Bizzell (1986)

Date: 2009.10.14 | Category: Study Reflections, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

Reflection (Do not use for the Learning Log)
Unit: SSK12
Week: 7
Date: 14 October 2009

Patricia Bizzell (1986, 294) hypothesises that “basic writers” are the least well prepared for entering tertiary study. She continues by breaking down her reasons for believing this, and it is not just because their writing is not academically suitable, but as Jen pointed out, they may not necessarily think academically (or even be able to think academically).

Bizzell’s reference to “basic writers” is not regarding speakers of other languages, but rather Bizzell is referring to speakers and therefore writers of non-Standard English and dialects distinct from Standard English.

Perhaps, a definition of Standard English will help us understand Bizzell’s initial premise. Standard English is itself a dialect of English just like non-standard English, and the many manifestations thereof, found in the various local and regional English dialects. Formal writing and the Standard dialect of English have a recognised convention for vocabulary, grammar and spelling. There are some excellent explanations regarding the subject of Standard English at the following address: http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/standard.htm. Richard Hudson’s paper in particular provides a very straightforward understanding. His table of Standard and non-Standard sentence structures is very helpful for understanding what Bizzell is referring to. Hudson (2000) uses examples such as “I did it” and “I done it”, or “Come quickly!” and “Come quick!” (Note: In both cases the first example is Standard English).

Local and regional dialects can and do differ from the standard both in their vernacular and their grammatical structure. Dallas mentioned African-Americans in his post. I think this is an excellent example and no doubt pertinent to Bizzell’s thinking. Bizzell is writing from an American perspective. Of course Bizzell’s argument is not exclusive to African-Americans, this would also affect school leavers who communicate in the Southern dialect or elements of the Hispanic community or as stated above, any non-standard English dialect. Why I like the African-American example is because we’ve all been exposed to it in popular culture. We’re exposed to it on television, at the cinema, while listening to Hip-Hop and so on.

Bizzell (294) is very quick to dispel the misconception that non-Standard dialects are incapable of conveying complex thought. Steven Pinker (2008, 29) informs us the dialect of English spoken by a significant number of African-Americans is called Black English Vernacular (BEV). Pinker illustrates the difference between BEV and Standard American English (SAE) when he compares “Don’t nobody know” (BEV) and “Doesn’t anybody know?” (SAE), but Pinker is also quick to point out that non-Standard dialects are as equally complex as the Standard when he explains that in some cases BEV is more precise than Standard English. This is demonstrated by his BEV example, “He be working means that he generally works…[and] He working means only that he is working at the moment that the sentence is uttered. In SAE, He is working fails to make that distinction” (30).

We should bear in mind that Bizzell’s hypothesis is not limited to the college freshers in the United States. Each and every one of us in this tutorial group uses the Australian English dialect, which can be further broken down to regional variations, each with its own vocabulary, I’m sure we’ve all heard “I done it” being used. Many Australians exhibit non-Standard features, such as double negatives, incorrect word tense usage, and colloquialisms like “uni” instead of “university”, which add an element of familiarity that may not be appropriate for academic writing. Furthermore, Koral’s posts’ regarding grammar shows that we are not immune to the pitfalls of “basic writing”.

Bizzell doesn’t just simply stop at basic writing, she moves through a series of conclusions that arrives at basic writers thinking a certain way. That the basic writers’ way of thinking as dictated by their dialectical framework is incompatible with the academic dialectical framework for thinking.

At this point I get a sense that Bizzell is writing from a postmodern worldview perspective. I believe this because her claim that different dialects and discourse conventions equals different thinking suggests a structuralist, or semiotician understanding. That is to say, the basic writers’ understanding of culture and the world is through the construct of language. Bizzell’s (298-301) extensive references to William Perry further suggest this to me, especially as Perry asserts his relativistic view of the world (i.e. no “Absolutes”).

