Interdependence

First of all, we have to know that interdependence is the relationship between two or more living things to be healthy and stay alive. Interdependence is the key to maintain a cycle of life in the environment in which after all, every agent get a benefit from it. Without that dependence between different agents, it would not be possible the subsistence of each living being, for that reason we have to say that interdepence is essential in our daily life. “Our hypothesis, which we call the Interdependence Hypothesis, is that at some point humans created lifeways in which collaborating with others was necessary for survival and procreation.” (Tomasello, M., Melis, A., Tennie, C., Wyman, E. and Herrman, E., 2012, pp. 673-674)

In relation with this, in the first week class we could appreciate and understand the development of this word by our own, thanks to the visit to the farms to know how they work with cows to provide the milk that we are able to drink in our routine. Those visits, personally helped me to check that the interdependence between different agents is a real issue and on the contrary, it is not just a theory explained in books. We could see by ourselves different factors and strategies that work, what makes a more dynamic learning and in my point of view more worthy, because both for me and my classmates it is more interesting to learn something from the place where something works than just reading a book and memorizing. In this process, fortunately, we visited two different farms to know different process and places to work.

The first one, Mossgiel farm, is a small organic one where the cows use to be at the field, what means that they can feed on the grass in a natural way and at the same time, all of them are outdoors, what requires a more free lifestyle for them. Apart from this, we could see the machines are used to obtain the milk from the cows. This farm is a traditional one because it follows the normal pattern and process that we are use to see, and personally, I feel is a good option to have the cows in a free space for them to be able move by themselves and breathe fresh air, in this way, I think it favors to have a normal development and it doesn’t make an impact to the product they provide us in a future.

The second one, Strandhead Farm is one of the most modern farms because technology is used to work and to achieve the milk from the cows. In other words, this farm has machines with the farmers can observe different data while they are obtaining the milk from the cows, they can know if a cow revision is needed, the weight of the cow, how is the milk process going… Personally I think it is really useful to be able to use the technology in terms like that because it is so helpful that provides extra information to know that everything is going properly. On the other hand, in this farm cows are inside a place, what requires they have a limited space to move and they can’t enjoy of the outdoors, what I didn’t like too much because personally I saw the cows they hadn’t too much space for themselves and on the contrary of the first one, they can’t breathe fresh air.

This activity for children it could be really fun because they visit a different place where they are not use to go and at the same time, they can learn by what they see in front of them instead of by images on their class books. It is a nice way to learn something because they can touch by themselves what is around them and at the same time they become aware of the process and the work of a lot of farmers, what make it possible to drink milk everyday.

In the second week class, we developed deeply about what interdependence is and what components has, we learnt that interdependence is not only in relation with environment, but also with economy and society. In the case of economy we can find interaction in the global market and multinational financial institutions, and about society we can say that there are a lot of ways to interact by media, advertising, agencies, cultural integration…

“Some researchers (e.g,, Johnson and Johnson, 1989) distinguish task interdependence, in which each member must take action for other members to do any part of their work (as in a basketball team) from resource interdependence, in which each member can complete his or her part of the whole, but resources such as information are distributed among members and the whole task is not complete until each member has completed his or her part.” (Wageman, R., 1995, p.146)

Personally, I have always been aware of the environmental interdependence but not really on the other two. I think that economic and social interdependence is as important as environmental is and we can’t forget about this. In this world, every act has a consequence and that consequence has another one, making of this a constant cycle, because of that we have to be always aware of that.

In the case on environmental interdependence, we can say that slight changes in an interconnected system can mean big changes in other parts. It exists a non stop cycle between food, water and energy, that personally we aren’t really aware of it and how it runs so fast. In terms of environment, we have to point out concepts like food supply and welfare. As well, symbiosis is a key concept in relation with this, it consists of relationship between two different species, what leads to mutualism, commensalism or parasitsm. Apart from this, we also have to make reference to the possibility of extintion, a concept that is really controversial nowaydays and implies the loosing of any animal spice.

Finally, we did a independent study task per group about sustanaible seas, we found different documents in relation to biodeversity, economy and industry, community impact and political elements. One of the documents was about maintain sustanaible fishing practices, in this way the organisation who carried out this project, had as a main objective to maintain and improve the health of the oceans and avoid the exploitation of some species. To achieve this, they followed three main principles: sustainability of the fishery, environmental impact and fishery management.

In my view, was really interesting to study and work about this issue because we could see it from different point of views, such as farmers/workers, teachers and documents provided, and on the contrary we didn’t have just one resource to learn about it. I imagine that to a child, it is really fun to learn about it like that, but obviously more interaction would be needed to make a dynamic learning for them.

According to the skills that I have developed, in terms of generic ones I would point out critical thinker, analytical, knowledgeable, motivated, innovative… this is because this project, personally make me to stop to think and analyse about what/how it is really the process of obtaining the milk, the cares and needs that animals may have. At the same time, it made me know new things that two weeks ago I didn’t know and it created in myself curiosity about that. Motivation has been a main topic because it is essential the way in which we learn contents, and as Spanish student, I really liked this method because it is not based just on reading books, listening to the teacher or looking for information on internet. I had the possibility to look with my eyes what it is going on in the farms, how machines works, and how milk is provided to us. For this reason, for me it has been innovative, because I am not use to do this type of projects, so it is really interesting to learn by different methods and tasks in relation to a topic.

According to Primary teaching skills I can highlight some of them:

 

2.1.1 Plan coherent, progressive teaching programmes which match their pupils’ needs and abilities, and justify what they teach.

2.1.2 Communicate effectively, using a variety of media, to stimulate pupils and achieve the objectives of lessons.

2.1.5 Work effectively in co-operation with other professionals, staff and parents in order to promote learning.

 

These skills are essential in the learning process of Primary Education children, because the content and the activities has to be in relation, and it has to make sense when teacher explains to their students. For this reason, it must be there an armony between what are they doing and the content that wanted to be taught. At the same time, to work properly it is really important interaction, personally this way of learning improve the learning process and as well promotes communication skills. Other medias different to books are crucial to have different resources and to give students the possibility to learn by videos, audios… Finally, interaction works if we use other professionals as different resources to learn such as farmers in this case, because they are able to explain by their point of view and experience the content that we are studying. Children will always prefer learning by this way than by the traditional way using just one resource without any different place to the classroom. I think that it is possible to make a fun learning process and it is not difficult to achieve it, at the same time, if we work using different places, professionals, activities we are going to learn from the students as well while they interact with something new. Connections to other areas of learning may happen because working in groups and being in contact between all of us can transmit values. For this, it is important to create a good athmosphere for children. Apart from this, another subjects can be studied following that principles, such as language or maths, in which we can focus the subjects on a different way, creating new methods of learning.

Tomasello, M., Melis, A., Tennie, C., Wyman, E. and Herrman, E. (2012) Two Key Steps in the Evolution of Human Cooperation: The Interdependence Hypothesis. Current Anthropology [Online] Vol. 53 (6), pp. 673-692. Available: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/668207

Wageman, R. (1995) Interdependence and Group Effectiveness. Administrative Science Quarterly. [Online] Vol 40 (1), pp. 145-180. Available: http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=b40f941b-2700-4f29-8558-e44cb803ca52%40sdc-v-sessmgr04

 

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