Fantasticat - ideas for developing, teaching and learning - especially children, and for open-minded grown-ups too

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There's this cat character - Fantasticat - he can do anything...

If you think like Fantasticat does - then you can do anything too.

Fantasticat is a concept for teaching and learning and for helping people - particularly children, but grown-ups as well - to identify, express and focus on their own unique personal talent and potential.

Sometimes it's easier to see your dreams through someone else - like a funny cat character who can do anything.

Fantasticat provides a platform for various ideas for teaching and developing people's self-belief and confidence. It's a simple method for self-reflection and visualisation.

Fantasticat helps liberate people from limits and negative conditioning, which in many of us - adults and children children of all ages - are typically imposed by other people and other external factors.

Using a simple abstract idea like Fantasticat can help bring new clarity to personal aspirations, improve self-awareness, lift self-limiting beliefs, and contribute towards defining new personal directions, purposes and goals...

Please note - Fantasticat is essentially an activity for young people and children. The concept will not suit some adults who prefer to adopt a more conservative or structured view of life and work. If using Fantasticat with grown-ups please consider the group and how you position the activity.

"They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." (Edgar Allen Poe)

" 'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?... Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do... It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we subconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." (Marianne Williamson, author, from A Return To Love, 1992. Ack C Wilson and J Cooke. The full version includes a couple of references to God, which some people prefer; others not. Use whichever is appropriate. The other version is on the quotes page.)

Fantasticat is simply the idea of being fantastic at something: having natural ability and potential - visualised and expressed through a cat character: Fantasticat.

The reason for thinking about and expressing personal talent and potential in the form of a cat character is to bring fresh objectivity - a new perspective.

Some people find it hard to think and say that they are fantastic - or even remotely good - at anything.

As a reflective tool, Fantasticat can help someone to see what's good in themselves, as if they were Fantasticat, which for some people is a lot easier than seeing it in themselves.

Fantasticat is primarily a teaching and development concept for young children but it's fine to use it with grown-ups too, if people are happy to relax and have fun.

There are lots of ways to use the Fantasticat idea.

There is no definitive Fantasticat image - Fantasticat can be anything people want him/her to be - the pictures on this page are examples of how one school class has interpreted it.

If using Fantasticat to encourage people to visualise and express their own potential, talent, passion, etc., it's important that people can represent Fantasticat however they want to - whether a written or spoken description or a drawing, or any other representation that is personal and meaningful about individual potential.

Young children should immediately relate to Fantasticat, however for older people and teams for who maybe don't fancy participating in creating and expressing their own Fantasticats (people who don't want to play, basically) you can use the Fantasticat concept by referring to its use as a tool for younger people, and to illustrate the principles of lifting self-limiting beliefs and making positive personal change: detaching from day-to-day pressures - finding time and space to imagine what might be - to visualise and dream - to connect again with one's personal passions and natural talents. Liberating one's thoughts is often easier using a technique like Fantasticat. Detachment brings objectivity - which helps to remove subjective self-doubt; it helps to imagine what could be, rather than what is (usually conditioned, 'owned', and subjective).

People of all ages tend to live according to the imposed conditioning of others - from schools, parents, society, peers, whatever - instead of focusing on their own individual special talent, dreams, and potential. Fantasticat can help people see things differently.

Imagine you are Fantasticat - what would you be like? If you were Fantasticat, what would you be doing?

What can you do?
What do you love?
What is your talent?
What can you become?
Visualise your Fantasticat.
fantasticat for grown ups..

I'm not necessarily suggesting you run a fully participative Fantasticat session at your next regional management conference, however the underlying principles are relevant to personal growth and development for everyone.

Where grown-ups are concerned, some people discover later in their life that they've been living their father's life or their mother's life - living out the dreams and expectations of someone else.

"Why the hell am I accountant?... I wanted to work in music..." (no offence to the accountancy profession - it could be anything) or "I always wanted to work with animals - how come I've ended up in an office doing work I hate?" or "I've spent half my life moaning about my job... I wanted to work at something I love doing... where did I go off track?"

People go off track and begin to falsify their own selves because of external influences (often other people's expectations and pressures) and also because of a lack of belief and support.

When we go off track, or get stuck on a wrong one, it's helpful to look outside of ourselves - to break the cycle - to revisit and rekindle the things we are truly good at and which we truly enjoy (which almost always go hand-in-hand since no-one ever made a million doing something they hate..)

Other factors mean that it makes sense to review our purpose and potential - to find new enjoyable ways of working and earning a living, and maybe to create or build something of lasting significance:

we're living longer
we're staying healthier and fitter
we no longer have a job or career for life - we can change our careers quite fundamentally
we learn lots more new things and develop lots more new capabilities than we used to (although we commonly don't see the resulting opportunities for positive change - see Campling's Age Work Arc theory for example)
we probably could do with finding useful profitable rewarding things to do instead of retiring
retirement from work for many people is not long followed by retirement from life
Fantasticat - and this page - are just a simple little idea to help us (and to help others) to focus on what we love and enjoy and what we are naturally fantastic at - or would love to be fantastic at.

Where you take it and how you build on it is up to you.

fantasticat in schools - some suggestions and notes

The positive influence and encouragement we receive from great teachers at school is the most significant influence we ever receive.

Parents are important of course, but in a different way - besides which, what kid ever listens to their parents even when they do say the right things?..

Most of us remember certain teachers from our school years who inspired us and gave us belief.

Teachers who helped us recognise and take a pride in something we could do well and become fantastic at.

When people are helped to focus on what they are good at, their self-belief and confidence grow.

Aside from finding a meaningful purpose, the resulting confidence and belief then helps people to address some of the things they are not so good at.