If this is so, then it makes sense as to why Bizzell believes that the basic writer may not be able to think academically. If one’s worldview is constructed upon and understood through one’s dialect and if the basic writer is unable to discern Standard English (the preferred dialect for education), then the academic worldview; the worldview understood through Standard English will be foreign also. Perry’s understanding is to the degree that he believes the basic writers’ worldview and the academic worldview would be in conflict.

Ultimately, Bizzell suggests that the basic writer will be more acutely aware that the requirements of tertiary education are different from any previously held notions due to the bigger immediate hurdle of overcoming the linguistic differences. Those linguistic or dialectical differences represent a greater distance between their home worldview and the academic worldview and consequently, the basic writer may feel that the academic worldview threatens their own, but because of the pre-eminent position Standard English has in academia and the workplace they may have a more accepting recognition for change.

References:
Bizzell, Patricia. 1986. What happens when basic writers come to college? College Composition and Communication. 37(3): 294-301.

Hudson, Richard. 2000. The Language Teacher and descriptive versus prescriptive norms: The educational context. http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/SEhudson.htm
(accessed October 13th, 2009)

Pinker, Steven. 2008. The Language Instinct: The new Science of Language and Mind (Popular Penguins Edition). Camberwell, Victoria: Penguin Group (Australia).

Referencing

Date: 2009.10.12 | Category: Study Reflections, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

Reflection
Unit: SSK12
Week: 7
Date: 12 October 2009

Today I realised that I have been doing my referencing incorrectly. Even my essay that I just submitted has been incorrectly formatted. I have not been doing my referencing in alphabetical order. It’s only a minor error, but nevertheless it is wrong.

I am not going to correct all my referenced posts in this Study Log, but I wanted to make a note of it and in future I will do it correctly.

World View

Date: 2009.10.09 | Category: Reading Reviews, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

Reading Review
Unit: SSK12
Week: 5 (in Week 6)
Date: 09 October 2009

Book title: Communication Between Cultures
Chapter title: World View
Author: Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter
Publication Date: 2004

Thesis:
Samovar and Porter immediately aim to acknowledge the importance of worldviews and to illustrate how worldviews are fundamental to way we perceive the world; how it is “colored, shaped, arranged according to personal cultural perceptions” (2004, 85).

Main points:
1. A definition of worldview
2. The importance of worldviews in shaping our understanding and our perception of the world.
3. A recognition that worldviews are so fundamental to our perception that people cannot see any other way of thinking when they are unaware of the concept of worldview.
4. A series of examples illustrating how understanding the worldview of culture can help to understand the perceptions of the world for that culture why members of that culture think or act the way they do.

Review:
There are entire books dedicated to the concept of worldviews. In one chapter, Samovar and Porter are able to give a compact and concise treatise of the importance worldviews have on our perceptions of the world. They use examples of worldviews generally associated to different cultures in order to demonstrate how they affect the way members of that culture think and behave. Their work is easy to read and follow, with ample support from experts in the field of worldviews and sociology.

Reference:
Samovar, Larry A., and Richard E. Porter. 2004. World View. In Communication Between Cultures. 5th ed. 85-86. Belmont, California: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

Proposition

Date: 2009.10.09 | Category: Glossary, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

Glossary
Unit: SSK12
Week: 6
Date: 09 October 2009

Word: proposition n.
Context: Proposition was used in both The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought and The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy, while defining belief.
Definition: A proposition is “a statement or assertion”; “a statement consisting of subject and predicate [what is said about the subject] that is subject to proof or disproof” (Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2004). The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought (2000) when defining types of proposition says, “propositions may be distinguished in respect (1) of their logical form, e.g. (a) singular, particular or universal, (b) affirmative or negative, (c) categorical…, hypothetical or otherwise complex, (d) existential, attributive or relational; (2) of their kind of TRUTH or VERIFICATION, as a priori or empirical….” and so on. To put that into my own words with the assistance of The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy (2009), a proposition is required in some sentences (due to the grammatical rules of language) where an abstract object is expressed and which bears “truth-values”. Philosophers introduced the word proposition for these purposes. The existence of propositions and their use is debated by some philosophers.
Word in Use: Within the statement, “The west is losing the war on terror”, the word ‘losing’ is a proposition. The word is truth-bearing, but it can be either true or false.

