Professor Ken Moss gave a lecture on education yesterday, October 6, to a group of faculty, administrators, staff, and students. Professor Moss discussed both theory and method as he sees and employs them. This brief overview includes some choice quotes that we hope illustrates the main concepts and ideas he presented.

He began with an overview of some buzzwords in academia and public education like “rubrics,” “learner outcomes,” “standardized testing,” and “assessments.” He noted that many of these ideas focus on the “wrong end of learning.” He also suggested that “Learner outcomes tend to be short term goals sterilized by the abstractions of academics.”

Professor Moss described how some of these ideas came about–researchers like B.F. Skinner, et al., and their work with lab rats.

He mentioned that “Student learning will proceed without us, our contribution simply must come at the opening of investigation”–that part of the instructor’s task is to treat the individual as someone who will continue o learn long after leaving the classroom proper, that it is equally important to foster curiosity, the love of learning, knowledge for its own sake.

In regards to grading and its relationship to learning, he said: “In a way, we have already done what we can before we put a single mark on a single page.”

Instead, he suggested that education is personal and individual: “[it is] an invitation to engage, to sing along, to investigate, to consider, and to pursue what lays claim to personal interest and enthusiasm.”

Instead, Professor Moss favors a more organic method of teaching, including “exploration beyond school grounds.” He spoke of the school he helped found, the Maslow-Toffler School (after Abraham and Alvin, respectively), where the curriculum included “unstructured time,” a way for students to pursue learning in the way they chose.

He advocated a less-structured model for high school and college, as the extremely high workload is (to his mind) potentially counterproductive.

“Exploration is essential . . . each discipline (perhaps as Plato himself conceived it) is really a pattern to make sense of the world . . . History, Geology, Architecture . . . each seeks to describe what is.” But in order to understand the high level abstractions . . . one simply must be in the field”

“The focus of our work must relate to the world as it is now. . . . what John Dewey called ‘experiential learning.’”

“We simply must begin with respect for the individuals, and their need to find their own way.”

“Exploration, investigation, turnings and re-turnings.”

He spoke of the need to wait to “assess” until the students have time to process and internalize concepts: “I am intrigued by the idea that perhaps students should not write a paper, until they have something to say.”

Much of the lecture concerned itself with the question of “How to promote learning in all its diversity using an aggressive and respectful approach which grounds itself in the experience of world and a growing personal awareness.”

Professor Moss’s method for teaching includes the “well-planned lesson,” and he noted that in other countries, teachers have hours of scheduled prep time factored into their work day.

His lessons are structured around a “focused prompt, a leitmotif, sometimes presented in an intriguing way, instilled with dynamism, avoiding getting lost in data points.”

“Tie the idea of the day to what the individual is already familiar with, making it more accessible. Then extend the concept beyond the classroom.”

Professor Moss’s first lesson of Great Books Western is titled: “Where Do We Begin.” The lesson begins by raising the question “Where does Western Civilization begin?” and continues with a discussion of Mesopotamia. This structure includes a Workbook / Journal–submitted, not graded, and includes responses to discussion and “extended activities in the world.” For this particular lesson, students try to trace their own lineage as far back to Mesopotamia as they can–to this end, students can do map readings, have family consultations, and research their names. The concept of ancestry is highlighted.

Another lesson concerns the rise of agriculture, and the associated lesson involves students going down to the New Paltz Community Gardens, the “oldest community garden in New York State.” Through these exercises, Professor Moss hopes to make these abstract concepts real.

Overall, the presentation was well-received, with a short but informative question and answer session after the lecture. We are very lucky to have an instructor like Professor Moss among us!

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