Teachers:
- Are you standing in front of the class most of the times sharing your knowledge?
- Do you still think knowledge is power?
- Do you think the South African CAPS curriculum approach, material and textbooks are workable, good or even great?
Then the content of this is aimed at you, whether you believe it or not. Why?
Because
you are teaching for the previous age or epoch. Your
methods are outdated and you don’t use new approaches to teaching. Let’s hope
in the meantime your manger or your manager’s manager does not find out they
remunerate you for skills that reached it’s ‘sell by date’.
Traditional
teaching defines as teaching as ‘transferring knowledge’ to learners. This
definition exceeded its ‘best before’ date because the realities of the future
call for a fresh definition of learning.
We need
innovative teaching approached to prepare college and school leavers who can
study further and get exceptional jobs.
Some more questions:
- Is it because college and school leavers are prepared for mediocre traditional jobs that universities and broadminded employers are not impressed with the learning standards?
- Is it because school managers live in the past that schools cannot prepare learners for the future?
What happens currently?
Two issues
are currently addressed to solve the problem.
First they
review the curriculum. Despite reviewing the school
curriculum three times in 20 years and putting learners through 12 years of
schooling, school leavers are not prepared for society in general and for the
workplace in particular.
The
problem is not about the curriculum i.e. subject content, it is about teaching
better.
Secondly,
they focus on school management. This seems
to bear fruit, but the education standards are still appalling.
Decision
makers need to realize that teachers should become teachers for the conceptual
age and subsequently start driving the process. This places a specific responsibility
on institutions training teachers as this implies that they train teachers for
the industrial/information age. Or where else do teachers obtain their current
skills?
What led to the end of the ‘shelf life’ of traditional teaching?
The world
outside teaching moved from the agriculture age through the industrial age to
the information age and now into the conceptual age. Teaching
is still focused on empowering learners for the industrial and information age.
How can I
say this?
The
information age is amongst other, recognized by education systems which aims to
equip learners with knowledge. Teachers believe learning is about assimilation
of information and subsequently tell learners: ‘Knowledge is power’. This age
was steered by workplaces which remunerated workers according to what they knew
and can do in a set environment.
Traditionalists
teach workers to be bound to acquire pre-set insight and problem-solving skills
needed for predicable and re-occurring workplace problems. This, while the
world of work is ever changing.
In
countries with good education systems, knowledge workers became readily
available commodities. Countries with less good education systems still lack skilled
workers. Where does South Africa fit into? What are our needs?
The conceptual age
This age
call for workers who can add value to the workplace by seeking solutions for
future challenges.
Such
workers must have drill down inquiring minds, be strong on ideation, have
strategic imaginations and skilled to continuously de-learn and re-learn
concepts.
Their
conceptualization of problems, challenges ideas and solutions should be swift
and flexible to survive in a world where change is the only constant factor.
The characteristics of teaching in the information age
When
people design curricula they think in terms of information. They ask questions
like: What information is most important for learners to know?
When
teachers design lessons they think in terms of information. They ask questions
like: What are the best ways to transmit that information to the learners? How
can the content be simplified and digested best to make it understandable and
learnable? This focus
is limiting and distorting the purpose education.
The system impairs people to
become better thinkers and problem-solvers in new contexts. The system needs to
move beyond the information-centric approach.
Reasons why institutions stick to old habits?
 |
| Teaching is still focused on empowering learners for the industrial and information age. |
Schools
are deeply rooted in 19th and 20th century practices
based on old-fashioned and outmoded industrial-oriented teaching approaches.
Transformation
is hampered by pedagogical traditions, administrative stubbornness and academic
politics.
These
serious failure to evolve results in rejection anything new. Yes, they play it
“safe”.
Another
reason is probably pure conservatism by decision-makers who was promoted
through the ranks having the view that nothing is wrong, so nothing need to be
fixed.
The characteristics of teaching for the conceptual age
Educationists
realized learning is not about transmission of information. They understand
they cannot simply pour information into the heads of learners. Teachers
teaching for the conceptual age understand learning is an active process where
learners have to construct their own understandings of the world around them
through active exploration, experimentation, discussions and reflection. In
short: learners should not get ideas;
they should devise them.
Employers
expect workers to demonstrate ‘thinking skills’. Teachers who understand the
concept of constructive learning see thinking skills as mental muscles which
can be exercised to become fit. For them mental muscles refer to is the human
capacity to think in conscious ways to achieve certain purposes.
Thinking
skills include abilities such as remembering, communication, questioning,
creating new concepts, planning, reasoning, imagining, solving problems, making
decisions and judgments, translating thoughts into words, etc.
The definitions of learning to take cognizance of
The inappropriate definition
of a successful learner within the information age is a person who could
swiftly understand what is being explained by a teacher or described in books.
Then being able to apply the information, analyze it, then synthesize it and
when needed evaluate it. (Bloom)
A
successful learner within the conceptual age is a person who can employ the
‘knowledge’ as per Bloom’s taxonomy using mind tools to create fresh concepts
which are fit for new contexts.
Instead of
defining teaching as internalizing information/solutions/etc. from the external
world, the conceptual age the definitions of learning for the conceptual age
is: constructing internal concepts and providing them to the external world as
solutions.
Learning
is about concept creation, developing procedures, adaptive reasoning with the
view to reposition from a disposition.
People’s
thinking tools manifest in insight, alternative ways of solving problems,
working with probabilities, new visions, creativity, inventiveness, ingenuity,
originality and imagination.
Instead of
being pattern sniffers, learners should be pattern creators.
The
nutshell solution (PLEASE NOTE: THERE IS MUCH MORE TO IT)
2. Refrain
from translating the curriculum into lessons i.e. simplify textbook content and
offer it to learners. Rather develop challenging learning activities which
enable them to derive to answers themselves.
3. Do
not ask a question to the class and move from one learner to the nest to get
the correct answer (no
learning will take place). Rather ask a question to an
individual, follow the answer up with another learner and bounce it back to the
first learner (learning will take place).
4. Organize
learners in discussion and work groups give them assignments (be in close
proximity to guide – do not
provide answers and solutions) and expect feedback. Use the feedback as
platform for further deliberations.
5. Let
learners explain how they arrived at answers. Discuss their thinking not their
answers. They will eventually arrive
at the correct answer themselves.
Written by: Dr Cas Olivier
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