Gamification is a concept that challenges the methods (and i would argue the direction) we teach students in the American Education System. Gamification refers to a restructuring of the classroom learning system and makes students both more accountable for their own learning, and gives them motivators that would assist them in meeting those educational expectations that we have for them. Everyone (I Truly Hope) wants their children to succeed at school and move on towards a happy, fulfilling future, and in some ways the way we teach students is not helping them meet that goal.
When we look at how we teach students, we look at a lot of positives and a couple of severe stumbling blocks. Students are not ready for college (and by college i mean any post high school education program, be it military, vocational training, or a traditional college) and i think that the methods we use to educate are just as much a problem as what we are teaching them.
One of the main problems with education that i see is the rampant over utilization of standardized testing. School districts have federal grants tied to the outcome of their student's performance on standardized testing. This causes an astonishing amount of pressure on the school to perform. This means you have administrators pushing teachers, who in turn push students to perform better on these tests. In some cases, you have teachers who are teaching to the expectations of the test, rather than the curriculum.
This means that the student's needs for learning the approved curricular standards (whether they are common core, or what have you) are not being met because the system has prioritized performance in student scores over student learning. This means that the students aren't being prepared for the situations that are awaiting them once they've escaped the American education system.
Gamification addresses this in a couple of key ways. The focus on Gamification is a change in the focus of how student learning is monitored, and the progress that we expect them to make. Gamification boils down to applying game logic to real world situations and using that metric style to track how and what our students learn. By crafting the lessons in a gamified method, you can better prepare students to develop the skills and necessities for a successful life?
Now that's a big complicated series of words that doesn't necessarily help you understand what we're talking about, so let me break it down a little more concisely for you. Gamification focuses on a student proving to you (the educator, the parent, the whoever else may be responsible) that they are capable of performing the tasks you expect them to do. Just like collecting a trick in a game of bridge, or completing a quest in a video game, you (as the learner) have to demonstrate that you have the necessary capabilities to perform that task.
Once a student has shown a specific mastery in a concept, they can move into more complex concepts in the same topic. Each completed topic increases your depth of knowledge in that area and prepares you to dig deeper into it. You can't start to do mathematics if you don't understand numbers, for example. But once you have that basic grasp of numbers, you can start to learn arithmetic, which lays the foundations for geometry and algebra. You can't move into a topic you aren't prepared for because you are never given the option until you can demonstrate a mastery of the basic concepts.
Gamification looks at education as a means of producing artifacts and work samples that demonstrate that you, the learner, are capable of showing us, the rest of the world, that you are ready to produce work and have the capabilities needed to be successful. If we don't prepare you for the future, how can we expect you to succeed?
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Monday, October 26, 2015
Games & Learning (yeah, i'm going to totally explain this in a single blog post)
People (yes, i actually know people) often ask me why do you think games belong in classrooms?
To answer that question, we have to look at how we operationally define "learning" (an operational definition is the most specific definition of the thing we're talking about as it relates to what we're specifically doing). Learning has an awful lot of different meanings and definitions to a lot of people, but this is the definition that i have found to be the most useful for describing the cognitive task of learning.
Learning is the process by which an organism acquires or modifies existing knowledge, behaviors and preferences over time. When I say someone has learned something, i mean that they have acquired enough process knowledge to demonstrate a skill they've seen other people perform (like a kid tying his shoes, or an athlete hitting that perfect jump shot). It also describes the situation where a person has learned new knowledge about a specific topic and can explain it (like a young child with the letters of the alphabet, or that one kid who finally figures out how to iambic pentameter works).
This means that the learner has acquired basic capability with the skill or knowledge. A young child learning about the alphabet is not going to be able to immediately recite the works of Shakespeare, nor would a child who's learning the basics of a musical performance be able to replicate virtuoso performance of Bethoven's 5th. These are people who have just started their journey of skill development and are very new to the process.
