Pages

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Eduspeak

   Deep understanding, rich understanding, unpack a concept, what that looks like in your school, resonates, dispositions, teaching as inquiry, digging deeper, scaffolding, synthesis, best practice



It all becomes clear to me now.

These are some of the words I hear a lot, and probably use a lot more than I want to. They are the eduspeak of the day. What educators say when they talk about teaching and learning. The trouble is that our audiences are not always educators. So I had this thought that maybe I should try to find some other terminology to explain these eduspeak words what someone might think they are and then perhaps what I think they are. Open the doors a little and let others comment on what they might be.
So here goes



Deep understanding      - you know more than the average Joe? - really means having extensive knowledge about the detail
Rich understanding - costs a lot? - really means you have deep understanding and you know how it fits into the big picture of the world
Unpack a concept - take it out of the suitcase? - really means take a look at the detail of how ideas are put together into a whole package
What that looks like in your school - where is the visual evidence? - really means if you say it happens in your school, what will I see happening in the school to reflect that it is happening?
Resonates - echos a lot? - really means it makes a lot of sense to me
Dispositions - natures? really means attitudes to certain things
Teaching as Inquiry - no-one knows what they heck they are doing? - really means you should always ask yourself why you are doing things a certain way and check the data to see if it really works and if it doesn't then change it
Digging deeper - being nosy? - really means you are looking for that deep understanding (see above)
Scaffolding - supporting something that is weak?  - really means making a safe environment for students to build their knowledge
Synthesis - making something up? - really means a bringing together of elements of a whole thing that is useful
Best practice - the rehearsal that was awesome? - really means a strategy that is proven to have the best outcomes for students
So that is the list I have come up with this morning.  There are more!  Please, feel free to send me more words, add your own. 
 I really would like to have a deeper, richer understanding of this unpacked concept, so I can see what it looks like in your school, how it resonates with me and changes my disposition to teaching as inquiry, because when we dig deeper and scaffold learning we are able to present a synthesis of best practice available for all educators.






1 comment:

  1. Well done on this beginning of a list of eduspeak. I like that term. I've always said "teacher speak" but eduspeak is better.

    "Pedagogy" is the term for me that drives me crazy and I believe is misunderstood even by educators and is sometimes used instead of "best practice". I would love to see what you would write for this.

    Your last paragraph is great! Well done on getting all your eduspeak in there.

    ReplyDelete