When you help someone to that there is something they are fantastic at - whatever it is - you give them a foundation for becoming fantastic at other things too. Belief is the mother of achievement.

some suggested words of explanation

(You'll know far better than me how to position this for your own situations - these are just some ideas to get you started.)

Fantasticat is a cat who can do anything he/she chooses.

If you were Fantasticat - what would you be?

If you were to describe your own unique talent and potential - what you love to do and and dream to be - what would it be - what would you be?

How would you draw your own Fantasticat or write about or talk about your Fantasticat?

Expressing your dreams and self through a Fantasticat can be easier and more liberating than trying to imagine it as yourself.

We are all conditioned by external expectations - but your Fantasticat can do anything.

other thoughts and notes

One of the big challenges for young people's education - and adult development too - is to find ways to 'motivate' people to learn and train and grow; so that they are truly interested in learning and developing themselves. For themselves, not just because someone says so.

Everywhere teachers and trainers and managers struggle to 'motivate' people to train and learn.

Much education and training is wasted, just going through the motions, and in this respect children are no different to adults.

Moreover, people's behaviours and attitudes and limits can commonly be traced back to their experiences as children at school. Many grown-up people have difficulty in seeing themselves outside of received or conditioned roles and limits, and their reluctance to imagine that their own limits might be lifted, or that their purpose and direction can be changed, is often formed when they are very young.

Being able to express and develop personal dreams, and to visualise progression towards something personal and meaningful helps young people create a positive outlook for life, and helps both old and young to liberate their imagination and break out of conditioning.

This is where 'motivation' comes from. Not from outside. Motivation must be connected with something meaningful and personal, and this can only come from inside the person.

Teaching and developing people should be about bringing out, not putting in.

Young people particularly need help to focus on what they love and are good at, whatever it is - it really does not matter - anything - rather than be bombarded and disillusioned by stuff that holds no meaning for them.

People of all ages want to learn about the things that they are naturally good at, and which they love and enjoy. Tapping into this motivation, and then, later, carefully building onto it other aspects of development which might not initially be so important in the person's mind, is the way to develop people. Start with the person - where they want to go and what they want to do - and then you've a basis for development.

Teaching and training should be firstly about helping people to grow and to develop their own personal potential. This is the platform onto which all else is built.

With no foundation there can be no development.

On the other hand, when you foster self-belief and a sense of value and purpose, you enable unlimited development.

A caring positive teacher, trainer, mentor, coach or manager - or friend - can open up the world for another person by using the principles which underpin the Fantasticat idea.

You cannot put in. You can only bring out.

ideas for using fantasticat in teaching and personal development

Here are some suggestions for using the Fantasticat idea. Just a few pointers. You'll think of others. Obviously some of these ideas are more appropriate for younger people than adults, however bear in mind that grown-ups like to play too.

Ask people to create (written/drawn/modelled, whatever) their own personal Fantasticats as a way of visualising/expressing/developing their own passions/strengths/aspirations.
Have people create story-boards (step-by-step cartoons or diagrams or pictures) showing how their Fantisticats become/became what they are (development is often easier to imagine if you start with where you want to end up and work backwards to where you are today).
Make a really big Fantasticat picture and have everyone decorate it with items, or symbols that represent their own personal Fantasticats.
Create a big Fantasticat on a notice-board or bulletin-board and surround it with writings and drawings of people's own Fantasticats. (Ack Andrea Phillips).
Write and perform a Fantasticat play or video in which everyone appears playing the part of their own Fantasticat. The aim is to work together to script a story that utilises everyone's strengths, and has people acting their dreams also.
Ask people to write a learning plan or training plan for their own Fantasticat.
What was Fantasticat like as a kitten and what did he/she do to become the expert Fantasticat that he/she is today? This could be an individual exercise or a group debate, or a team exercise to help understand about early capabilities and talent which can be nurtured and grown with the proper care and support and belief, etc.
If you come up with variations that work well and you'd like to share them please get in touch.

If you use Fantasticat in your school and have some pictures and written descriptions that you'd like to share, again please get in touch.

People's ideas and feelings about what they are fantastic at, or want to be fantastic at, of course change over time. And some people's dreams and passions might not be fantastic in our eyes, but what's important is giving people the encouragement and opportunity to think about themselves in these terms - without external persuasion or influence - and to encourage them to develop their ideas and dreams for themselves.

While chiefly for children and young people, the principles and ideas within the Fantasticat teaching and development aid can be used with people of all ages.

Fantasticat can be used in conjunction with self-discovery tools such as the Gardner Multiple Intelligences model and tests, and also VAK learning style tests.

the wishing well

I was prompted to add this by some feedback about how Fantasticat had been used as part of a change programme.

Extending the concept, alongside Fantasticat, on a wall board in a shared work area, the group created a 'wishing well', on which team members are encouraged to post ideas for improvements using sticky notes.

This provides an unusual and highly visible method for group thinking and involvement, and also serves as a barometer for how people are feeling about current activities and change.

(Thanks M Rivett.)

acknowledgements

I am grateful to the Instituto San Roberto school in Monterrey, Mexico, and particularly class is 2A (second grade) 2003 for providing inspiration and helpful feedback for the development of the Fantasticat concept. My special thanks to teacher Andrea Phillips and the teacher's aide, Miss Armida Treviño.

Below are some examples of class 2A's written descriptions of their Fantasticats, including English-second-language mistakes. The pictures on this page are from the Instituto San Roberto school and their Fantasticat bulletin-board, used with permission, which is gratefully acknowledged.

Fantasticat by Priscila Escoto Espinoza: "I am fantastic at sing. I like to sing because a person can hear me sing. I like to dance because I love my mom see me and clap me. I like to take care of animals because I can give food and play special with dogs. I also like to read because when I not doing anything I can read."