Skills require instruction to develop in the beginning, and practice to grow over time. Our definition of learning supports this idea, in that learning represents the modification of existing knowledge over time. A child learns the individual letters to start, and then they learn to form them into small words, and then larger words as they gain more practice and more experience. Learning as a process takes a lot of time and energy. This is why kids are tired after school (this is a simplified explanation, as there are a lot of factors that go into a child being tired, but brain activity can burn a lot of energy, and until that energy is replaced, that tiny brain is operating at a deficit).
So what in the blue heaven does that have to do with games?
Well, we're going to pop through Jargonland for about three terms We'll need to cover Motivation, and the terms Intrinsic and Extrinsic.
Motivation is the reason that something does something else. Is that monkey hungry? That may be why he's trying to figure out how to open that cage to get to the bananas that someone has left sitting in plain sight. Alternatively, understanding how extraordinarily upset your significant other is may explain why your clothes are on fire on the lawn.
Motivators come in two basic kinds, stemming from where they occur. Intrinsic motivators are internal to the organism being motivated. Hunger, curiosity, or a desire to learn are all intrinsic motivators, they come from inside the organism. Extrinsic motivators are external, like money, social rewards, or sex. Understanding the motivators that can drive other people to do specific things can be very useful in getting them moving on the Learning process.
So, what works best for Learning? Well, the easy answer is both, and the more complex answer is also both.
Short answer, Pairing extrinsic motivators with intrinsic motivators is the best method of stimulating students to engage the learning experience to get the most out of it.
Longer answer. A student can struggle with a subject, especially something that they don't like, or that they have problems with. Their internal motivation to learn is depressed by their internal factors relating to that topic. This can pair up with external motivations from social pressure and other factors ("You got an F on your last test? YOU'RE GROUNDED") that can seriously impact their learning process.
Worse, these factors can snowball. An unmotivated learner can take longer to pick up a concept, which slows their learning speed even further. As they slip further behind their peers, these factors start to compound each other, and then it becomes a full blown learning crisis.
However, there's more to this than disaster snowballing and compound crises. Extrinsic factors can help to motivate a student who is struggling with their intrinsic motivation. A kind word, a gold star, a sticker, or a preferred activity with friends can all help a student push through that negative internal motivation to help them along the learning process. Games (especially if you can find some very on topic games) can help you motivate your students that struggle.
Games change the environment that the student experiences (yeah, that sounds like crazy talk). Taking a student out of the situation where he (or she) is staring at a worksheet, trying to figure out the answers to some simple addition problems in a limited amount of time, and putting them in a situation where they are rolling dice to see how far they get to move around a board while taking turns changes the environment for that task completely.
Are they still doing simple addition? yes
Are they still learning? yes
Are they engaging in a process that could help them manage their anxiety and social pressures while learning the task at hand? yes
Games can help a student manage the negative motivational factors and replace them with positive ones. They are still learning, (though in this case they are learning to replace motivators with more appropriate ones) and Games can help them with the learning process by presenting the information and experience in a different format.
The other way that i look at Learning is this definition
Learning is the acquisition of experiences over time that shape knowledge and behavior.
So as an educator, having many different ways to present information and experience is better than trying to rely on a single method.
To answer that question, we have to look at how we operationally define "learning" (an operational definition is the most specific definition of the thing we're talking about as it relates to what we're specifically doing). Learning has an awful lot of different meanings and definitions to a lot of people, but this is the definition that i have found to be the most useful for describing the cognitive task of learning.
Learning is the process by which an organism acquires or modifies existing knowledge, behaviors and preferences over time. When I say someone has learned something, i mean that they have acquired enough process knowledge to demonstrate a skill they've seen other people perform (like a kid tying his shoes, or an athlete hitting that perfect jump shot). It also describes the situation where a person has learned new knowledge about a specific topic and can explain it (like a young child with the letters of the alphabet, or that one kid who finally figures out how to iambic pentameter works).
