A brief reaction to Paul Cobb and Kara Jackson’s talks : some things I have learned

1. Rennes, Dewey Lectures, P. Cobb & K. Jackson, November 2009 A brief reaction to Paul Cobb and Kara Jackson’s talks : some things I have learned

2. 1. A new kind of research • There’s a kind of revolution for us in these talks. • The research question is not how to elaborate wonderful teaching designs, but how to share some (more) relevant ways of teaching and learning between a great amount of teachers, in specific institutional settings • For some researchers, it is not a very serious research question • For some researchers, it is not even research • In our opinion it is a new way of thinking about research, a deweyan way • It’s not an application of fundamental research, its is fundamental research in itself, fundamental research about the process of dissemination, seen as a sort of instruction (design research) • This fundamental research could have huge social consequences • The question of the researcher’s stance (Facts and Values, Putnam, 2002) and researcher’s participation

3. 2. Policy, politics, identity, agency • A very important conception of politics and policy • “Policy requires learning on the part of those who implement it”, “policy is a sort of instruction” • The agency/ identity issue • Democracy is an endeavor in which personal identity is build while reframing institutional identity, in an emancipation process • Democracy rests on a specific relationship between obligations to others and obligations to oneself

4. 3. Accountability • The word accountability is a tricky word • If it means a special responsibility for the learning of people we live with, it’s a wonderful world • If it means that you are at risk when you are doing your job, for example that you have to fear to teach, it is a terrifying concept. • A Wikipedia definition • "A is accountable to B when A is obliged to inform B about A’s (past or future) actions and decisions, to justify them, and to suffer punishment in the case of eventual misconduct“ • A report about women’s rights in South Africa • « The report sets out a gender-responsive definition for accountability: the capacity of women to get information and explanations of government actions, initiate investigations or be compensated where necessary, and to see officials sanctioned where women's needs are ignored or women's rights not protected. Poor women in particular are affected by weak accountability, and if they are to gain a voice in corporate and civic governance in spite of unequal gender relations, the report recommends that the number of women in decision-making posts be increased and, equally importantly, institutions be transformed to be more responsive to women's needs » http://allafrica.com/stories/200907150009.html

5. 4. Accountability • Accountability • 1)to who ? • 2)on what basis, on what criteria, elaborated on what consensus ? • 3)to what ends ? • 4)in what kind of political system (see statistics example), “deweyan”, or “ancien regime” ? • 5)what is an appropriate account ? • 6) what about the concept of punishment ? • Incentive, rewards, punishments • “Long on pressure and short on support” • About accountability • The general question of a very hierarchical system, with a risk of one side accountability • A need for reciprocal accountability • Who authorize the persons who give recommendations? • The wonderful example of teachers who do not recognize principals’authority (Talk 3)

6. 5. More knowledgeable others • The very strong idea of more knowledgeable others • The democracy : a political system where decisions are build with the help/authority of the more knowledgeable ones who are able to share their knowledge • Knowledge has to be recognized as knowledge • Authority has to be grounded on knowledge • The major hiatus • Discourse of high-stakes accountability /discourse of instructional reform

7. 6. Teacher’s action, adjustment, and knowledge • The teacher’s action : • routine activity vs complex and demanding activity • procedural system vs mutual adjustment in joint action • Form vs function • Less knowledgeable others vs more knowledgeable others • A critical point for the teacher : to be able to anticipate how to respond to students’ contributions (a priori analysis) • “Dewey emphasized the importance of discipline-specific enquiry” • Inquiry without subject matter is not inquiry

8. 7. Reframing the research question • Reframing the research question • How to share some (more) relevant ways of teaching and learning a given content between a great amount of teachers, in specific institutional settings • Into • How to share some (more) relevant ways of teaching and learning a given content between a great amount of people : principals, mathematics coaches, district leaders, in the public (Dewey) • The importance of bottom-up, clinical methodology

9. 8. Some questions • “ District leaders betting that test scores will increase as the quality of mathematics instruction improve” • How to cope with this situation ? • The question of tests. Is it possible to figure out tests which allow to express and recognize deep mathematical ideas ? • The fundamental notion of brokers • The interest of teams principal (generic) / mathematics coaches (specific) / (district math specialist). What about studying meetings of such teams through different districts? • The question of ongoing learning events : what about lesson studies? What about studying lesson studies involving principals ? • The tools (e.g content maps) • Is it possible to think about the mutual building of tools as shared resources ?(e.g the curriculum framework) • A last question : how NCTM discourse consider the case of “insufficient” teaching practices