Tag Archives: 1968

Experimental Zoogeography of Islands: The Colonization of Empty Islands. Daniel Simberloff and E.O. Wilson (1968)

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This study was of the events following a defaunation event on six islands of the coast of the Florida Keys, each island consisting of one or several mangroves. Simberloff and Wilson suggest that given time the population of species on each island will reach a predictable dynamic equilibrium consisting of a similar but constantly changing cast of species.

The issues I found with this research were several. The authors conducted only a single survey of each island plus two controls before the experiment began and used this is an assumed average species number on each island, a sample size far too small from which to draw any conclusions. Beginning from this survey, any information they glean about average species numbers may match up to an anomalous “average” and wrongfully confirm their theories. Throughout the experiment, the collection of data was too infrequent given the ephemeral nature of many of the species involved. The experiment also ended before any of the islands populations were found to have arrived at a dynamic equilibrium, so any similarity between the pre-defaunation survey and the final survey could be a case of a broken clock being “right” twice a day, in this case, right meaning supporting the theory put forward in the paper. Finally, there is no indication that the two control islands were surveyed more than once before and once after the experiment, which would have given a much clearer view of the properties and typical variance of a dynamic equilibrium.

Aside from the conduct of the experiment, I found the writing to be a bit lacking. I would have found technical details on how the surveys were conducted, and where each island was located relative to a source and each other to be helpful in filling out my understanding of the theory.

My feeling toward this essay isn’t that the authors’ theory is incorrect, it’s that the way the experiment was conducted left didn’t find conclusive enough evidence to confirm it.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Pgs 72-86) Paulo Freire (1968)

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It’s easy to understand why this is the first piece of reading a teacher might assign. The topic discussed is the failings of the educational system with regards to the freedom of thought left to students after they’ve completed their studies. The text begins by addressing the dichotomy of teacher and student, then spends quite a deal of time describing the current common mode of teaching, what the author calls the “banking concept of education”, followed by what the author suggests as a replacement to that method.

The relationship among teacher and student, Freire argues, is a strict vertical hierarchy. The teacher is in a roll that grants them authority and value, and their responsibility is to recite information to the students. The student is valueless without the teacher, because the teacher is the one who gives them information. The transaction is such that at the cessation of the relationship, the student should have memorized the same things the teacher has with regards to the subject of the class. Freire poses an alternative relationship where in there is not a teacher and many students, but rather a teacher-student and many student-teachers. In this new mode of organization value can be shared and moves in all directions rather than in a strictly vertical teacher-to-student direction. The teacher-student then becomes the person who has the most information or experience on the topic at hand, but always leaves room for more depth of understanding to come out of interactions with the student-teachers.

Freire criticizes the current mode of education as too impersonal, prescriptive, rigid, and transactional. Using the banking analogy, the teacher deposits information into the student, who is otherwise an empty vessel. Freire describes the banking concept of education by ten rules, including; the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing, the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it, and, the teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his or her own professional authority, which she and he sets in opposition to the freedom of the students. The result of this style of education is the stripping away of the creativity, kindness, and free-thought innate in humankind, and, by extension, the mechanization of the people. Freire then states that a person’s natural vocation is to become human through the exercise of their own will.

As an alternative to this style of education, Freire suggests the “problem-posing” method. In the problem-posing method of education, each lesson becomes a discussion among peers. The teacher-student may decide the topic of discussion and guide the discussion from going too far astray, but should not set strict limitations. Through this method there will naturally be a great deal of exchange and evolution of thought. Not only does each student-teacher instruct the teacher and their peers, but they must also examine more closely their own opinions before giving them voice in a room of other free thinkers. This is what Freire calls “libertarian education”; education that sets one free.

Freire’s theories on education suggest that the mode in which one is educated is responsible for the way one lives their life. An education wherein one is taught to memorize and repeat information leads to a rigid, docile, easily-controllable population. A libertarian education is one that demonstrates a dynamic, changeable world in which the “students” are actors and who may affect its course. As Freire was a Marxist, he argues that any revolutionary society must adopt a liberatory educational system or risk becoming reactionary themselves. The influence of Marx is also clearly visible in the idea of a discussion based class, the focus on dialectics being the path to true knowledge.

I was excited as I read this piece and if it is an indication of what this class has to offer then I look forward to starting class in a few days.