This means that the learner has acquired basic capability with the skill or knowledge. A young child learning about the alphabet is not going to be able to immediately recite the works of Shakespeare, nor would a child who's learning the basics of a musical performance be able to replicate virtuoso performance of Bethoven's 5th. These are people who have just started their journey of skill development and are very new to the process.
Skills require instruction to develop in the beginning, and practice to grow over time. Our definition of learning supports this idea, in that learning represents the modification of existing knowledge over time. A child learns the individual letters to start, and then they learn to form them into small words, and then larger words as they gain more practice and more experience. Learning as a process takes a lot of time and energy. This is why kids are tired after school (this is a simplified explanation, as there are a lot of factors that go into a child being tired, but brain activity can burn a lot of energy, and until that energy is replaced, that tiny brain is operating at a deficit).
So what in the blue heaven does that have to do with games?
Well, we're going to pop through Jargonland for about three terms We'll need to cover Motivation, and the terms Intrinsic and Extrinsic.
Motivation is the reason that something does something else. Is that monkey hungry? That may be why he's trying to figure out how to open that cage to get to the bananas that someone has left sitting in plain sight. Alternatively, understanding how extraordinarily upset your significant other is may explain why your clothes are on fire on the lawn.
Motivators come in two basic kinds, stemming from where they occur. Intrinsic motivators are internal to the organism being motivated. Hunger, curiosity, or a desire to learn are all intrinsic motivators, they come from inside the organism. Extrinsic motivators are external, like money, social rewards, or sex. Understanding the motivators that can drive other people to do specific things can be very useful in getting them moving on the Learning process.
So, what works best for Learning? Well, the easy answer is both, and the more complex answer is also both.
Short answer, Pairing extrinsic motivators with intrinsic motivators is the best method of stimulating students to engage the learning experience to get the most out of it.
Longer answer. A student can struggle with a subject, especially something that they don't like, or that they have problems with. Their internal motivation to learn is depressed by their internal factors relating to that topic. This can pair up with external motivations from social pressure and other factors ("You got an F on your last test? YOU'RE GROUNDED") that can seriously impact their learning process.
Worse, these factors can snowball. An unmotivated learner can take longer to pick up a concept, which slows their learning speed even further. As they slip further behind their peers, these factors start to compound each other, and then it becomes a full blown learning crisis.
However, there's more to this than disaster snowballing and compound crises. Extrinsic factors can help to motivate a student who is struggling with their intrinsic motivation. A kind word, a gold star, a sticker, or a preferred activity with friends can all help a student push through that negative internal motivation to help them along the learning process. Games (especially if you can find some very on topic games) can help you motivate your students that struggle.
Games change the environment that the student experiences (yeah, that sounds like crazy talk). Taking a student out of the situation where he (or she) is staring at a worksheet, trying to figure out the answers to some simple addition problems in a limited amount of time, and putting them in a situation where they are rolling dice to see how far they get to move around a board while taking turns changes the environment for that task completely.
Are they still doing simple addition? yes
Are they still learning? yes
Are they engaging in a process that could help them manage their anxiety and social pressures while learning the task at hand? yes
Games can help a student manage the negative motivational factors and replace them with positive ones. They are still learning, (though in this case they are learning to replace motivators with more appropriate ones) and Games can help them with the learning process by presenting the information and experience in a different format.
The other way that i look at Learning is this definition
Learning is the acquisition of experiences over time that shape knowledge and behavior.
So as an educator, having many different ways to present information and experience is better than trying to rely on a single method.
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Psychology (Yeah, this isn't going to be as fun as Comic books and video games)
Ah, yes, Psychology, that thing that almost all of us had to sit through as undergraduate students, and some of us decided might have some neat possibilities for a potential future/career. First, i have a B.S. degree in Psychology, as well a M.S. in School Psychology. So you can say i've spent more than my fair share of time in a classroom listening to a droning lecture about Freud, some other stuff i didn't care about, and Pavlov's wicked cool dogs.
That being said, when people find out that i have a pair of degrees in psychology, the reactions are either mixed, or critical.
