“The Deconstruction of the K-12 Teacher” has been finding
its way into my digital devices from a variety of sources in recent days. If
you haven’t seen it yet, it is an insightful essay by Michael Godsey that
appeared on The Atlantic’s site (http://t.co/F0RJhFCHfV).
I think I am accurately summarizing of Godsey’s article: He
describes the changing landscape of teaching, learning, and schooling and
illustrates the changes with examples of strategies and digital tools that are influencing
educators’ work. My career appears to have paralleled Godsey’s, and I can
confirm the devices foisted on him as an English teacher have been foisted on
me as a science and math teacher who joined the dark side of educational
technology.
Godsey appears to have captured the landscape well; the work
of dispensing information is being transferred from educator to technology.
Today’s educators have access to amazing and previously unimaginable sources of
information, and we can leverage those to our needs. (The recent allegations
notwithstanding, I used Walter Lewin’s lectures when I last taught physics
because he was a far better lecturer than I am.) Godsey uses the familiar
“sage-on-the-stage” to “guide-on-the-side” metaphor to illustrate the changing
nature of teaching.
I would share Godsey’s apparently cynical outlook on the
future of our profession (indeed my colleagues would confirm my cynicism has
equaled and exceeded his at times), were it not for the fact that many of the
initiatives he references have failed. Online learning is probably the premier
example. Despite much rhetoric, it still appears to be a largely marginalized
endeavor, and students’ reactions to online learning experiences are the
embodiment of ambivalence.
When I encounter a student who demonstrates this ambivalence,
I try to engage him or her in conversation about the experience. These informal
conversations typically focus on the fact that there was no personal connection
with the teachers, and that contributed to a lack of motivation and engagement
they felt. Without that engagement, the most wonderful online lecture cannot be
an educative experience.
The un-engaging nature of much online learning can be
attributed to the largely absent sense of community and culture. Being together
and sharing stories, feedback, and informal advice are all part of becoming
educated in the culture of the subject that is learned in school. It is through
this (formal and informal) social interaction that we learn the essential lessons
of our educated society.
I have searched in vain to find the article I read at some
point in the last couple of years that added “mentor-in-the-middle” to the
emerging roles of educators. The model seems to be a far more accurate summary
of the future role of educators than the familiar “sage” or “guide.” Consider
the relationship between graduate faculty and graduate student: As mentors,
faculty help students identify relevant and important problems, they help them
define and articulate and gather data to address the problems, and they
facilitate groups of students to critique and improve each other’s work. These
are the important roles of teachers in the 21st century landscape of infinite credible
information.
As I read Godsey, I see another theme, and it is more
distressing. Educators—Godsey and me along with our experienced and
knowledgeable colleagues—are being replaced as the experts on teaching and
learning. I can understand the politician, philanthropist, and businessperson
who can gain political and public relations credibility and using his or her
“expertiness” (with apologies to Stephen Colbert and his writers) to advocate
for “school improvement”. I cannot understand the educational “leaders” who
ignore what they learned in their educational research and learning science
courses about data and learners as they allow destructive practices and dubious
advocates to gain access to their communities.
I am hopeful that Godsey’s article motivates educators to
accept greater role in defining the future of their professional. Actually,
that is not my hope.
Educators must demand that we craft education that
reconciles our past history as dispensers of information with the new need for
students who gain wisdom as consumers of information and more importantly as
creators of knowledge and wisdom.
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