MAY 11,2008
A PROPOSAL
This is a proposal to establish a Eugene workshop center for open education. It’s starting place might be to study the writings of Professor Lillian Weber in order to sort out what might be essential for the Eugene center.
It was in 1972 that Professor Weber established the first Workshop Center in City College, New York City. Her starting place was a three week institute, held the previous summer, during which teachers, provided with a rich assortment of materials to stimulate hands on science and math experiences, engaged in an intense experience of their own learning. As they connected their struggles in learning the new, the teachers reminisced, talked about when they were once children, and in so talking, joined themselves with children in an indivisible enterprise. They gained empathy for the learning struggles of their children, as well as new approaches for offering support.
After the success of that summer, the Workshop Center offered a year-round schedule that became a magnet for educators all over the world who were concerned with school change. This was an open learning environment for undergraduates who would be future teachers, for current teachers and other school staff, and for parents and other community people interested in a more humane vision of education. As open inquiry caught on, Professor Weber was invited to lead seminars on her work in Australia, Israel, Norway, Germany, Kenya and Tanzania.
In a pamphlet entitled Use and Setting: Development in a Teacher’s Center, written by Professor Weber, B. Alberty, and J. Neujahr, is a description of the many different uses that became possible in the center. The participants found themselves belonging to more than one group, involved in collegial discussions which led to activities in which participants felt themselves deeply in a learning process for their own development as well as deeper understanding of how to enable their students in becoming more deeply involved in inquiry and discovery because they felt they were whole persons with others who were whole persons.
In a book, Looking Back and Thinking Forward: Reexaminations of Teaching and Schooling-1997- (a collection of her writings following her death in 1994), is a chapter, “Inquiry, Noticing, Joining With, and Following After”. This is a written version of Lillian Weber’s speech at the Philip Morrison Symposium, MIT, September 1986. She set the frame for what she meant by “open” in many dimensions. For example: “We immerse teachers in experiences of water. At the beginning some say, ‘Oh, I know all about water.’ “Well”, we respond, “up at MIT they are always pulling apart and discussing experiences with water. It is possible, isn’t it, you and we together can find out things about water that we may have forgotten about or that we haven’t even stopped to think about at all?” That begins experiencing water from many perspectives. That same widening happens in experiencing other materials: sand, or the many ways to fill up space, or the many dimensions of scale.
Often participants want to explore their own questions, and new materials may have to be brought into the center, for example, a decaying log, (or other natural process.) It’s hard to catalogue all the issues they may be grappling with, but the intensity of their involvement is a sure sign that they are learning. One important insight is a growing acceptance of the unfinished character of all grappling. They find themselves in the process of thinking like scientists who also do open ended, persistent and honest consideration of observed evidence.
Grants supporting open inquiry came from the Ford Foundation, the National Institute of Education, the Office of Education, the Far West Laboratory, the Rockefeller Brothers, Jesse Smith Noyes as well as from local school sources. (Enclosed is a brief biography and list of Professor Weber’s published works.)
After her retirement, Hubert M Dyasi, professor of science education, became director of New York’s City College Workshop Center. (Goggle his name for more about his work). I don’t know whether he would be available for consultation as to how to set up a physical layout for a workshop center, but there must be some documentation of it. He worked on the manual for National Science Education Standards, published in 1996 by the National Research Council.
Proposal submitted by Madeline Smith colleague of Lillian Weber
e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
address: 594 West 11 Ave Eugene, OR 97401
541-687-1610
A PROPOSAL
This is a proposal to establish a Eugene workshop center for open education. It’s starting place might be to study the writings of Professor Lillian Weber in order to sort out what might be essential for the Eugene center.
It was in 1972 that Professor Weber established the first Workshop Center in City College, New York City. Her starting place was a three week institute, held the previous summer, during which teachers, provided with a rich assortment of materials to stimulate hands on science and math experiences, engaged in an intense experience of their own learning. As they connected their struggles in learning the new, the teachers reminisced, talked about when they were once children, and in so talking, joined themselves with children in an indivisible enterprise. They gained empathy for the learning struggles of their children, as well as new approaches for offering support.
After the success of that summer, the Workshop Center offered a year-round schedule that became a magnet for educators all over the world who were concerned with school change. This was an open learning environment for undergraduates who would be future teachers, for current teachers and other school staff, and for parents and other community people interested in a more humane vision of education. As open inquiry caught on, Professor Weber was invited to lead seminars on her work in Australia, Israel, Norway, Germany, Kenya and Tanzania.
In a pamphlet entitled Use and Setting: Development in a Teacher’s Center, written by Professor Weber, B. Alberty, and J. Neujahr, is a description of the many different uses that became possible in the center. The participants found themselves belonging to more than one group, involved in collegial discussions which led to activities in which participants felt themselves deeply in a learning process for their own development as well as deeper understanding of how to enable their students in becoming more deeply involved in inquiry and discovery because they felt they were whole persons with others who were whole persons.
In a book, Looking Back and Thinking Forward: Reexaminations of Teaching and Schooling-1997- (a collection of her writings following her death in 1994), is a chapter, “Inquiry, Noticing, Joining With, and Following After”. This is a written version of Lillian Weber’s speech at the Philip Morrison Symposium, MIT, September 1986. She set the frame for what she meant by “open” in many dimensions. For example: “We immerse teachers in experiences of water. At the beginning some say, ‘Oh, I know all about water.’ “Well”, we respond, “up at MIT they are always pulling apart and discussing experiences with water. It is possible, isn’t it, you and we together can find out things about water that we may have forgotten about or that we haven’t even stopped to think about at all?” That begins experiencing water from many perspectives. That same widening happens in experiencing other materials: sand, or the many ways to fill up space, or the many dimensions of scale.
Often participants want to explore their own questions, and new materials may have to be brought into the center, for example, a decaying log, (or other natural process.) It’s hard to catalogue all the issues they may be grappling with, but the intensity of their involvement is a sure sign that they are learning. One important insight is a growing acceptance of the unfinished character of all grappling. They find themselves in the process of thinking like scientists who also do open ended, persistent and honest consideration of observed evidence.
Grants supporting open inquiry came from the Ford Foundation, the National Institute of Education, the Office of Education, the Far West Laboratory, the Rockefeller Brothers, Jesse Smith Noyes as well as from local school sources. (Enclosed is a brief biography and list of Professor Weber’s published works.)
After her retirement, Hubert M Dyasi, professor of science education, became director of New York’s City College Workshop Center. (Goggle his name for more about his work). I don’t know whether he would be available for consultation as to how to set up a physical layout for a workshop center, but there must be some documentation of it. He worked on the manual for National Science Education Standards, published in 1996 by the National Research Council.
Proposal submitted by Madeline Smith colleague of Lillian Weber
e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
address: 594 West 11 Ave Eugene, OR 97401
541-687-1610