Trimbur and Rose

I'm not sure how much I got out of the readings this week. It has been a really hard week for me with my husband injured, having surgery and trying to recover. My attention has been focused on him, but I did read, Trimbur and Rose. I liked Rose because he seems to worry about the students who don't have great skills. I, like Deanna, picked up on this sentence from Rose on page 563 where he writes, “Thus there will always be a percentage of students who will be tagged substandard.” It's the absolute truth. Even if that student is not struggling, or showing severe signs of a lacking in reading or writing skills, they will still be tagged substandard. Educators may think that by labeling them like this it will in some way help them? Then Rose talks about putting college students in remedial classes. He explains that this causes low self-esteem and other problems. Of course it does! To go through elementary, middle and high school as a "normal" student, and then to be put in a remedial class in college is embarrassing I am sure! At that point in a students education, they are thinking they are like everyone else and then to be singled out, is not going to be conducive to better learning.

Trimbur starts off by letting us know that consensus is a learning tool. That by using consensus in the classroom that a higher degree of learning will be achieved. Apparently, some authors argue that consensus stifles creativity and individuality. They go on to say that consensus in collaborative learning can force conformity and suppress differences within students. I would have to agree to that. I always find that an open discussion forum within the classroom helps me to learn more, than if I am just asked to write a piece on what I have read, etc. "Group thinking" opens the eyes of students to others views and may indeed help them to think beyond their own box and learn more than if they were on their own.