Fantasticat by Luis Flores Garza: "I am fantastic at playing Play Station. I know I am fantastic at that because I always play that. Doing that makes me feel bad because it makes my head hurt. I hope I am always fantastic at playing play station."

Fantasticat by Daniela Portillo Hérnandez: "I am fantastic at painting. I know I'm fantastic at it because people tell me that I paint very pretty. Painting makes me feel very good because I know some people like the way I paint. I really like to draw and paint. When I have free time I take colors, markers, erasers, sharpeners, papers and pencils to paint. It is very fun to paint. I like to see art in places because it gives me ideas about what I can paint. I hope when I grow up I can be a very famous artist."

Fantasticat by Carlos Enrique Canto Lozano: "I am fantastic at dance because my sister is in Hip Hop and she always is dancing. I like doing this because I am happy to be like that. I hope I never change and always be very happy."



"They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night."
(Edgar Allen Poe, with acknowledgements to Andrea Phillips)
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Professional Ethics In Teaching: The Training And Development Challenge

By Mark Carter
Senior Project Officer
Training and Development Directorate
NSW Department of Education and Training

Introduction

This paper addresses the challenges and constraints in the implementation of training and development programs with regard to professional ethics in teaching in large education systems.

The scope of the training and development challenge is revealed by posing a series of questions. Some of these questions go the heart of the professional learning discourse. The use of case studies as a professional learning strategy is explored and examples of cases are included.

• Is it possible to train people in ethical conduct?
The term 'ethical conduct' brings to the fore a debate about the distinctions between codes of conduct and their purposes and ethical principles and their place in the teaching profession. Some would argue that codes of conduct mandate specific behaviours in particular situations but ...

do not promote individual adherence to ethical principles. The grey areas in decision making that confront most teachers on a regular basis arise in the face of competing interests and values. Codes of conduct may assist, but not give clear definition to, teachers' decision making. In other words the organisation or system can mandate what not to do in particular situations but it is impossible to list all possible situations that arise. This becomes the territory of ethical decision making. The delivery of training related to codes of conduct may be possible. Training individuals to adhere to particular ethical principles when making decisions may not be possible.
• Can ethics training/ education be self paced or does it require facilitation and/ or team learning?
Many approaches to ethics training/ education require an external or trained facilitator working with small groups of people. Expertise in the facilitation of professional learning in small groups and knowledge of ethics is assumed. The distribution of this expertise and knowledge across all school sites is not even. Ethics training conceived as a formal learning program delivered to teachers becomes difficult because of the unavailability of skilled facilitators. It also ignores the ways beginning teachers in particular learn to teach and 'become' teachers.

In the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET), significant components of the beginning teacher induction program are presented in the form of self paced learning modules. Indeed, much of beginning teachers' professional learning during the induction phase occurs through collaborative action and reflection, individual reflection and observation of others' practice. This professional learning is also linked to personal growth and each person's reflection on, and modification to, assumptions about his or her role and work.
• Is ethics training a process of learning the prevailing (and system sanctioned) codes of behaviour? How can the requirement for ethics training be reconciled with best practice in professional learning?
The impact of workplace cultures is intertwined with ethics training and codes of conduct. Professional socialisation in the workplace is a significant component of the induction period for beginning teachers. The associated personal learning that takes place involves the identification of principles upon which to operate in a given workplace and the reconciliation of these principles with the values and understandings held by the individual.

Lacey refers to a strategic compliance adopted by beginning teachers when there is a misalignment of assumptions prevailing in the workplace and those held by beginning teachers. The complication in the delivery of ethics training through a workplace learning model of teacher professional development lies in the ability of those in the workplace who are immersed in the prevailing norms, to analyse and question prevailing culture rather than simply transmit existing values and understandings without critical appraisal. The unequal power relationships between novice teachers and experienced teachers too often results in strategic compliance and subjugation of individual ethical principles. The result is ethical behaviour based on compliance with externally imposed codes – manifested in bureaucratic dependency where responsibility for individual action is surrendered – rather than the development of each teacher's ethical principles and the consequent development of independent critical analysis, judgement and ethical action.
• If the workplace is the focus of ethics training how does the employer ensure consistency in approach to ethics training?
A problem in adopting a workplace learning model of teacher professional development arises when supervisors and mentors of beginning teachers are themselves novices in their respective roles. In some instances beginning teachers are appointed to schools that are difficult to staff and these schools have relatively young and inexperienced executive staff.

The depth and breadth of experience of supervisors and mentors varies considerably across education systems. A workplace learning model of teacher professional development may need to be supplemented by additional training for supervisors and mentors and support provided for inter-school networks.

For a workplace learning model of teacher professional development to be most effective, beginning teachers need access to professional role models and professional climates

In 1998, a DET pilot induction program in an isolated western NSW central school included such supplementation. It involved the provision of mentoring support from beyond the school for beginning teachers and enhanced access to expertise and knowledge in the district office, state office and in other schools.
• Should ethics training be delivered as part of preservice training rather than during the induction phase? Is ethics training more effective following periods of experience in the workplace? eg. extended practicum or internship?
Beginning teachers' evaluative comments on the effectiveness of formal learning programs prior to the first year of teaching suggest that formal learning of professional ethics suffers from the same weaknesses as system mandated ethical behaviour. The constraints that apply to the delivery of ethics training in a workplace learning model of teacher professional development also apply to an approach that integrates ethics training with school based components of teacher education programs.
• Is the use of case studies an effective strategy in ethics training?
The use of case studies may go some way to providing consistency in the delivery of ethics training for beginning teachers and provide a context for professional dialogue and consideration of competing value positions. The provision of decision making frameworks devoid of context does not move beyond transmission of mandated responses to particular situations.

