But how would you explain what a theory is? In simple terms, a theory is a model used to explain something in order to clarify and assist with understanding, with particular reference to general principles. Though there are many different types of theories, we will be focusing on some of the most common learning theories.

What are learning theories?

learning provides insight into complex processes and factors that influence learning and provide information that will produce results. Understanding this is a key factor in helping one understand how people understand and learn things, so that you would know how to effectively communicate or convey information to others. This is the very heart of information literacy. 

Classical Theories and Renowned Theorists

Also see BF Skinner

Behaviourism

Ivan Pavlov, was a Russian psycholgist most well-known for his famous "dog experiment". In this experiment, Pavlov noticed that dogs were "hard-wired" to salivate whenever they saw food. He then decided to ring a bell (neutral stimulus) every time he gave the dogs food (unconditioned stimulus). This was repeated over a period of time. over the course of  the experiment, Pavlov would only ring the bell without presenting food and the dogs still salivated to the sound of the bell, because it associated the sound of the bell with food. Behaviourism suggests that learning is prompted through consequence which can be positive, negative or punishment.  (Read more...) 

Also see Vygotsky's Theory

Cognitivism

Jean Piaget, was a Swiss clinical psychologist renowned for his work in child development. His theory explained how children are active participants in their learning by constructing a mental model of the world. Piaget argued that intelligence is not a fixed trait, but a process which occurs through biological maturation and interaction with the environment. Piaget described his work as genetic epistemology, which means "the origins of thinking". Epistemology is concerned with the framework or structural properties of intelligence. (Read more...)

Also see John Dewey

Constructivism

Jerome Bruner was an American psychologist who greatly contributed to human cognitive psychology and learning theory in educational psychology. Through the constructivist lens, learners are regarded as active agents who reshape and transform information to create meaning. This theory is considered a blend between behaviourism and cognitivism. Bruner stated that the intelligent mind creates "generic coding systems" that allows one to go beyond data to new predictions, and as children grow, they are able to acquire ways of representing recurring regularities within their environment. Constructivism also suggests coins the term "zone of proximal development" which is the cognitive level at children begin problem-solving. (Read more...)

Social Learning Theory

Albert Bandura was a Canadian psychologist most well-known for his work in social learning theory. He agrees with both branches of behavioural psychology, namely classical and operant conditioning. Bandura's social learning theory states that people cannot learn on their own (socio-cultural) because they learn through observation, imitation and modeling one another. The social learning theory is often perceived as a bridge between behavioural and cognitive theories because it encompasses attention, memory as well as motvation. (Read more...)

Bloom's Hierarchy (Taxonomy)

For audio-visual learners, also check out the following video...