Blog #2

Gee: Ironically, though, the process that is basic to young children’s learning and to adult’s expert practice is too often discounted and unused in school learning (92).

Albanese: It is likely very clear to anyone reading this book (especially those who have reached this chapter) that Gee is very openly and overtly critical of learning in schools. This quote is just one of the many, many, MANY, examples found in the book of him making one of these criticisms. Although I do see his points and cannot completely dispute them, I still question if he is being objectively fair. His agenda is so evident that one cannot help but question his claims. His argument seems to lack balance. Are schools really as ineffective and flawed as Gee claims?


Gee: 15. Probing Principle: Learning is a cycle of probing the world (doing something); reflecting in and on this action and, on this basis, forming a hypothesis; reprobing the world to test this hypothesis; and then accepting or rethinking the hypothesis (105).

Albanese: This learning principle is similar to both Piaget and Vygotsky’s theories of child learning. Both theorists believed that a critical element of learning for children was interacting with their environment. Each of their theories was similar to Gee’s Probing Principle in the sense that they each involved the learner exploring their environment, creating a hypothesis, testing that hypothesis, and either confirming or discarding that hypothesis.


Gee: In the end, my claim is that people have situated meanings for words when they can associate these words with images, actions, experiences, or dialogue in a real or imagined world (105).

Albanese: What Gee is describing here sounds a lot like the concept of meaningful learning, which refers to the idea that the learned knowledge (let’s say a fact) is fully understood by the individual and that the individual knows how that specific fact relates to other stored facts (stored in your brain that is). This can be accomplished through making connections between the material at hand, in Gee’s example ‘words,’ and something more concrete and established to the learner, like prior knowledge or a personal connection. In English Language Arts classrooms, we already encourage students to do this by asking them to make text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text connections.


Gee: Now they believe that transfer is crucial to learning but not at all easy to trigger in learners, especially in school (126).

Albanese: I was just reading about this same exact theory in another text, which I am reading for another course. The text is entitled, Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas by Patricia L. Anders and Barbara J. Guzzetti, which coincidentally makes many references to Gee and specifically this Gee text in particular. Anders and Guzzetti are in agreement with Gee about many of the concepts which he discusses in this text. Transfer is one of the concepts which Anders and Guzzetti discuss in chapter three of their text.


Gee: The problem is that often students continue to make this ‘mistake’ even after they have taken a good deal of physics and learned that it is a ‘mistake’ (169).

Albanese: Here Gee is talking about misconceptions, which is another concept that Anders and Guzzetti discuss in their text. In fact, Anders and Guzzetti devote much of the latter portion of chapter three of their text to discussing the concept of misconceptions in great detail. Once again, they are in agreement with Gee, stating “Conceptual change is difficult; it is the hardest teaching you will ever do. Several studies have shown that learners hang on to their previous understandings with great tenacity” (Anders & Guzzetti, 82). I have chosen this quote because it offers an explanation for the Gee quote I have listed above.


Gee: Cultural models play a crucial role in school. Let me give you a specific example from a science classroom (166).

Albanese: All I would like to say about this quote is that it annoys me that Gee continuously uses the science classroom as an example throughout the entire book thus far. This is merely one of the many examples where he uses the science classroom as an example to explain one of his theories or learning principles. If he is trying to demonstrate that learning in video games can be compared to learning in all content areas, then he should consider using a different content area aside from science for once. In my opinion, he has even had several opportunities where he could have possibly used the English Language Arts classroom as an example, but decided, instead, to use the science classroom as an example, over and over again.


Gee: Certain circumstances can, however, force us to think overtly and reflectively about our cultural models. We certainly don’t want or need to think overtly about all of them. But we do need to think about those that, in certain situations or at certain points in our lives, have the potential to do more harm than good (154).

Albanese: As I was reading this particular portion of text, it made me think of something that I believe would be one such example of what Gee is describing in the quote above. I am not sure if I am correct, however, as I understand it, I believe that the media’s portrayal of perfect or even acceptable body image, especially for females, is a cultural model which ‘we do need to think about’ because it does ‘in certain situations or at certain points in our lives, have the potential to do more harm than good,’ by leading to such extreme measurements and disorders as Anorexia and Bulimia.


Williams: Very often in the work of new designers, the words and phrases and graphics are strung out all over the place, filling corners and taking up lots of room so there won’t be any empty space (15).

Albanese: This first sentence of the chapter jumped out at me, reminding me of that awful website we looked at as a class. I forget the name of the website. However, I remember she had gowns and thousands of links to related and unrelated things. Both that website and the Peter Pan website we looked at seem to fit the description Williams is making here.


Williams: Robin’s Principle of Proximity states that you group related items together, move them physically close to each other so the related items are seen as one cohesive group rather than a bunch of unrelated bits (15).

Albanese: This principle definitely seems logical and simple enough. It makes perfect sense to me.


Williams: Once you become aware of the importance of the relationships between lines of type, you will start noticing its effect. Once you start noticing its effect, you own it, you have power over it, you are in control (26).

Albanese: Once again, as I have already stated in my prior blog, Williams sounds like a motivational speaker here. It is almost kind of humorous. ‘you own it, you have power over it, you are in control,’ the only thing that is missing here is the exclamation point.


Williams: And it’s okay to set the type smaller than 12 point! Really! (27).

Albanese: I actually learned something here. I had thought it was never okay to use a font size smaller than 12 point on any document. I am still unsure if that is a good idea. I feel it may be too small and that people may have to strain in order to read it, especially those with less than perfect eyesight.