The Australian Oxford Dictionary. 2004. 2nd ed. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Bullock, A., and Trombley, S., eds. 2000. The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought. 3rd ed. London: Harper Collins.

Bunnin, N., and Yu, J., eds. 2009. The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy. West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell.

Life on the screen

Date: 2009.10.08 | Category: Reading Reviews, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

Reading Review
Unit: SSK12
Week: 1-5 (in Week 6)
Date: 08 October 2009

Book title: Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet
Chapter title: Introduction: Identity in the Age of the Internet
Author: Sherry Turkle
Publication Date: 1995

Thesis:
Turkle details how the computer has changed our understanding of the self and how this understanding has shifted from the modern concept of computational calculation to the postmodern concept of simulation.

Main points:
1. The fragmented self illustrated in the MUD (multi-user domains)
2. Lessons learned regarding the fragment self from the great French Postmodernist philosophers.
3. Culture of change embodied in the shift from computational calculation to simulation

Review:
I enjoyed the analogy Turkle creates using the multiple windows of a computer to explain the postmodern understanding of self. The postmodern theory of self is that of a fragmented one. The computer, especially for Turkle in the concept of the MUD (multi-user domains) on the internet, embodies the postmodern theory of the fragmented self through its many windows and multiple live and identities one can have in these separate online windows. This book was written in 1995 and so, I did feel that computer and internet related content sounded dated, but nevertheless the concepts Turkle puts forward are still valid.

Reference:
Turkle, Sherry. 1995. Introduction: Identity in the Age of the Internet. In Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. 9-26. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Analysing an essay question

Date: 2009.10.08 | Category: Learning Skills Exercises, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

Learning Skills Exercise
Unit: SSK12
Week: 4 (in Week 6)
Date: 08 October 2009
Exercise: Exercise 24 – Analysing an essay question

Activity 1: The essay writing process
Your approach to essay questions
I have learnt in the unit so far that the steps I should take when analysing an essay topic is to establish the directive words, call out the key concepts, and define those concepts.
My first step is to writing out the essay topic on a piece of paper. Then I go through the process detailed above. I circle the directive words, underline the key concepts, and shade the required sources. After I have followed those steps, I define the key concepts using a dictionary.

Your approach to essay writing
The pattern that is set out in the exercise to examine and define the question or topic, research it, draw up a plan, write a draft and write a final copy before submitting is exactly how I have been attacking my essays. Unfortunately, sometimes the time between draft and final copy is far too short for my likely. That is poor time management, not a reflection of the strategy set out. It is my personal opinion that this strategy is an effective one, and at this point in time I have no reason to find out if there is a better way.

Activity 2: Selecting a question
Essay 1 topic
Using the concept of a ‘world view’, identify some of the beliefs and attitudes, particularly to education and learning, that you bring to your learning now. Reflect critically on how your world view has been shaped by factors such as your gender, age or community. In your answer refer to Hobson (1996) and Samovar and Porter (2004) from the SSK12 Reader, and Chapter 1 in A Guide to Learning Independently (Marshall and Rowland, 2006, 1-18).

Activity 3: Analysing a question
Content Questions
What is the question about?
The question is about my beliefs and attitudes particularly to education and learning that I bring to my learning now and how my worldview affects and supports those beliefs and attitudes. Secondly, it asks me to reflect on what influences have helped to create my worldview.

What do I already know about the question?
I believe I have a reasonable handle on the concept of worldviews and obviously I know my own views on education and learning. It might be difficult for me to articulate my personal views. Additionally, I have researched the basic definitions of education and learning, as well as more in depth definitions of belief and attitude to establish their differences.