Case studies, in lieu of lived experience, and in anticipation of such experience, permit dialogue about competing perspectives, group and individual reflection and the collective and individual reconsideration of value positions. The development of professional ethics and the emergence of each individual's commitment to ethical principles is a dynamic process – in contrast to the relatively passive acceptance of mandated practices.

Approaches to decision making assist in the consideration of case studies. Ethical decision-making can be described as the intersection of three key components.


There is a range of approaches to the resolution of ethical issues. One approach might be to ascertain "facts" that might have a bearing on a decision. However "facts" are often contested; and "facts" by themselves may describe what is, but not necessarily what ought to be. In addition to getting the "facts", resolving an ethical issue also requires an examination of values.

Approaches to ethical decision-making have been categorised in the following ways.
• Justice approaches focus on how fairly or unfairly actions distribute benefits to members of a group
• Rights approaches to decision-making assume that each person has a fundamental right to be respected and treated as a free and rational person
• Virtue approaches to decision-making focus on characteristics, attitudes and dispositions - integrity, honesty, trustworthiness - that enable people to develop their human potential
• The utilitarian approaches to decision making advanced by philosophers such as Bentham and Mill, regard ethical actions as those producing the greatest difference of benefits over harms
• Common good approaches to decision-making regard ethical behaviour as that which advances the good of the whole community. Individuals or groups are not to be exploited at the expense of others
• Social relativism approaches to decision-making regard values of different cultures and groups as being grounded in a particular social context or reality. It therefore becomes difficult for a person from one culture of group to pass judgement on the values of another.
The use of case studies may have merit as a professional learning strategy. Their appearance, however, in employer-developed materials generates a further ethical dilemma: any hint of uncertainty in teachers' professional practice arising from competing value positions is unacceptable in the contemporary societal climate.

Case studies that generate professional dialogue surrounding the practice of teaching must contain uncertainties. Teaching is characterised by uncertainty. The application of a code of conduct provides some guidance in these situations. Mandated professional conduct, however, doesn't permit consideration of competing value positions inherent in professional judgement.

Some writers argue that autonomy in judgement is the essence of professionalism . The removal of scope for professional judgement based on ethical principles diminishes the standing of teaching as a profession and inhibits the emergence of an individual's commitment to ethical principles.

The education employers are accountable to the community at large. In this context, and when the welfare and education of young people are at stake, uncertainty in professional conduct and the actions of teachers becomes unacceptable.

In grappling with the issue of ethics in teaching the employer faces a dilemma in acknowledging the uncertainties surrounding the professional practices of teachers through the use of case studies and at the same time providing a framework for professional conduct that is acceptable to the community.
Case study, values, decision making and school change

Innovations and changes in school structures and practices are often contested and debated vigorously among teachers. Sometimes debate may lead to indecision where some decision may be required. The value positions of teachers are fundamental in these debates. Consider different approaches to decision making in the context of a proposed school change.
A school has determined that the learning experiences of its year 7 students are contributing to poor learning outcomes and undesirable approaches to work in subsequent years of schooling. The school proposes to implement, on a trial basis, a teaching teams approach for half of the Year 7 intake in the following year. (Not all teachers in the school are willing to embrace the teaching teams approach – hence the trial with half year 7.) The trial will require a reallocation of resources and rooms, the reallocation of teaching duties for many, and restructuring of the school’s curriculum.
• In what ways might the utilitarian approach and the fairness approach conflict in this situation?
• How might a focus on virtues influence an individual’s engagement with the proposed change?
• Does the common good approach have a bearing on the proposal?
• What conflicts may arise when the proposal is addressed from the perspective of rights? Can these conflicts be resolved?
• What would you consider to be ethical conduct on the part of the principal and individual teachers in contributing to the decision making process?


It could be argued that some approaches to decision making are applied more readily than others in the context of education and public service. For example, a utilitarian approach to the allocation of resources in a school setting may lead to disadvantage for individuals or minority groups of students, and it could give rise to the view that "the ends justify the means." Circumstances such as these could contradict a code of conduct which requires, for instance, that all students be treated equitably.

Should a music class of six students be included in the curriculum at the expense of a third commerce class of thirteen students? Small classes in specialist subjects might never be part of a school curriculum if utilitarianism characterised all decision-making in secondary schools.

The limits of utilitarianism as an approach to ethical decision making is illustrated by the hypothetical example of the director of a hospital who has five patients who each need different organ transplants or they will soon die. A healthy young person is admitted for a toenail operation. By applying utilitarianism, the director could save five lives at the cost of only one - the greatest benefit to the greatest number. In this example the application of utilitarianism is thought of as macabre and affronting because it challenges broadly accepted value positions of individuals and the ethical principles on which society is founded.

Using Kant's approach to ethics it might be argued that ethical conduct of teachers should be determined by the concept of 'duty', and furthermore, that an action or decision should only be regarded as ethical if it could be applied as a general rule for everyone to follow. In the context of education "duty" is expressed as the duty to care for students. It might also include duty to have pride in self, duty to set the best example to others, duty to colleagues, duty to the school, duty to public education and duty to obey the law.

However there may be conflicts between duties. Furthermore duty implies that ethical conduct arises from a sense of obligation and discipline; whereas the ideal would have the individual wanting to engage in ethical conduct.
Examples of case studies

Consider the following case studies and possible responses in the light of the previous discussion and the frameworks for decision making. If you were to provide guidance to beginning teachers in relation to these case studies what would you say and what might you do?
• Which documents provided by the employing authority, or specific parts of these, impinge on each case study?
• In which situations is clear and unambiguous guidance provided by the relevant documents?
• In which situations are teachers required to make professional judgements based on ethical principles?
• What are the competing value positions?
• How would you resolve these?
Case study 1

A young male beginning teacher was coaching a junior hockey team after school on the school oval and at the end of one of the training sessions it started to drizzle. In the gathering gloom and cold two of the team members who lived most distant from the school asked politely for a lift part of the way home. Public transport was not available and the teacher wanted to get away too. Rather than wait around or refuse them, the teacher gave them a lift. A cleaner saw the two students getting into the teacher's car.
• Why might the teacher have made the decision to give the students a lift? Is there a conflict of duty involved?
• What are the possible ramifications of this course of action by the teacher?
• Does this action constitute ethical conduct? Is gender an issue affecting decisions in this situation?
• If you, as a colleague, had seen this occurring what would your response have been? What principles underpin your action or decision?

