Fwd - The Changing Role of the Teacher in the 21st Century June 10, 2011
Thanks to Carol Rainbow (linked in profile ) for this link via the LinkedIn Learning Without Frontiers group. The ideas here are aren't particularly new - and it's a very long article - but it brings a lot together in one place, there are some new slants in it and good explanations. The start in particular is useful for showing people who have never thought critically about our out-moded systems of education. I particularly liked the term "data dumping" which may be familiar to others but was new to me.
The Changing Role of the Teacher in the 21st Century
By the authors of The Edutainer: Connecting the Art and Science of Teaching
“Many of our schools are good schools, if only this were 1965.”-Louise Stoll & Dean Fink
The irony of this quote is not the fact that our educational system is antiquated, but that most new initiatives and programs are still focused on perfecting the antiquated school of 1965 rather than transforming formal education to be relevant in the world of today.
It seems that while business models, technology, and even religion (steeped in tradition) have adapted to an ever changing culture, education has remained comparatively unchanged. The global business market has moved from an assembly-line manufacturing culture to a more service oriented culture. The Information Age of technology has moved us into an era of instant information. The world is literally at our finger tips. However, one glance into a classroom and you would find very little has changed over the past 30 or more years. Oh, there might better lighting, air conditioning or even a computer or a smart board in the room, if you are lucky, but the process of formal educating has changed very little over the past several decades.
Education still mainly involves teachers “data dumping” information to students to cover the curriculum in preparation for a standardized test. So, if education has not kept up with the changing times, then one has to question its relevance in preparing students for the world of today – not to mention the world of tomorrow. And if education has not changed with the times, then it is reasonable to assume that the role of educators has not changed as well. Therefore, one could conclude that the role of the teacher is effective… if only this were 1965.
So, the question becomes, is the role of the teacher effective in the year 2010? ( more at http://teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/dr-brad-johnson-tammy-maxson-mcelroy/changing-role-of-the-teacher/ )