"Oh, you're one of those people."
"Hey, i keep thinking things about other things, what do you think that means?"
"Should i hurt myself?"
Yeah, this seems like a Tuesday.
In a response to the above questions, in order.
"Yep, one of those people"
"I think you should sit down and think about why you're thinking about that thing now when it hasn't been so much of a thing until recently."
"No, you should not hurt yourself, you need to find some much more competent help than me at your earliest convenience."
What is Psychology? Nope, not going into some deep, introspective thoughts about the ideal of psychology, or what psychology should be. I tend to think that's a more personal question that you, as a potential, future or past student of psychology to decide for yourself. I try to stay away from the opinions side of things, and let the facts (the ones that there are) speak for themselves.
Psychology is the study of the mind. The philosophy of things at the school i attended tracked psychology along three axes. Affect, which is your apparent emotional state and the psychological cues you'll share with the world around you. Behavior, which is the observable actions you take and the consequences that follow them. Finally, Cognition, which is the way you think about things, and the things you think about. Together, these collective concepts were referred to as the ABC's of Psychology.
Affect is an interesting area of study because it encompasses your emotions and the way they are presented in response to Stimuli, (Oh, a word for the Jargon board). A healthy Affect means that a person is happy when they encounter something that makes them happy, or sad when they encounter something that is supposed to make them sad. People experiencing things that make them sad or angry should have appropriate emotional responses. That's healthy, and it often means that the Affect part of things is working the way its supposed to. People who react either in the extreme, or who don't react at all, (called a flat Affect) could be experiencing some sort of psychological stress or trauma. People who react inappropriately (Crying at parties, or laughing at funerals) also likely have some sort of psychological issue.
Behavior is another neat psychological concept that drives the study of psychology (you could make the case that it IS the driving force of psychology). Behavior is often described as how an organism reacts to the environment around it. This concept is easier to study in other forms of life than Affect, because i can see how a mouse is going to physically navigate a maze, where i can't tell what his emotional state is while he's doing it. Any task that can be observed and measured is a form of Behavior, whether it's rats navigating mazes, pigeons pecking at buttons for food, or how often freshmen college students attend class.
Cognition is the least understood portion of this trio, because it is the one with the lowest profile. You can usually perceive when a person is happy or upset (assuming you have a normal level of emotional awareness), and you can observe a person navigating through their environment, (again, assuming a normal level of perceptive ability). Cognition is often an entirely mental process that has no observable "moving parts" to understand how they work. Thinking and Learning are two of the core cognitive processes, but recognizing familiar and unfamiliar objects, identifying the direction sounds are coming from and figuring out the word that comes after the next one are all cognitive tasks.
Coming back around to the core question, what is Psychology?
I look at Psychology as the study of the brain, and how it affects our interactions with our environment. The brain, in most cases, serves as the core of our decision making, information processing, and information storage. Understanding how our brain works (and doesn't work) enables us to be better prepared for dealing with the day to day tasks of our lives.
As usual, any questions or comments are totally fun,
That being said, when people find out that i have a pair of degrees in psychology, the reactions are either mixed, or critical.
"Oh, you're one of those people."
"Hey, i keep thinking things about other things, what do you think that means?"
"Should i hurt myself?"
Yeah, this seems like a Tuesday.
In a response to the above questions, in order.
"Yep, one of those people"
"I think you should sit down and think about why you're thinking about that thing now when it hasn't been so much of a thing until recently."
"No, you should not hurt yourself, you need to find some much more competent help than me at your earliest convenience."
What is Psychology? Nope, not going into some deep, introspective thoughts about the ideal of psychology, or what psychology should be. I tend to think that's a more personal question that you, as a potential, future or past student of psychology to decide for yourself. I try to stay away from the opinions side of things, and let the facts (the ones that there are) speak for themselves.