Case study 2

A teacher, newly appointed to a small central school in a country town, had walked to the school after dinner one evening and was working alone on end of term reports in the staffroom. A female student in year 10 who had run away from a violent argument at home, saw the light on at the school and rushed in seeking sanctuary. She was very distressed and fearful.
• What decisions did the teacher face in this situation?
The teacher offered to accompany the student to the police station or to a relative's house. The girl was too fearful to leave the staffroom. She put on the teacher's raincoat and stayed away from the windows fearing that those out looking for her might see her. Because there was no outside telephone line that the teacher could access from the staffroom, the teacher offered to leave the girl at the school and to go to get some assistance. The girl was too frightened to be left alone.
• What are the teacher's professional responsibilities in this situation?
• What actions might the teacher have taken to protect his or her own situation?
• What ethical principles might have informed the teacher'actions at this stage?
The teacher, accompanied by the student went to the main administrative section of the school to use a phone but the student wouldn't let the teacher call the police. At this point the teacher became more aware that the situation also involved an issue of Aboriginality.
• What ethical decisions did this teacher have to make?
• If you were the principal of this school, what would you regard asethical conduct for this teacher?

Case study 3

A single male teacher appointed to a small country school became involved in town sport and associated social activities. One Saturday evening he was with team-mates socialising and having a few drinks at a post-game barbecue. Later in the evening several male and female students from year 12 arrived at the barbecue by car. They had all been drinking and continued to drink at the barbecue.
• What are the implications for the teacher?
• Would it be considered ethical conduct for this teacher to remain at the barbecue?
As the evening progressed a very friendly rapport developed between the teacher and the students. One of the teacher's team-mates who was clearly "over the limit" invited a couple of the students, who had also been drinking, to go for a drive down the street to get some more beer.
• What are the implications for the ethical conduct of the teacher?
• Are there any decisions he should make?
• On what basis should these decisions be made?
After the departure of the 'beer expedition' one of the female students who remained at the barbecue had the undivided attention of the teacher. It became apparent to others at the barbecue that the teacher and the student were getting on very well.
• What are the implications for the teacher in this situation?
• What are the implications for the student?
On return from the excursion down the street, the team mate suggested that the teacher, together with the students, go with him to a party at the weir about six kilometres out of town. "There's plenty of room in the back of the ute," was the encouraging comment from the team mate. Instead of going to the weir the teacher offered to walk the female student home. He left the barbecue with the female student.
• What decisions are appropriate in these circumstances? What would be considered ethical conduct for the teacher?
• If you were at the barbecue what decisions or actions could/ should you take? What are implications of the different decisions?
• If you were the parents of the students what would you consider to be ethical conduct?
• If you were the principal what would you consider to be ethical conduct?

Case study 4

A teacher newly appointed to a school found the school community to be very welcoming and supportive. Parents went out of their way to show a genuine interest in the new teachers and to introduce themselves. One parent who was very supportive of the school engaged the teacher in friendly conversation one afternoon at the local shops. During the course of the conversation the parent expressed grave concerns for her/ his child's progress in another teacher's class. The newly appointed teacher already had reservations about the work of this other teacher, and these reservations were reinforced by what the parent had just said. The parent asked for the teacher's opinion and sought advice on what to do.
• What should the teacher do in this situation?
• What are the factors that might influence the teacher's decision to respond in a particular way?
• Does the parent have a 'right' to your professional advice and support?
What are the conflicts of 'duty' in this instance? What approaches to decision making assist in the resolution of these conflicts?
• Who else might be in a better position to provide advice to the parent?

Case study 5

A beginning teacher in a large school who was on playground duty, was approached by a student from her/ his own class together with a friend from another class. The friend claimed she was being picked on by another teacher. She didn't want to tell her parents because she feared that her Dad would "get wild" and come up to the school and make things worse. She was scared of the Principal. The teacher listened and showed interest and concern for the student.
• What would constitute ethical conduct on the part of the teacher?

Conclusion

In each of the above cases, several responses are possible. Some action is clearly guided by a code of conduct. Other decisions and actions are not. One of the purposes of using these types of case studies is to provoke a range of possible responses. There may not be 'correct' answers to some questions raised or a 'correct' response in some situations. Determining appropriate responses will depend upon an examination of the sometimes competing value positions held by individuals and espoused by institutions.

Such examination usually requires professional dialogue and the ability of individuals to reflect on and acknowledge the implications of different decisions. In short, a comprehensive approach to 'ethics training' is dependent upon an open workplace culture of enquiry and professional learning. The use of case studies and effective ethics training in general is sometimes incompatible with cultures of bureaucratic dependency based on rule following and abrogation of individual responsibility for action – the antithesis of professionalism in teaching.
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Bibby, M. Professional ethics and teacher practice

Forster, K. Promoting the ethical school: Professional ethics for school administrators

Carter, M. Ethics in teaching: The training and development challenge

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Teaching with Blogs

By Noah Wardrip-Fruin

From wikipedia
(Noah Wardrip-Fruin is Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is an advisor for the Expressive Intelligence Studio.[1][2] He is an alumnus of the Literary Arts MFA program and Special Graduate Study PhD program at Brown University. In addition to his research in digital media, computer games, and software studies, he is a member of the Board of Directors of the Electronic Literature Organization.)

