Innovative Learning Environments
My Thoughts...ILE Screencast (from 2015)
It's Time to get rid of "Pub Quiz Learning!"
Left: A typical looking class from my childhood. Maybe the desks were occasionally joined together in groups and if we were really lucky, these desk groups changed every term. This approach was considered ok when a teachers job was simply to pass on facts/info in an industrial model of education. If it was really important we would copy it into our books!
What type of pedagogical intent is shown? i.e desks in rows. How does that promote collaboration or even quiet reflective time or working with others? It doesn't.
What type of pedagogical intent is shown? i.e desks in rows. How does that promote collaboration or even quiet reflective time or working with others? It doesn't.
John Edwards talks about students becoming lost in a "sea of blah", where a class is dominated by a sage on the stage with the teacher aiming to transmit their knowledge. However....it is no longer possible to know what knowledge people will draw on as they move through life. And we also know that students don’t learn like that (i.e listening to a teacher talk has a very low retention rate)
Students would need to constantly update their content knowledge. Alternatively students who are critical thinkers, risk-takers, creative and self-directed can learn by themselves.
Students would need to constantly update their content knowledge. Alternatively students who are critical thinkers, risk-takers, creative and self-directed can learn by themselves.
Teachers were considered "Knowers of Knowledge", but we all know where "Knowers" belong now......Noah's Ark! ;-)
Students are no longer empty vessels to be filled with endless facts and figures. I recall spending weeks and weeks learning the flags of the world and capital cities. Students now can ask their phones and have the answer in 2 seconds! This is not to say that we want our learners to be ignorant and not have some base level of general knowledge. I would be devastated if students looked at a $5 note and said "Who is that?", but rather than just knowing that Sir Edmund Hillary conquered Everest in 1953, I would hope they would also be able to identify his enormous contribution as a NZer and wider contribution to the world, and how they could apply some of this to their own lives. |
The historical education system tended to focus on “just in case learning”, with lots of facts & knowledge just in case you need it.
Brilliant for pub quiz but not necessarily important for the future. Education now should be just in time, students able to access and create knowledge anywhere, anytime, anyplace. To enable this, the role of the teacher needs to change - What we need is one size….fits 1! if we believe that everyone brings different prior knowledge to a topic and no two people learn the same thing in the same way at the same speed, then it doesn’t make sense to have a classroom set up with everyone facing the front doing the same thing at the same time. |