Faculty Spotlight
June - July 2002: Mike Hannum
The Process
While students are moving through the 100-hour practicums required by the licensure process, Mike uses observation and conferences with students to evaluate their progress. He performs two of the formal observations, and assigns the third to students who work as a 'triad.' A triad consists of a performer, a scriptor (someone who writes down every interaction), and a videographer equipped with tripod and camcorder. As the semester progresses, students change roles within the triad, insuring that each student gets to view the process from three different perspectives.
In the post-observation conference with the 'teacher,' Mike
plays the videotape and together with the 'teacher,' they examine
the documentation of the child's performance. His request of
his students is simple yet profound: "Show me the data that
indicates you have changed this child's life." In the most
fundamental way, he defines this teaching operationally. Know
what the student needs and 'make the match,' match the strategies
to the child's developmental stage, and keep that child in the
'zone of proximal development,' as defined by the educational
psychologist, Vygotsky.
In 1978, he stated that the child follows the adult's example and gradually develops the ability to do certain tasks without help or assistance. He called the difference between what a child can do with help and what he or she can do without guidance the "zone of proximal development" (ZPD). To read more about this view of learning, please follow this link:
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1zpda.htm