Many people teach with blogs these days, and there are a number of approaches. For example, Liz Lawley’s mt courseware helps one make a cool, faculty-authored blog out of the course website. (A nice example of this in use is Matthew G. Kirschenbaum’s Computer and Text.)
I used blogs with my students in Spring 2003 (I didn’t teach during 2003-04, instead opting for the carefree life of the “Traveling Scholar”). My approach to teaching with blogs was a bit different, organizing the class blogging around a mini-blogsphere (each student having an independent blog, for which the course might be one of many subjects blogged). I’ve never written it up before, but now have in preparation for the Blogging Tutorial that Matt Webb and I are doing in sunny Santa Cruz, CA next week...

My goal last year (or really in late 2002, when we did the technical work) was to create an approach to blog courseware that assumed students were full members of blogging communities. Here’s a breakdown of the approach.
First, Brown installed MovableType (this was before the controversy). Each student got an MT blog. This blog wasn’t tied to the class (under a class directory, or only for the life of the class). Instead, each student was given a blog tied to their Brown username, which it was agreed they could keep until graduation (whatever Brown thought of our blogging experiment).
Second, each student blog was given a set of categories. If students had already had blogs before class began, these categories could have been added to their existing blogs:
ewriting: agenda item – outside reading
ewriting: agenda item – student assignment(s)
ewriting: assignment submission
ewriting: general discussion / announcement
non-ewriting (for students who did not create other categories)
Third, an aggregator (Blagg) was used to pull category-specific RSS feeds from each of the student blogs, and my faculty blog. (My faculty blog had a category for “ewriting: assignments” as well as the “general discussion / announcement” category.) Then we created a blog that displayed all the class’s blog posts in that category in one place. So the aggregation-driven blogs, as you might imagine, were:
EWRITING | AGENDA: READING
EWRITING | AGENDA: STUDENT WORK
EWRITING | SUBMISSIONS
EWRITING | GENERAL
EWRITING | ASSIGNMENTS
EWRITING | ALL (which included the posts in all ewriting categories)
This approach allowed blogging to be integrated into the rhythm of the class and take up a number of the course management functions. It worked like this:
I would post each week’s work to my blog, under the “ewriting: assignments” category. Students could look at the “EWRITING | ASSIGNMENTS” blog to see all the assignments to date. Students could also comment and ask questions about the assignments. The work each week included:
reading work by outside authors,
reading work by other students in the class,
doing their own creative work, and
developing two agenda items for the in-class discussion: one item for the discussion of outside readings, one for the discussion of student work.
Students would post their assignments to the “ewriting: assignment submission” category of their blog two days before class. This would give other students time to read it and make comments. (And comment they did.) Students could look at the “EWRITING | SUBMISSIONS” blog to see all the submissions that had come in so far.
Six hours before class was the deadline for students to submit their agenda items for class discussion (using the appropriate categories).
In class, each phase of the conversation would begin by opening the appropriate aggregation blog (”EWRITING | AGENDA: READING” and “EWRITING | AGENDA: STUDENT WORK”). We would look over the headlines of the agenda items and choose one of them to start with. Sometimes we’d follow the link to that item (if there was something special on the blog page) or just ask the student to elaborate a bit. We’d make sure we hit each agenda item before the end of the discussion. (Of course, had the workshop been larger, students might have only been assigned agenda items in each category every other week.)
The “EWRITING | GENERAL” aggregated blog also hosted some fun link-sharing (especially, as it turned out, of things people had mentioned in class and others had wanted to know more about).
There was only one hitch, which you might encounter if you try something like this. We couldn’t get the MovableType plugin for Blagg to work. So we had to write to the MT aggregation blogs using Blagg’s Blogger plugin and MT’s support for the Blogger API.
Of course, it might all be done a bit differently these days (different blog software, different aggregator, etc). And I imagine others have taken different approaches to using blogs for courseware which are similar — that is, predicated on the assumption that each student has a blog that can exist independent of the course (so, the course is one of the student blog’s subjects, but not the only one). As I gear up for teaching again in the Fall (and for the aforementioned tutorial) I’d be eager to hear folks’ thoughts.
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GOOD TEACHING: THE TOP TEN REQUIREMENTS

Του Richard Leblanc, York University, Ontario
This article appeared in The Teaching Professor after Professor Leblanc won a Seymous Schulich Award for Teaching Excellence including a $10,000 cash award. Reprinted here with permission of Professor Leblanc, October 8, 1998.

One. Good teaching is as much about passion as it is about reason. It's about not only motivating students to learn, but teaching them how to learn, and doing so in a manner that is relevant, meaningful, and memorable. It's about caring for your craft, having a passion for it, and conveying that passion to everyone, most importantly to your students.

Two. Good teaching is about substance and treating students as consumers of knowledge. It's about doing your best to keep on top of your field, reading sources, inside and outside of your areas of expertise, and being at the leading edge as often as possible. But knowledge is not confined to scholarly journals. Good teaching is also about bridging the gap between theory and practice. It's about leaving the ivory tower and immersing oneself in the field, talking to, consulting with, and assisting practitioners, and liaisoning with their communities.

Three. Good teaching is about listening, questioning, being responsive, and remembering that each student and class is different. It's about eliciting responses and developing the oral communication skills of the quiet students. It's about pushing students to excel; at the same time, it's about being human, respecting others, and being professional at all times...

Four. Good teaching is about not always having a fixed agenda and being rigid, but being flexible, fluid, experimenting, and having the confidence to react and adjust to changing circumstances. It's about getting only 10 percent of what you wanted to do in a class done and still feeling good. It's about deviating from the course syllabus or lecture schedule easily when there is more and better learning elsewhere. Good teaching is about the creative balance between being an authoritarian dictator on the one hand and a pushover on the other.

