Personal answers and thoughts to guiding questions on Dall’Alba

What is the basis of Dall'Alba's critique on current views of education? (what is her argument?)

Dall’Alba’s argues that currently there is so much focus of epistemology (theory of knowing) and not at all on ontology (theory of being). She argues that ontology is as important as epistemology.
According to Dall’Alba, professional education programs needs to be more than just instilling necessary knowledge and skills when preparing professionals for practice in their respective fields. There needs to be ways to develop and transform aspiring professionals to “ways of being”, which according to Dall’Alba, is to engage young professionals with set of routines, histories and traditions of their chosen respective career to the extent that “they are manifest in the present and relevant for the future”.

What alternative framework does she put forth?
Education as Transforming ways of being.

What might it look like to design an education based on this alternative framework?

Based on reading Dall’Alba, a new design of an education system, I believe, must have following items.

1) Learning through experience – Dall’Alba suggests that teacher trainees “learn to design learning activities and to assess what students have learned. As they do, develop their own knowing and acting…, at the same time extending and elaborating their understanding and embodiment of what it means…” Some forms of learning through your own experience, I believe, is suggested by Dall’Alba. This allows aspiring professional to not only integrate what is known and clarify what is lacking in the current practice, but also allows them to take a step (or steps) towards becoming an experienced professional (transformation taking place by learning through experience).

2) Include interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary subjects into current curriculum – Meeting and learning about other disciplines allows aspiring professionals to expand their horizons, opportunities and possibilities and “potentially enriching the process of becoming”. Dall’Alba strongly suggests in the paper the importance of “interdependent” and “broader social world”, and that individual cannot become a “professional in isolation”. To develop and enrich ontology, I believe, Dall’Alba is suggesting to incorporate subjects from other disciplines into professional subjects.

3) Learn to seize on ambiguity rather than shy away from it – Learn to question the norms and current practices despite the pre-conceptions and challenges from experiences teachers. By doing, aspiring professionals would not only advance the field but develop professional ways of being. This will enable one to look into deeper questions, as suggested by examples illustrated in Dall’Alba, “Addressing or resolving such tensions involves questioning assumptions, not only about what teaching involves, but also about what it means to be a teacher.” This process is developing not only epistemology but ontology of aspiring professionals.