Psychology is the study of the mind. The philosophy of things at the school i attended tracked psychology along three axes. Affect, which is your apparent emotional state and the psychological cues you'll share with the world around you. Behavior, which is the observable actions you take and the consequences that follow them. Finally, Cognition, which is the way you think about things, and the things you think about. Together, these collective concepts were referred to as the ABC's of Psychology.
Affect is an interesting area of study because it encompasses your emotions and the way they are presented in response to Stimuli, (Oh, a word for the Jargon board). A healthy Affect means that a person is happy when they encounter something that makes them happy, or sad when they encounter something that is supposed to make them sad. People experiencing things that make them sad or angry should have appropriate emotional responses. That's healthy, and it often means that the Affect part of things is working the way its supposed to. People who react either in the extreme, or who don't react at all, (called a flat Affect) could be experiencing some sort of psychological stress or trauma. People who react inappropriately (Crying at parties, or laughing at funerals) also likely have some sort of psychological issue.
Behavior is another neat psychological concept that drives the study of psychology (you could make the case that it IS the driving force of psychology). Behavior is often described as how an organism reacts to the environment around it. This concept is easier to study in other forms of life than Affect, because i can see how a mouse is going to physically navigate a maze, where i can't tell what his emotional state is while he's doing it. Any task that can be observed and measured is a form of Behavior, whether it's rats navigating mazes, pigeons pecking at buttons for food, or how often freshmen college students attend class.
Cognition is the least understood portion of this trio, because it is the one with the lowest profile. You can usually perceive when a person is happy or upset (assuming you have a normal level of emotional awareness), and you can observe a person navigating through their environment, (again, assuming a normal level of perceptive ability). Cognition is often an entirely mental process that has no observable "moving parts" to understand how they work. Thinking and Learning are two of the core cognitive processes, but recognizing familiar and unfamiliar objects, identifying the direction sounds are coming from and figuring out the word that comes after the next one are all cognitive tasks.
Coming back around to the core question, what is Psychology?
I look at Psychology as the study of the brain, and how it affects our interactions with our environment. The brain, in most cases, serves as the core of our decision making, information processing, and information storage. Understanding how our brain works (and doesn't work) enables us to be better prepared for dealing with the day to day tasks of our lives.
As usual, any questions or comments are totally fun,
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Statistics (Yeah, this stuff looks like a complicated topic)
All right friends, no doubt some of you are wondering why someone would be writing up a blog post about statistics on a Saturday morning, ( I blame the current state of Saturday Morning Cartoons) but here we are. Statistics is a big scary word and it has a lot of jargon that goes with it (statistics and jargon at the same time?) but I'll try and break this off into a bite size snippet so that you can ease your toes into it.
First I need to define some basic terms so that the rest of this makes sense, and hopefully i choose the right words to explain the concepts.
First up
Data Point: A discrete, individual numeric value taken for the purpose of analysis or reporting. This can be a score on a test, a person's height, their shoe size, or one of many other factors that can be categorized independently with a numeric value.
Data Set: This is the term i tend to use when i start a statistical analysis. The data set is the grouping of all data points you are using as the basis of your analysis. Often referred to as a sample, it is usually a smaller grouping out of a larger population.
Sample: a Small grouping of discrete data points taken from a larger population group for the purpose of analysis. Because the populations we look at are so large, it is unfeasible to take data on the entire population as a whole, so we take small grouping out of it.
Population: The total number of potential data points that are available to study.
So, to wrap this up,
The Population for a given study could be the student body at William Johns Junior Elementary school in Anytown USA. Anytown has had a healthy growth, and currently has 1,200 students listed in its files. Dr. Meanswell, the Principal, would like to know how the attendance is shaping up for the semester, so he decides to gather information on 60 of his students. Those 60 students are the sample he's taken, (hopefully they're a well selected sample, which we will get to on another boring saturday). He pulls their absences for the month of September. Individually, these absences are data points, but when taken together as a whole, they represent the data set he would use for analysis.
