Facts...Counterfacts/Blog 2

 •    How are the theory and practice of this course similar to and different from "Discovery of Competence"?  (How much would these teachers argue with each other if they had to work together to create a course?)

While I’m sure these teachers would argue with each other quite a bit while co-creating a course, I feel that there are actually quite a few similarities between “Facts, Artifacts….” and the “Competence” authors’ approaches.  First of all, in both courses, students tackle a semester-long project which investigates a subject (though I’d be more inclined to use the verbs “discover” or “explore” in the competence course).  Both also engage students in sustained inquiry and research of some sort.  Obviously, the counterfacts course presents itself as much more academic (the students are in a class modeled after an advanced graduate seminar) while the competence course almost seems a bit more “fluffy” (touchy-feely?) – I can’t come up with the appropriate adjective. 

The competence course seems to operate under the assumption that students’ competence already, to a pretty significant extent, exists. The counterfacts theorists on the other hand work to develop competence integral to an academic setting, and this competence is "learned" through rigorous reading, writing, thinking analyzing etc.

These teachers would certainly argue about the role of the teacher.  Bartholomae and Petrosky believe the teacher’s role is “to hold students to rules and requirements and, generally, to keep the group and its work together” (p. 31).  Kutz et. al feel that teachers are more like co-discoverers and creators of the course, rather than authoritative figures.  I was struck by the language in Bartholomae’s prompts, which contained quite a few first person pronouns referring to the teachers (giving the impression that “you” the students are writing for “us” the authoritative teachers, or “we” the teachers in charge would like you to write x…).  There is a clear distinction between teacher and student, and the relationship here is not akin to co-collaboration. 

I feel that several of these differences are too glaringly obvious to even analyze further, yet, it seems very possible to draw from the theory behind each course in the creation of a new one.