What are the possible main points?
My own context
My own views on education and learning
How my worldview affects my views on education and learning
The importance of worldviews in shaping our understanding of the world
How beliefs and values change our view of education and learning

Argument questions
What might my thesis or theme be?
In my response to this topic I will argue that worldviews are important to how we understand the world and therefore frame how we understand and value education and learning.

Questions on approach
How might I structure my answer to the question?
I am to identify my beliefs and attitudes to education and learning
I am reflect critically on how my worldview has been shaped by my surroundings

What role might my personal opinion play in this assignment?
How will you acknowledge and examine you subjectivity?
The essence of this essay is to detail my own beliefs and attitudes, as well as my own worldview. The role of my personal opinion within this essay is an essential component.

How much breadth or depth can this essay have?
The essay has a 1000 word limit and so it will need to be fairly limited in its breadth and depth. It will be particularly difficult for me to make a credible argument for the importance of worldviews on understanding how they affect our views on education and learning in the space of 1000 words.

Activity 4: Initial analysis of the question
Write out your analysis
Identify your beliefs and attitudes

Activity 5: Revised analysis of the question
For this question I didn’t feel much change was necessary, but I had a lot of preparation outside of this exercise. I can see that if I used this exercise to analyse an essay topic that the analysis might change from start to the finish.

Reflection
I found this exercise very helpful for understanding a essay topic and planning out my response to the topic. Completing an exercise like this is very time consuming and illustrates why preparation and appropriate time management is very important.

Planning your approach to study

Date: 2009.10.07 | Category: Learning Skills Exercises, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

Learning Skills Exercise
Unit: SSK12
Week: 1 (in Week 6)
Date: 07 October 2009
Exercise: Exercise 3 – Planning your approach to study

Activity 1: Previous formal learning experiences
It is difficult for me to think back and remember any skills that I might have developed while I was in school. I spent the nearly the entirety of high school mucking up or simply sitting in class to pass the time. There was no where else to go. I could have done an apprenticeship, but at the time I didn’t want to work. It was easy to stay at school and play the fool. I must have used some skills. What I remember of elementary and secondary school is that the curriculum is taught at you. The teacher teaches you directly; you are lead by hand. Thinking critically about what you are taught is less important than writing what has been written on the board. Well, at least that is how it was in my classes. Maybe that is why I never really enjoyed school. Only partly, I was still lazy and teaching methods probably wouldn’t have changed that. Upon deeper reflection I am still struggling to thinking of any skills that I should have been doing that I was any good at. I used to write notes verbatim and I was too slow to write it from the board, so I used to copy the guy next to me. I wasn’t a strong reader. My essay skills were lacking. I never completed my assignments, I didn’t even hand them in late, I just didn’t do them.

Activity 2: Preview your unit study guide
The expectations of this unit is that by the end I will have identified myself as an independent learner, I will have learnt to situate that independent learner in the university culture and in the process I will have developed fundamental learning skills, like effective reading, essay writing, efficient note taking, how to learning from discussions, etc.

Activity 3: What is expected in your unit

No written entry required.

Activity 4: Skills you need for effective learning
University learning is vastly different from learning in high school. The responsibility to learn is place squarely on the learner. The lecturers and tutors are provided by the university to guide and teach, but not by the hand, not spoon-feed. The learner will truly only get out of it what they put into it and through determined application. Skills that will be important for effective learner will include reading at rates that are appropriate for the application, taking relevant notes in lectures, learning from group discussion, knowing where to research to gain information on a topic, etc.

Activity 5: Planning your study for the next few weeks

No written entry required.

Activity 6: Questions for your tutor
The focus of this unit is me and the other students. Much of the first module is about our respective worldviews and how they affect the way we understand and value education and learning. I am interested to know what my tutor’s worldview is and how she understands the world and the self?

Reflection
It was extremely difficult for me to find anything useful to write about my early schooling. Despite being relatively self-aware I find it quite difficult to write about myself. I can write at length about others, but I hit a road block when it come to writing about my own issues, desires, shortcomings and strengths. I can see that this is going to make things a little more difficult in this unit.

