Week 18: Reflecting on changes in my future oriented teaching practice

I am using Gibbs model for reflection this time and the Theme I have chosen to reflect on is - Theme 4: “Changing the script”: Rethinking learners’ and teachers’s roles.

Description: In the past teachers have always been up the front of the classroom with all the knowledge while the students are sitting at their desks listening to the teacher who are sharing their knowledge with the students. There have been studies of brain activity during the course of a day that shows that this type of learning is the least effective in any circumstance. Students learn better from other students than from a teacher and, they learn by doing and leading their own learning. It’s time to change things about and put the onus on the students to lead their own learning. The teacher then becomes the facilitator to support their learning rather than the dictator with all the answers. 

Feelings: This can be a scary concept as teachers learn to lose some control of the learning and be free to not always know where the learning will take them, the children need to lead the direction for their own learning. We can have a fear of feeling a bit redundant and worry about the security of our profession. However, I feel that the teacher’s role is still necessary as the students learn to navigate their way, they don’t yet have the skills they need to research, summarise, edit and self motivate. They still need their teachers to help them and support their learning. This can also be quite challenging for the students who aren’t self motivated, the teachers then need to help them see the benefit for their learning and re-direct them when they get distracted on irrelevant stuff. 

Evaluation: Anne Kenneally (2012) did a study looking at desks in rows and thought there just has got to be a better way. She learnt that not only does the teaching need to change but so does the environment. How can we give the children the opportunities to learn from others if we don’t allow for a space in the classroom for this to happen, what about the children who like to lie down while they read or work, what about those who like to stand, those that need quiet place, those who like the fresh air etc, we need to make changes in our environment as well to truely support all these different learning styles and accomodate the students as individuals.

Analysis: Bolstad, Gilbert, McDowll, Bull, Boyd and Hipkins (2012) stated that “It is widely argued that current educational systems, structures and practices are not sufficient to address and support learning needs for all students in the 21st century.” SO what do we do with this other than make a change somewhere? Things are different in the 21st Century classroom, we need to get onboard with it. Where do we start, how do we start, what does it look like, where can we get the support we need to implement it?

Conclusion: For change to happen we need more than just educators onboard, we need the community to understand the benefit and needs for this change in education too. You still have resistance to this different style of learning from parents who believe there was nothing wrong with the way they were brought up and educated. However, they need to understand that the jobs that they were brought up to learn for and not necessarily going to be around when these children get old. As Bob Dylan famously said “You better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone, ‘cause the times they are a-changing.” 

Action Plan: Start small, get the early adapters onboard class by class, then they can teach the early majority and so on until we have our whole school believing in the power of choice in education. Put together some parent workshops to show the benefit of this style of learning, show and celebrate it at every opportunity to encourage the support.

References: 

Anne Kenneally - http://edtalks.org/#/video/creating-learning-spaces (2012)

Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowell, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching - a New Zealand perspective. Report prepared for the Ministry of Education. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306