Productive Pedagogies

Intellectual quality
Introduction
Higher-order thinking
Deep knowledge
Deep understanding
Substantive conversation
Knowledge as problematic
Metalanguage

Knowledge as problematic

Are students critically examining texts, ideas and knowledge?

Explanation

Presenting knowledge as problematic involves an understanding of knowledge not as a fixed body of information, but rather as being constructed, and hence subject to political, social and cultural influences and implications. Multiple contrasting and potentially conflicting forms of knowledge are represented.

Presenting knowledge as given is representing the subject content as immutable fact: as a body of truth to be acquired by students. The transmission of the information may vary, but is based on the concept of knowledge as being static and able to be handled as property, perhaps in the form of tables, charts, handouts, texts and comprehension activities.

Example

1. As an introductory lesson to a topic about the environment, a Year 8 Social Science teacher drew a long horizontal line across the blackboard and wrote 'very concerned' at one end and 'not concerned' at the other end. She asked each student to place a mark on the line representing their degree of concern about the environment.
   
   This required each student to make a 'low-key' public statement about their position and then to justify it in writing under the heading 'Why I chose my position'. The teacher made a number of statements that could be interpreted as supporting multiple positions, thus reinforcing that there was no single correct position.
   
   Anticipating that divergent and potentially conflicting views would surface during the activity, the teacher skilfully and continually kept opening the discussion up by reinforcing the complexity of the issues and the need to consider multiple viewpoints and experiences.

2. Year 7 students engaged in collaborative discussion about what it means to be an Australian. They were given a range of texts presenting contrasting positions, including 'My Country' by Dorothea Mackellar, 'Advance Australia Fair, The New True Anthem' by Kevin Gilbert (Aboriginal activist and writer) and 'The Past' by Oodgeroo Noonuccal. The students discussed the dominant messages in the texts and the linguistic features that supported these messages. They were asked to provide feedback on whose interests were served and whose interests marginalised by the different texts.

Continuum of practice