Now for some number concepts that help explain the math behind how this works
Mean: In statistics, (and in most other math settings) this is the number you come to if you add up all of the numbers in a given group and then divide by the number of numbers in the group. Now i realize that was me using the word numbers too many times, so let's try a visual.
I have the number 9,3,7,10, and 12.
First thing i want to do is put them in order
So i have 3,7,9,10, and 12 in order
Adding them together i come to the number 41.
In order to calculate the mean, i need to divide 41 by the amount of distinct numbers, in this case 5
so 41/5 = 8.2
thus, 8.2 is your mean
You'll often hear the words mean, median and mode tossed around in the same grouping, and they are similar, but for most statistical work, mean is the critical number to find.
Median: The exact middle point in any data set. In the example above, the median is 9, as it exactly the same distance from either end of the number line. In a case where you have an even number of entries in your data set, average the two values in the middle to find the median.
Mode: This one is fairly simple, the mode is the most frequently occurring number in the data set. In the example above, there isn't one, because the numbers occur at the same frequency.
Once you have calculated the mean, you can work out another pair of related concepts, variance, and standard deviation.
Variance: The difference of the data point and the mean, squared. You need to square the numbers or the negative values start to cancel the positive ones, and then nothing makes any sense.
Standard Deviation: The standard deviation is a measurement tool that tells you how far apart the numbers in any given set are spread out.
So using our dear friend the example above
3 - 8.2 = -5.2 Squared = 27.04
7 - 8.2 = -1.2 Squared = 1.44
9 - 8.2 = .8 Squared = .64
10 - 8.2 = 1.8 Squared = 3.24
12 - 8.2 = 3.8 Squared = 14.44
Variance calculated, now for some mathemagic
27.04 + 1.44 +.64 +3.24 + 14.44
---------------------------------------
5
Simplified 46.8
-------
5
Variance is 9.36
Standard Deviation is fairly easy to calculate, as it is the square root of the variance, so
Standard Deviation is √9.36
Standard deviation= 3.06
So now we have our Mean, Median, Mode, Variance, and Standard Deviation. Those are numbers though, and numbers can be hard to explain. Next time we'll look at graphical representations of statistics, and take a look at the Bell Curve and the Normal Distribution
First I need to define some basic terms so that the rest of this makes sense, and hopefully i choose the right words to explain the concepts.
First up
Data Point: A discrete, individual numeric value taken for the purpose of analysis or reporting. This can be a score on a test, a person's height, their shoe size, or one of many other factors that can be categorized independently with a numeric value.
Data Set: This is the term i tend to use when i start a statistical analysis. The data set is the grouping of all data points you are using as the basis of your analysis. Often referred to as a sample, it is usually a smaller grouping out of a larger population.
Sample: a Small grouping of discrete data points taken from a larger population group for the purpose of analysis. Because the populations we look at are so large, it is unfeasible to take data on the entire population as a whole, so we take small grouping out of it.
Population: The total number of potential data points that are available to study.
So, to wrap this up,
The Population for a given study could be the student body at William Johns Junior Elementary school in Anytown USA. Anytown has had a healthy growth, and currently has 1,200 students listed in its files. Dr. Meanswell, the Principal, would like to know how the attendance is shaping up for the semester, so he decides to gather information on 60 of his students. Those 60 students are the sample he's taken, (hopefully they're a well selected sample, which we will get to on another boring saturday). He pulls their absences for the month of September. Individually, these absences are data points, but when taken together as a whole, they represent the data set he would use for analysis.
Now for some number concepts that help explain the math behind how this works
Mean: In statistics, (and in most other math settings) this is the number you come to if you add up all of the numbers in a given group and then divide by the number of numbers in the group. Now i realize that was me using the word numbers too many times, so let's try a visual.
I have the number 9,3,7,10, and 12.
First thing i want to do is put them in order
So i have 3,7,9,10, and 12 in order
Adding them together i come to the number 41.
