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Post by wmm12d on Feb 9, 2016 9:54:14 GMT -5
I spent 25 years working and advancing through corporate America, without a college degree, or any real business experience before I started. I just worked hard and did what I was told. Every time I was promoted to a new role, I had to fake it, until I made it. I had to manage people who knew more about their area and processes than I did. But from role to role I learned the process and discourse of management. Once I acquired these skills, I was able to enter a new area of responsibility and effectively manage it. At the same time, I used the staff and my own research to learn the specific discourse of the team, until I mastered it. To gain fluency in this new discourse, I had to put in extra time at the office and with the team. Learning new discourses is difficult and time-consuming, but possible. I think the point is that we as teachers need to know that these conflicts in discourses exist, and that we need to develop ways to facilitate assimilation into the discourse or teach the “meta-knowledge” required to help a non-mainstream student navigate the new discourse until they “make it”. We also have to keep in mind that even the best student, who has to “mushfake”, will need a little more time and patience in order to gain fluency in a new discourse.
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Post by kcornelison93 on Feb 10, 2016 13:31:08 GMT -5
I have to concur with this. I think everyone to some extent is faking it. And I think it's so weird to talk about the discourse as if you're aren't participating unless you are "fluent." That doesn't make sense. Nearly all discourse is learned and everyone is constantly faking it and evolving. See: expert bias. There is always someone who knows more than us, and comparatively we can look like an outsider, a non-native. I think as long as you have enough knowledge and expertise to function and be able to learn, you are in fact participating in the discourse.
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Post by rachelgoodbar on Feb 10, 2016 14:57:46 GMT -5
I really like what you said about "fake it till you make it" because its super easy to apply here when learning a new discourse, but also has drawbacks because of how awkward a situation can be when your faking your way into a discourse and you flop and everyone realizes that you are an outsider to that discourse. But even failing when you are trying to make it teaches students more about the discourse and helps them to master the secondary discourse.
I agree that students with "mushfake" might have a harder time mastering this new discourse when it clashes so much with the other discourses they have already mastered. I think its important that we, as future teachers, find a way to help our students ease the tensions between two discourses and between their primary discourse and the discourse that they are trying to learn. For English Ed working with an ELL, a way to ease this would be to help bridge the expectations between their school in their home country and their new school in the US, gently reminding them of the rules and social norms in place here when they get lots between the two discourses knowing how to act in these situations.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to each students "mushfake" between discourses?
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Post by daniell on Feb 10, 2016 16:33:23 GMT -5
It's also super easy to apply to these classes in general. I'm sure more than one of us has had problems with classes and either felt like they shouldn't ask or shouldn't ask TOO MUCH (another common problem I've noticed). This is where "Mushfaking" comes in, I suppose. As people who are mushfaking we can really only hope to catch up and do our best to sort of assmiliate in to an environment that we're not really at home at, intellectually or skill-wise.
But as educators, we need to make clear that we're there to teach, which means if a student's having trouble, we need to make ourselves proactively available. In an ideal classroom, no one needs to worry whether or not we can help or whether they'll be able to catch up. Part of being an educator is knowing that there will be people who don't catch on instantly, outlier students who may not even want to help themselves due to a sense of pride or lack thereof. It's good to be able to assimilate in to the discourse, but it's essential that at some point you're able to understand it, and in some cases, that's easier said than done. Not to the fault of the learner, but because some things are hard to get in to from an outsider's point of view.
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Post by rachel1827 on Feb 10, 2016 17:50:17 GMT -5
Asking questions is important and we need to gauge where are students stand. However, I understand the desire to limit the amount of questions. Students hate them especially if they are all similar in nature. I remember times when my teacher would ask questions I wasn't sure if my answer was correct, but I participated anyway. That feeling that you are failure doesn't help and sometimes creates this urge for students to fabricate an answer from a few facts. Despite this fact is important to ask lots of questions because it helps weed out misconceptions and allows for growth in the classroom.
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Post by SophinaA on Feb 21, 2016 7:29:21 GMT -5
It is actually quite disappointing to think about the massive amount of mushfaking that occurs in the classroom. Daniel makes a good point that as educators we need to catch on to what is happening. Oftentimes, students are mushfaking their way through a course and by the time we realize it they seem too far gone mentally to want to be drawn in. As educators, we will really need to show that we honor the growth of our students beyond all of the testing that is occurring. This will maybe make the students admit when they are lost or confused instead of faking their way through a class or topic.
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