Understanding tutor’s expectations…

Date: 2009.10.07 | Category: Learning Skills Exercises, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

Learning Skills Exercise
Unit: SSK12
Week: 4 (in Week 6)
Date: 07 October 2009
Exercise: Exercise 22 – Understanding tutor’s expectations and your objectives

Activity 1: Expectations of university essays
What you think is expected
I believe my tutor’s expectation of me in this essay is to demonstrate learning I have acquired regarding worldviews in this unit; to demonstrate essay structure, including an introduction, thesis and conclusion; to demonstrate fluent, correctly structured and well-articulated prose; and finally, to demonstrate appropriate referencing.

Differences in expectations
I made no reference in my expectations of a university essay to the relevance to the set topic; use of sources; and reasoned argument. These items are a given for me, because there is no point writing the essay if it’s not relevant to the set topic; doesn’t use the sources instructed and doesn’t adequately articulate its argument.

Activity 2: Your objectives for essay writing
My objectives in doing this essay are first and foremost to develop my essay writing skills. I look forward to the constructive criticism that I expect from my tutor in order to improve my essay writing ability. Secondly, I am excited by the challenge to successfully complete the essay according to the instructions. I must admit I am finding the topic more challenging than I had expected. It is stimulating for me to have to examine myself, and my understanding of the world and how they ultimately affect my beliefs and attitudes toward education and learning.

Reflection
I want to say that this exercise was helpful for me, but I feel that it didn’t add anything new to what I have already learnt about essay writing and expectation of my tutor or myself. Maybe I am being too hard; maybe I didn’t put enough into it and consequently didn’t get enough out of it. It bothered me a little that the exercise referred to Exercise 21, but we don’t do that exercise until later in the course. I would have liked to have done the exercise beforehand, but I am a little pressed for time at the moment and couldn’t fit it in.

Previewing edited books

Date: 2009.10.07 | Category: Learning Skills Exercises, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

Learning Skills Exercise
Unit: SSK12
Week: 1 (in Week 6)
Date: 07 October 2009
Exercise: Exercise 16 – Previewing edited books

Activity 1: Previewing the edited book
The title of the edited book:
A spectator’s guide to worldviews: Ten ways of understanding life
The book is clearly about worldviews. The word spectator suggests that it is an overview of ten different worldviews by which we might understand the world and life.
What might those ten worldviews be? And how does seeing world through their respective lenses change our understanding of life?

The editor:
Simon Smart
The editor is unknown to me from the front cover. He is not someone I have come across before.
From the about the authors section (Smart 2007, 253) we learn that “Simon Smart taught History and English for ten years before moving to Vancouver for theological study. He is a full-time writer for Anglican Youthworks…”

The date:
Published 2007
This is important because it shows how up to date the content should be. It also helps us contextualise its authors to what time and place they are writing from.

Table of contents:
There is a table of contents, which indicates a very structured book, clearly laying out the ten themes (or worldviews) that are detailed by the various authors. Unfortunately all of the authors are unknown to me. It appears that all chapters have been compiled and published together.

Preface, foreword or introduction:
There is an introduction written by the editor. Smart (2007, 5-17) details what a worldview is; briefly covers how they shape our understanding of life; provides a history of worldviews; and explains why he thinks it is important to think about worldviews, which indicates the purpose of the book. Another important feature of the book which contextualises its content is that it is written for a Christian audience and all its authors are Christian.

Section or parts:
There is an introduction to each chapter, while there is no conclusion as such, each chapter is concluded by a small section subtitled “Contact and departure from Christianity”. Each chapter is accompanied by a selection of thought provoking questions.

Conclusion:
There is no conclusion in the strictest sense of the word. The book is wrapped by an introducing narrative and a concluding narrative.

Index:
There is no index for this book.

The readings:
The readings have been put together especially for this publication. They are clearly targeted at a Christian audience. They have been written in a Basic English and an easy to understand style.

