In Search of Instruction Method based on Bruner's Folk Pedagogy*
Instruction is made up of interactions between teachers and students, and between students and students. For active interaction with students in instruction, the teacher's role is impor...
In Search of Instruction Method based on Bruner's Folk Pedagogy*
Instruction is made up of interactions between teachers and students, and between students and students. For active interaction with students in instruction, the teacher's role is important. When knowing how students understand what a teacher teaches and knowing what students think about the class, a teacher can teach with best instruction methods, which students can understand. In instruction and learning environments, it is important for students to understand what a teacher says; for the teacher, it is critical to understand what students are thinking about. Understanding mutual mind between teacher and students is related to intersubjectivity, which is the way human beings get to know others' mind. Human can construct a meaning by himself by internalizing culture through language use. Learners become intersubjective by sharing meanings with others through interaction with teachers and their classmates. The teacher's instruction method should facilitate interaction between teacher and students, and help learners construct their own meaning. Therefore, this thesis explored instruction methods which innovate pre-existing school instruction by overcoming its problem based on Bruner's idea, folk pedagogy. Folk pedagogy is what applies folk psychology in education. Folk psychology is an exploration of the human mind through human's intentional language and behavior. In the perspective of folk psychology, human behavior's tendencies are affected by cultural belief internalized in the human mind. Bruner's folk pedagogy is based on folk psychology, which pays attention to how the mind acts here and now, how children's mind learn, and what develops children's mind. Human belief reflects culture and folk pedagogy is what applies folk psychology, which explores the human mind through those human's intentional language and behavior. In the perspective of folk pedagogy, teacher's instruction method and educational tendency are affected by his thought and belief about learner in mind, and they appear in instruction and learning environments. As teacher's belief and thought about learners reflect culture and they affect instruction method formation, it is necessary for the teacher to have a most useful theory about the learner's mind.
In consequence of analysis of pre-existing instruction's problem, there were top-down communication in instruction and learning environment and students' low participation because of teacher's one-way knowledge teaching by rote. Moreover, there is a tendency for the teacher to focus on instruction method and strategy rather than instruction contents, and communication confined to the textbook's contents and methods appear as problematic. To innovate those pre-existing instruction's method's problem, this paper explored alternative instruction methods and their relatedness to folk pedagogy based on four models about the learner's mind. First model views a learner as an imitator. A learner acquires methodological knowledge through expert's modeling and it makes cultural transfer between generation. However, it is just an imitation, so it cannot be applied to another situation and learners cannot learn function flexibly; therefore, it is more appropriate to traditional society. Second model view children as learning from didactic exposure. The learner's mind is ‘Tabula rasa' and he can acquire new propositional knowledge from mental ability's help in didactic situation. Third model sees children as thinkers. From this perspective, children can think logically and speak rationally through discourse with others. Also, through meta-cognition which think and reflect children's own thought, they can correct their own idea or concepts. This perspective enables learners to facilitate understanding and construct knowledge through discussion and cooperation, and the role of education is to help children understand well. Fourth model views children as knowledgeable learners. Children living the present acquire and interpret knowledge by sharing discourse with people in the past, who are related to knowledge known culturally through the long term. In this way, they can acquire more than that. The teacher should help children grasp the distinction between personal knowledge and what is taken to be known by the culture. Children must not only grasp the distinction, but also understand its basis, as it were, in the history of knowledge. The four perspectives about the learner's mind make teacher's instruction methods and assessment methods differently in accordance with each type. Rather than understanding in the light of their partialness, they should be thought of as parts of a broader continent. It is both important for the children to know their own thinking process and for the teacher to help them become meta-cognitive.
This paper suggested instruction method based on folk pedagogy with narrative. Accordingly, instruction contents should be set as one which can develop learner's ego, imagination, and creativity. Also, the contents should be constructed as narrative structure which can construct meaning through interaction between teachers and students, and between students and students. Moreover, students acquire problem-solving ability based on culture by suggesting them the unexpected situation, which is related to daily life as well. This research constructed narrative-based instructional model based on Egan's story form framework as instruction strategy. For example, elementary school's social studies(history) subject class was planned; in the same way, science subject class is constructed of narrative-based discovery learning model. To improve pre-existing teacher's one-way communication, which is the problem of instruction method, teacher should use divergent questions, reflect which type among four views he or she used when interacting with students, and utilize that reflection to future instruction plan. In social studies subject, this research designed instruction applying cooperative learning model which can draw intersubjective interaction between teachers and students, and between students and students. In this type of instruction, I-R-F interaction between teacher and students can actively happen. Next, this paper suggested that instruction and assessment should be executed in four perspectives. First, in social and cultural context, process-based performance assessment should be increased. Second, in narrative-based instruction, assessment should be developed in a practical context by reflecting the problem situation in daily life. Assessment using narrative enables for the teacher to grasp which verbal interaction students with narrative ability share and how they participate in culture with narrative discourse. Third, mutual feedback-based assessment is one which evaluates interaction among learners who share meaning and become intersubjective. In case of the procedure of verbal interaction during the instruction, both teacher and classmate can evaluate by using the feedback. By providing students with feedback by active interaction, teacher can grasp student's performance in activity and support students' meaning making procedure. Fourth, it can evaluate students' narrative competency. Through student's class diary, teacher can evaluate students' improvement in class per an hour, per a week, per a month, and per a semester.
By analyzing pre-existing instruction methods and exploring instruction direction in the whole context based on Bruner's folk pedagogy's basic views, four models about learner's mind, and narrative thinking, this paper suggested idea about instruction method's innovation in the stage of instruction contents, instructional strategy, and instruction assessment. In the school context, it is necessary to improve instruction and method in a way of meaning making through verbal interaction in culture by proving intersubjectivity, which understands teacher and students' both mind.