Theories Relating to Networking 3b

Concept of the Professional Network...

 My professional life has many angles to it at the moment, teaching is key and with my long term goal of gaining Qualified Teacher Status in mind I’m going to look closely at how Professional networking and its concepts affect this part of my life.

Co-operation, Affiliation, Social Constructionism, Connectivism and Communities of Practice. After lots of reading, thinking and research I can see that they all already play a part in my professional life. The thing to do now I have a better understanding of them and how they work is to better implement them in to my day to day working life.

 

Co-operation, Alexrod (1984) identified the importance of the notion of co-operation, and in particular, the benefits of co-operating fully with others, until you reach a point of maximum benefit, and then to defect. We all understand this notion and I’m sure at times have used it in our professional and private lives.

Recently I have been working in various schools in a voluntary capacity in order to gain experience and knowledge to set my in good stead for my developing career. I’ve noticed that teachers are more than a little busy and spare time is like gold dust. From talking to several teachers they do all see themselves as being part of several professional networks but all admit that they very rarely have time to interact amongst them let alone contribute to them.

I’d like to try some forced co-operation. Where teachers are given time during there working hours to fully use and gain the benefits of there professional networks. This would not only mean that individual teachers and schools would benefit from a greater knowledge and skill set. But that those amongst us (I’m sure that there are many) that work on a purely altruistic basis would be encouraged in some way to share valuable information that they probably never would have previously.

Affiliation, I’m a great advertisement for the saying you can never have to many friends. I’m definitely the sort of person that seeks out affiliation and is happy to turn to those I need in any given situation and in turn am happy and willing to be there for others. Although there is certainly room for improvement in my skills when coming to implementing this concept its another aspect it that has got me intrigued.

This section taken from the reader has really got me thinking... ‘Differences in affiliative desires may be reflected in the central nervous system. Brain imaging studies conducted by Johnson and Colleagues (1999) show that introverts are higher in arousability, the degree to which stimulation typically produces arousal of the central nervous system, than extroverts.’

One of the main things that make me good at my job is being able to read the children, taking time to get to know them and catering to their individual needs. This information is of great value when looking to extend my knowledge and approaches to teaching. I aim to be teaching secondary age children. Networks are going to be of great importance to them in their learning also. With information like this I will be able to help not only steer them in the right direction but also help them create their own networks that are a great tool for every child involved.

Social Constructivism, Crotty, M (2005) “According to constructionism, we do not create meaning. We construct meaning. We have something to work with. What we have to work with is the world and objects in the world.

I can readily agree with this. Bringing up my daughter showed me how true this can be. As she grew and learned she most certainly had her own grasp and opinion of what this world contained and had to offer. She made up her own names for things and at times believed that the purpose of things was something very different to the one that all have come to accept.

She is very strong willed and I still sometimes struggle to get her to accept my explanation of things unless I can support it with fact. This brings me to the next quote...

Crotty, M (2005) “Meaning is not discovered but constructed. Meaning does not inhere in the object, merely waiting for someone to come upon it.”

I don’t completely agree with this, the example of a tree. Of course the word tree is just a name that someone decided to give to the thing they saw before them. But to quote Shakespeare “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Lets say we decided to start calling a tree something else. Whatever it may be called there are still facts that we know about a tree. We didn’t just decide that trees should do the job or absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. That is a scientific fact that has been happening from the appearance of the very first tree.

For me social constructivism will make me open my eyes more to what’s out there and not just take everything at face value. It’s great to learn new ideas and you can always then go on to back them up with fact. A valuable tool when it comes to teaching.

 

Connectivism, for me this as a concept of being able to learn through the extension of a personal or professional network. Are we not all prime examples to this here on the Bapp course!

As knowledge is growing at such a fast rate (the facts and figures amaze me!) and changing so rapidly we really do have to change with the times. This course has opened a whole new world of learning for me. I can openly admit to being a bit of a technophobe but I’m slowly but steadily being dragged into the modern day. 

The reader quotes Siemens, G. (2004) “The starting point of connectivism is the individual. Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organisations and institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to the individual. This cycle of knowledge development allows learners to stay current in their field through the connections they have formed.”

This is something I am going to have to remember long after this course is over. The use of modern technologies that is available to us today and the doors that it opens need not to be ignored. I’m sure competition is going to be fierce in the professional world and I want to set myself in the best position to gout there fighting. I plan to use this concept to help me become a life long learner and stay up to date with what I need to know in my professional world.

Communities of Practice, The reader says... “A community of practice places emphasis on participation over acquisition of specific bodies of knowledge, and relies on shared interpretations of the community of practice over more hierarchical formations of knowledge.”

I think a great example of this is our campus sessions. Although led by tutors we are not talked at or particularly instructed. It is more of a chance for us to thrash around ideas and share opinions on a current topic. The tutor is there more in a roll of sharing their knowledge with us and equally interested in hearing ours. I found this really odd at first and wondered how I was going to learn anything. That was my first very valuable lesson in itself, we need the ability to teach ourselves throughout our lives to achieve the best that we can be.

Taking this idea on with me into my professional life I can imagine having more informal staff meetings and staff nights out sat round a dinner table chatting over our experiences, hopes and fears for our careers. This I’m sure will be just a valuable as all the other aspects of my future career.

So now its time for me to get our there, expand and make better use of my professional networks.