Five. Good teaching is also about style. Should good teaching be entertaining? You bet! Does this mean that it lacks in substance? Not a chance! Effective teaching is not about being locked with both hands glued to a podium or having your eyes fixated on a slide projector while you drone on. Good teachers work the room and every student in it. They realize that they are the conductors and the class is the orchestra. All students play different instruments and at varying proficiencies.

Six. This is very important -- good teaching is about humor. It's about being self-deprecating and not taking yourself too seriously. It's often about making innocuous jokes, mostly at your own expense, so that the ice breaks and students learn in a more relaxed atmosphere where you, like them, are human with your own share of faults and shortcomings.

Seven. Good teaching is about caring, nurturing, and developing minds and talents. It's about devoting time, often invisible, to every student. It's also about the thankless hours of grading, designing or redesigning courses, and preparing materials to still further enhance instruction.

Eight. Good teaching is supported by strong and visionary leadership, and very tangible institutional support -- resources, personnel, and funds. Good teaching is continually reinforced by an overarching vision that transcends the entire organization -- from full professors to part-time instructors -- and is reflected in what is said, but more importantly by what is done.

Nine. Good teaching is about mentoring between senior and junior faculty, teamwork, and being recognized and promoted by one's peers. Effective teaching should also be rewarded, and poor teaching needs to be remediated through training and development programs.

Ten. At the end of the day, good teaching is about having fun, experiencing pleasure and intrinsic rewards ... like locking eyes with a student in the back row and seeing the synapses and neurons connecting, thoughts being formed, the person becoming better, and a smile cracking across a face as learning all of a sudden happens. Good teachers practice their craft not for the money or because they have to, but because they truly enjoy it and because they want to. Good teachers couldn't imagine doing anything else.

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Teaching Adults: Is It Different? Myths and Realities

Της Susan Imel, ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career and Vocational Education Columbus, Ohio

The adult education literature generally supports the idea that teaching adults should be approached in a different way than teaching children and adolescents. The assumption that teachers of adults should use a different style of teaching is based on the widely espoused theory of andragogy, which suggests that "adults expect learner-centered settings where they can set their own goals and organize their own learning around their present life needs" (Donaldson, Flannery, and Ross-Gordon 1993, p. 148). However, even in the field of adult education, debate occurs about the efficacy of a separate approach for teaching adults. Some believe that adult education is essentially the same process as education generally (Garrison 1994) and therefore does not require a separate teaching approach: that is, all good teaching, whether for adults or children, should be responsive in nature...

The question of whether teaching adults is different remains ambiguous. For example, research summarized in an ERIC Digest (Imel 1989) has shown that even those educators who say they believe in using an andragogical approach do not necessarily use a different style when teaching adults. Additional myths and realities related to teaching adults are explored in this publication. Two areas are examined: types of adult learning and what learners themselves want from teachers.

Different Types of Adult Learning

One way to approach the question of whether teaching adults is different is by examining the types of learning in which adults engage. Drawing upon the work of Habermas and Mezirow, Cranton (1994) classified adult learning into three categories:

Subject-oriented adult learning --In adult learning contexts that are subject oriented, the primary goal is to acquire content. The educator "speaks of covering the material, and the learners see themselves as gaining knowledge or skills" (ibid., p. 10).

Consumer-oriented adult learning --The goal of consumer-oriented learning is to fulfill the expressed needs of learners. Learners set their learning goals, identify objectives, select relevant resources, and so forth. The educator acts as a facilitator or resource person, "and does not engage in challenging or questioning what learners say about their needs" (ibid., p. 12).

Emancipatory adult learning --The goal of emancipatory learning is to free learners from the forces that limit their options and control over their lives, forces that they have taken for granted or seen as beyond their control. Emancipatory learning results in transformations of learner perspectives through critical reflection (Mezirow 1991). The educator plays an active role in fostering critical reflection by challenging learners to consider why they hold certain assumptions, values, and beliefs (Cranton 1994).

Of the three types of adult learning, only emancipatory has been described as unique to adulthood, but even that claim has been challenged (Merriam and Caffarella 1991). Subject-oriented learning is the most common form of learning engaged in by youth. Collaborative and cooperative learning and other types of experiential learning that are more consumer oriented are also found in youth classrooms. However, according to Mezirow (1981), emancipatory learning, with its emphasis upon learner transformation, can take place only in adulthood because, "it is only in late adolescence and in adulthood that a person can recognize being caught in his/her own history and reliving it" (p. 11). In adulthood, "rather than merely adapting to changing circumstances by more diligently applying old ways of knowing . . . [individuals] discover a need to acquire new perspectives in order to gain a more complete understanding of changing events and a higher degree of control over their lives. The formative learning of childhood becomes transformative learning in adulthood" (Mezirow 1991, p. 3). As a result of the research and theory-building efforts of Mezirow-fully described in Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning (1991)-emancipatory adult learning has become more commonly known as transformative learning.

Teaching Approaches for Transformative Learning

If transformative learning is unique to adulthood, does it require the use of teaching approaches that are geared specifically to adults? This is not clear. It is true that transformative learning requires that learners address problems through critical reflection. Some strategies used to facilitate transformative learning, e.g., such as journal writing, critical incidents, and experiential methods, are used in other types of learning as well. (See Cranton 1994 and Mezirow and Associates 1990 for a full discussion of these and other methods that can be used to promote transformative learning.)

