Making sense of The Sense-Making proved to be a stretch in understanding in itself. Up until this article, I would describe the process of making sense as learning. How can we best help someone to learn? How do we know that they have learned this? These questions sent me back into my classroom for concrete examples.
How can I tell if student A learned how to write a function from a pattern? What was the process that the student went through to understand? How did they make sense of writing a rule from a pattern? How can I tell if student B learned how to cook dried beans? How did the student see the process of cooking dried beans? What helped them bridge the gap between not knowing and knowing? Seems simple enough. Dervin presents the idea of sense-making as how people "gap-bridge" between situations and uses of the desired information. Looking deeper at the above examples, what questions did the student a ask to project patterns once the pattern was identified? How did student B internalize the process of cooking beans? Was it seen a just a set of instructions? Or did student B visualize the beans taking in liquid, selling and softening during the cooking process? To personalize this information, a quote from Dervin stating, "...the individual use of information and information systems is responsive to situational conditions as defined by that individual". Dervin continues with "...focusing on how the actor in moment defined by that moment and attempted to bridge that moment when conceptualized in gap terms". These two passages help me make sense of what is meant by a gap and how "gap-bridging" is a way for people to make sense of not only information needed, but how is that information useful and specifically how does that information fit into the construct of the individual and the individual's situation. What Dervin goes on to write is that, "the methodological approach that is called sense-making is an approach to studying the constructing that humans do to make sense of their experiences". I see this on an individual level, however Dervin brings in studies where in order to make sense of how others make sense, peoples responses must be lumped into categories to analyze trends and similarities between each individuals experiences. With this, I am sure each additional read of the article will lead to a deeper and more personal understanding of the content and how this article ties into the larger structure of our graduate program, education and society.
3 Comments
Madeleine O'Rear
2/12/2018 06:18:01 pm
Christina, reading your blog reminded me of some thoughts I had when reading the article regarding the process of gap-bridging. All of the examples in the article were focused on adults, all of whom knew what they needed to do in order bridge their gap, but were missing the resources they needed. Students and children often don't know how or what they need in order to help themselves learn something. Knowing how to learn comes with life experience, which is how you knew you would learn more from reading this another time. But how do you help students bridge their gaps, without restricting their options for solving their own problem?
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Madeleine O'Rear
2/12/2018 06:19:52 pm
Sorry for calling you Christina!!! Your links are next to each other, sorry!
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Emily Feil
2/12/2018 10:10:31 pm
I think your examples are spot on. I don't always think about the students' experience as they are learning. When I teach discreet concepts or skills, I tend to focus on the end state. For example, can students find the missing addend? I don't spend as much time thinking about what the process of learning is like for them. (This is the opposite of my approach to teaching reading, where I spend lots of time making sure the process is as painless as possible for the students.) This is an area I will pay more attention to.
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AuthorHello, I'm Joe. Welcome to writings about my thought process throughout the journey of Touro's Innovative Learning Graduate Program. Archives
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