In order to calculate the mean, i need to divide 41 by the amount of distinct numbers, in this case 5
so 41/5 = 8.2
thus, 8.2 is your mean
You'll often hear the words mean, median and mode tossed around in the same grouping, and they are similar, but for most statistical work, mean is the critical number to find.
Median: The exact middle point in any data set. In the example above, the median is 9, as it exactly the same distance from either end of the number line. In a case where you have an even number of entries in your data set, average the two values in the middle to find the median.
Mode: This one is fairly simple, the mode is the most frequently occurring number in the data set. In the example above, there isn't one, because the numbers occur at the same frequency.
Once you have calculated the mean, you can work out another pair of related concepts, variance, and standard deviation.
Variance: The difference of the data point and the mean, squared. You need to square the numbers or the negative values start to cancel the positive ones, and then nothing makes any sense.
Standard Deviation: The standard deviation is a measurement tool that tells you how far apart the numbers in any given set are spread out.
So using our dear friend the example above
3 - 8.2 = -5.2 Squared = 27.04
7 - 8.2 = -1.2 Squared = 1.44
9 - 8.2 = .8 Squared = .64
10 - 8.2 = 1.8 Squared = 3.24
12 - 8.2 = 3.8 Squared = 14.44
Variance calculated, now for some mathemagic
27.04 + 1.44 +.64 +3.24 + 14.44
---------------------------------------
5
Simplified 46.8
-------
5
Variance is 9.36
Standard Deviation is fairly easy to calculate, as it is the square root of the variance, so
Standard Deviation is √9.36
Standard deviation= 3.06
So now we have our Mean, Median, Mode, Variance, and Standard Deviation. Those are numbers though, and numbers can be hard to explain. Next time we'll look at graphical representations of statistics, and take a look at the Bell Curve and the Normal Distribution
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Jargon, The deadliest of the noble gasses
This is my first attempt at adding my voice to a discussion about education (special or otherwise) in America. Education is a system that has very specific operational guidelines and goals, and understanding the terminology behind the system can clarify what specifically is going on with your child, your student, your niece or nephew. The technical term for that terminology is Jargon.(See what i did there?)
Jargon, according to our good friends at Merriam Webster, has a couple of definitions which are appropriate to this discussion.
Definition 1
Section a: confused unintelligible language
Section b: a strange, outlandish, or barbarous language or dialect
Section c: a hybrid language or dialect simplified in vocabulary and grammar and used for communication between peoples of different speech
Definition 2: the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group
Definition 3: obscure and often pretentious language marked by circumlocutions and long words
Education has its own jargon, Special Education has its own jargon, Speech Pathology has its own jargon, Occupational and Physical Therapy have their own jargon (often similar, but with differences), even School Psychology has its own jargon, (which has similarities to the jargon used by other psychologists, but with its own quirks). Within each individual discipline in the school, the communication is affected by the jargon of the participants, and a person who is unfamiliar with that particular dialect of Educationese is often at a disadvantage when trying to get information from someone who is. In this capacity, Jargon is confusing and can lead to misunderstandings and miscommunications between staff members and parents.
Starting with definition two, it is important to understand that education has its own language which educators will use to communicate with each other. This serves several purposes for the educators in question, but it is often used as a shorthand communication system to convey lots of information in a short amount of time. The education system has a lot of moving parts, and keeping them in motion at the same time requires the ability to swiftly convey information about students, meetings, goals, and a wealth of other extremely important information (note, that what is considered extremely important will vary from moment to moment,and staff member to staff member).
Jargon enters another area of concern when we consider Definition 3. We all know people who use the most complex (and in some cases technically precise) language to convey information and meaning. Are they technically correct? Of course, but if it takes an extra fifteen minutes to explain the answer, what has that level of technical precision added to to conversation? In an educational setting, this usage of jargon (intentional or otherwise) can be seen as condescending, and often leads to irritations and upset feelings. From my own experiences, a school psychologist who uses his big technical words often gets to spend time attempting to fix communication difficulties that came up because those big technical words are second nature to him, while being uncommon parts of the language for other people.