Activity 2: An interesting reading
Utilitarianism
I chose this reading as my interesting reading because I know very little about it and so it interests me to find out more.
The essence of utilitarianism is expressed in the idea (Cameron 2007, 86), “I’ll do whatever it takes to make more happiness in the world”.
The utilitarian weighs the consequences of their decisions to determine what is right in that moment. What is right is what will produce happiness for the greatest number of people when all is weighed up.

Activity 3: A familiar reading
The Christian worldview
I have selected this as my familiar reading because I am most intimate with this worldview. I was a Christian from the age of 13 years through to 28 years (it’s hard to say when period ended because it was a gradual process of dissolution and deconstruction). For many of my post high school years I have read many books of this type from a Christian perspective. Even one of my favourite philosophers, James Sire, is a Christian.

Activity 4: A difficult reading
Feminism
Although I grew up in a family with 5 sisters and raised by my mother, who for most of my life was a single parent, and in a world that had already triumphantly overcome many of the birth pangs of the Women’s Liberation Movement, and although my own worldview is greatly influenced by many elements of the feminist movement. I chose this reading as a difficult reading because despite all that is written above I am not a woman and therefore I feel I am unable to wholly identify.
Feminism had two major waves. The first wave, which is considered a retroactive term, was just prior and leading up to WW1, its central campaign was female suffrage. The second wave came in the 1960’s, also known as the women’s liberation movement, the one I am more familiar with, “placed issues around sex, pregnancy and childbirth as crucial to the welfare of women. These issues were seen as important as the fight for equal rights and opportunities in the workforce” (Fisher and Smart 2007, 154-155).

Activity 5: Reflection
I believe previewing books (especially ones required for study) is an extremely beneficial practice. I must admit I haven’t done much of this in the past, mostly I would read the back cover, flick through the pages and maybe reading some of its contents. It is rewarding and insightful to systematically preview the contents of a book. It gives you a far better understanding of the value of the book and it helps you to understand where to look in the book when you need to look something up.

Smart, Simon. ed. 2007. A spectator’s guide to worldviews: Ten ways of understanding life. South Sydney: Blue Bottle Books.

Cameron, Andrew. 2007. Whatever it takes: Utilitarianism. In A spectator’s guide to worldviews: Ten ways of understanding life. ed. Simon Smart, 86. South Sydney: Blue Bottle Books.

Fisher, Mary and Michele Smart. 2007. Sleeping with the enemy: Feminism. In A spectator’s guide to worldviews: Ten ways of understanding life. ed. Simon Smart, 154-155. South Sydney: Blue Bottle Books.

Belief

Date: 2009.10.06 | Category: Glossary, Unit SSK12 | Response: 0

Glossary
Unit: SSK12
Week: 1-5 (in Week 6)
Date: 06 October 2009

Word: belief n.
Context: Essay preparation: “Using the concept of a ‘world view’, identify some of the beliefs and attitudes….”
Definition: The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought (2000) begins its definition of belief as the “acknowledgement that a proposition is true… in the absence of demonstrable proof as required by scientific method. Belief is often religious, as in belief in God, miracles or other supernatural phenomena”. It continues by saying that “belief can be a stage in the genesis of a particular piece of knowledge, where belief has waited for a methodology of adequate sophistication to valorize it as knowledge (i.e. many hypotheses can be classified as beliefs prior to proof)”. The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy (2009) expands on the above statement by explaining that “[m]any discussions in the theory of knowledge take belief rather than knowledge as their starting-point. It is generally thought that belief is inherently relational and thus needs an object…. The object of belief has been variously understood to be an actual or possible sensory state, a state of affairs, or a proposition”.
Word in Use: It is the belief of the Christian that Jesus Christ is the Jewish messiah. It is the belief of the Orthodox Jew that he is not.

Bullock, A. and S. Trombley. eds. 2000. The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought. 3rd ed. London: Harper Collins.

Bunnin, N. and J. Yu. eds. 2009. The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy. West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell.