Everyday Uncertainty as a Pedagogical Model

This week’s #rhizo14 topic is embracing uncertainty and I have certainly lived that in practice this week.  Some weeks are more hectic than others and some weeks throw much more uncertainty into the mix. 

 However, uncertainty is always present in a collaborative pedagogical model, or at least it is in the way that I conceptualize collaborative teaching, uncertainty definitely should be embraced. This of course has a lot to do with the rhizomatic structure of collaborative learning. Collaborative learning spaces are all about uncertainty.  In the unhangout yesterday Dave mentioned the term “collaborative literacy” which is an interesting concept of marrying the collaborative to the idea of literacy and in turn fluency.  I strive to instill a kind of ethical collaborative fluency in my classroom spaces.  I want the students to be comfortable with the idea of working together towards a common intellectual, research, or analytical pursuit.  Ideally I would like them to come together “naturally” (whatever that actually means) in order to all better understand and engage with the topics at hand. 

 From the teacher/educator/instructor/facilitator stand point this uncertainty underpins all pedagogical experiences and you must embrace it in some way or in turn become paralyzed by the fear that something may happen or go wrong.  But this is again what is at the heart of the rhizome. There is no necessary wrong; everything ultimately becomes a new branch – a new way of thinking or expressing a concept.  I like to think of this in relation to the sense or feeling paradigm. Some classes just feel better than others, things jive, people are talking, ideas are flowing. Sometimes classes wrapped in icy silence, everyone is invested in their own small sphere- maybe including the teacher. The way to open that space up to more interaction and learning is to react to the students, react to the ideas and help facilitate a more constructive platform for the sharing of thoughts.  If the instructor cannot embrace that uncertainty, cannot go with the flow, the classroom as a space for ideas can be stifled.

I believe this is what most people feel but do not articulate as well when they speak of a lecturing model. To lecture does not necessarily embrace uncertainty. In a lecture there is much more linear structure to both delivery and crystallization of ideas. It is often a one way street. In a collaborative open pedagogical model, there is uncertainty yes, but that uncertainty leads to the above mentioned threads of ideas, new branches, new concepts, new models.