So how do we get through the communication perils that Jargon offers?
I have found that having at least three different ways to explain a concept with at least one analogy and one anecdote often give me the tools to step back from the technical speak of jargon and relate to other people.
A graph or a chart CAN be helpful, but you have to make sure that the graphic you're using doesn't require more explanation than your original verbal response.
You can also educate your co-workers about your jargon, this is best attempted when you make the attempt to master their jargon. Often, you're talking about the same idea or concept, but you've been taught to call it different things. This can be a happy conversation point, rather than a crisis point.
Keeping an open mind can't hurt any communication problem. Realizing that you're both working towards the same goal (which should always be improving the educational situation of the student you're working with) gives you a common ground, and a shared destination that you are attempting to reach. Operating with this idea in mind, listen to the other person, they may have an idea or an insight you hadn't considered.
Those are my first few thoughts on how to deal with Jargon in an educational environment, look forward to more updates on other big scary words and ideas (and hopefully some fun stuff involving games)
Jargon, according to our good friends at Merriam Webster, has a couple of definitions which are appropriate to this discussion.
Definition 1
Section a: confused unintelligible language
Section b: a strange, outlandish, or barbarous language or dialect
Section c: a hybrid language or dialect simplified in vocabulary and grammar and used for communication between peoples of different speech
Definition 2: the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group
Definition 3: obscure and often pretentious language marked by circumlocutions and long words
Education has its own jargon, Special Education has its own jargon, Speech Pathology has its own jargon, Occupational and Physical Therapy have their own jargon (often similar, but with differences), even School Psychology has its own jargon, (which has similarities to the jargon used by other psychologists, but with its own quirks). Within each individual discipline in the school, the communication is affected by the jargon of the participants, and a person who is unfamiliar with that particular dialect of Educationese is often at a disadvantage when trying to get information from someone who is. In this capacity, Jargon is confusing and can lead to misunderstandings and miscommunications between staff members and parents.
Starting with definition two, it is important to understand that education has its own language which educators will use to communicate with each other. This serves several purposes for the educators in question, but it is often used as a shorthand communication system to convey lots of information in a short amount of time. The education system has a lot of moving parts, and keeping them in motion at the same time requires the ability to swiftly convey information about students, meetings, goals, and a wealth of other extremely important information (note, that what is considered extremely important will vary from moment to moment,and staff member to staff member).
Jargon enters another area of concern when we consider Definition 3. We all know people who use the most complex (and in some cases technically precise) language to convey information and meaning. Are they technically correct? Of course, but if it takes an extra fifteen minutes to explain the answer, what has that level of technical precision added to to conversation? In an educational setting, this usage of jargon (intentional or otherwise) can be seen as condescending, and often leads to irritations and upset feelings. From my own experiences, a school psychologist who uses his big technical words often gets to spend time attempting to fix communication difficulties that came up because those big technical words are second nature to him, while being uncommon parts of the language for other people.
So how do we get through the communication perils that Jargon offers?
I have found that having at least three different ways to explain a concept with at least one analogy and one anecdote often give me the tools to step back from the technical speak of jargon and relate to other people.
A graph or a chart CAN be helpful, but you have to make sure that the graphic you're using doesn't require more explanation than your original verbal response.
You can also educate your co-workers about your jargon, this is best attempted when you make the attempt to master their jargon. Often, you're talking about the same idea or concept, but you've been taught to call it different things. This can be a happy conversation point, rather than a crisis point.
Keeping an open mind can't hurt any communication problem. Realizing that you're both working towards the same goal (which should always be improving the educational situation of the student you're working with) gives you a common ground, and a shared destination that you are attempting to reach. Operating with this idea in mind, listen to the other person, they may have an idea or an insight you hadn't considered.
Those are my first few thoughts on how to deal with Jargon in an educational environment, look forward to more updates on other big scary words and ideas (and hopefully some fun stuff involving games)
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