What is clear is that fostering transformative learning demands a different approach by the educator. Although learners must decide on their own to engage in transformative learning, educators who wish to promote transformative learning have the responsibility to set the stage and provide opportunities for critical reflection (Cranton 1994). When educators are operating in the domain of transformative learning, they help learners examine their beliefs and how they have acquired them by creating situations in which they can debate how their values, assumptions, ideologies, and beliefs have come to be constructed (Newman 1993). Instead of congratulating themselves for having made their point when a learner says, "I never looked at it that way before," educators can help learners engage in transformative learning by responding with, "`How did you see things?' and then, `What made you see things like that?' and then `If we can understand how you came to have a set of ideas and attitudes then, let's look at how you come to have the ideas and attitudes you have now'" (ibid., p. 182).

Of course, not all adult learning is transformative in nature; many adult educators also do not believe that they have a role in helping adults engage in critical reflection and, consequently, never operate in the transformative domain. Those who do, however, perceive that teaching adults is different.

What Do Adults Expect from Teaching?

Examining what adult learners expect from teaching provides another perspective on whether teaching adults is different. In this context, the question might be more appropriately posed, "Based on adult students' expectations, should teaching adults be different?" In an effort to answer this question, Donaldson, Flannery, and Ross-Gordon (1993) combined and reanalyzed research that examined adult college students' expectations of effective teaching and compared them with those of traditional students.

Previously, each of the authors had conducted investigations that looked at aspects of this question. Donaldson (1989) used a case study approach to examine student letters recommending faculty members for an excellence in off-campus teaching award. Flannery (1991) interviewed 68 returning students during the first semester back at school, asking them what they expected of instructors in the classroom. Ross-Gordon (1991) used the Critical Incident Technique to collect examples of the best and poorest instructors that respondents had encountered during college. Data for Ross-Gordon's study were collected through a questionnaire mailed to a randomly selected sample of adult undergraduates. The results from all three studies suggested that adult students might have "different" expectations for teachers that in some ways paralleled the assumptions underlying an andragogical approach, but each researcher also found some similarities to expectations for a teacher-directed approach. By combining the results of their studies, the researchers were able to confirm and extend their individual results and also add an element that compared the expectations of adult students to those of traditional students as reflected in the literature.

In the combined results, the six most frequently mentioned attributes adult learners expected of effective instructors were as follows (Donaldson, Flannery, and Ross-Gordon 1993, p. 150): to be knowledgeable; to show concern for student learning; to present material clearly; to motivate; to emphasize relevance of class material; to be enthusiastic.

Thus, the adult learners in this study demonstrated preferences for characteristics associated with both student-centered (e.g., relevance of material, concern for student learning) and teacher-directed (e.g., knowledge, clarity) instruction. When adult expectations for good teaching were compared with those of traditional students, many similarities existed in how the two groups characterized good teaching. However, four teacher characteristics mentioned by adults that were not among the top items for undergraduates were as follows: creates a comfortable learning atmosphere; uses a variety of techniques; adapts to meet diverse needs; dedicated to teaching.

Donaldson, Flannery, and Ross-Gordon (1993) point out that the first three of these items are congruent with the principles of instruction found in the adult education literature. Perhaps, as suggested by the researchers, when it comes to teaching adults, "the issue is not to continue to promote an either/or approach with regard to teaching expectations of adults, but rather to concentrate on the particular attributes which adults consistently select as important for effective teaching" (ibid., p. 150).

Conclusion

Is teaching adults different? Based upon the literature discussed here, the answer is both yes and no. Perhaps a better way to frame the question would be "Should teaching adults be different?" The answer to that would, of course, depend upon the purpose of the teaching-learning situation, including what approach and methods seem to be appropriate, as well as the needs of the learners. Many of the myths related to teaching adults emerge from an uncritical acceptance of the theory of andragogy. Unfortunately, the assumptions underlying the theory are still largely untested through research. Pratt (1993) also points out that adult educators need to examine the philosophical assumptions underlying andragogy in order to clarify "the underlying values and beliefs and . . . central concept of [adult] learning" (p. 87).

References

Cranton, P. Understanding and Promoting Transformative Learning: A Guide for Educators of Adults. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1994.

Donaldson, J. F. "An Examination of Similarities and Differences among Adults' Perceptions of Instructional Excellence." Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference, San Francisco, California, March 1989. (ED 308 750)

Donaldson, J. F.; Flannery, D.; and Ross-Gordon, J. "A Triangulated Study Comparing Adult College Students' Perceptions of Effective Teaching with Those of Traditional Students." Continuing Higher Education Review 57, no. 3 (Fall 1993): 147-165.

Flannery, D. "Adults' Expectations of Instructors: Criteria for Hiring and Evaluating Instructors." Continuing Higher Education Review 55, nos. 1-2 (Winter-Spring 1991): 34-48.

Garrison, D. R. "An Epistemological Overview of the Field." In Research Perspectives in Adult Education, edited by D. R. Garrison. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing, 1994.

Imel, S. Teaching Adults: Is It Different? ERIC Digest No. 82 . Columbus: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education, Center on Education and Training for Employment, The Ohio State University, 1989. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 305 495)

Merriam, S. B., and Caffarella, R. S. Learning in Adulthood. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1991.

Mezirow, J. Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1991.

Mezirow, J. "A Critical Theory of Adult Learning and Education." Adult Education 32, no. 1 (Fall 1981): 3-24.

Mezirow, J., and Associates. Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass 1990.

Newman, M. The Third Contract: Theory and Practice in Trade Union Training. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia: Stewart Victor Publishing, 1993.

Pratt, D. D. "Andragogy after Twenty-five Years." In An Update on Adult Learning Theory. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education No. 57, edited by S. B. Merriam. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Spring 1993.

Ross-Gordon, J. M. "Critical Incidents in the College Classroom: What Do Adult Undergraduates Perceive as Effective Teaching?" Continuing Higher Education Review 55, nos. 1-2 (Winter-Spring 1991): 14-33.

his ERIC Digest was published in 1995. The project was funded at least in part with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education under Contract No. ED-99-CO-0013.

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