Thursday Theories - A Rationale to Change Your Philosophy on Teaching

A Rationale to Change Your Philosophy on Teaching



Waitzkin, Josh. The Art of Learning: a Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence. New York: Free, 2007. Print.



First, go pick-up a copy of Josh Waitzkin's The Art of learning and add it to your growing stack of books to read. For now, squint and read the excerpt above.

The Indian parable is my rationale for the current outlook on education. From a teacher's perspective, the landscape is thorny and unmapped. Educators could fight to make every obstacle bend to their will as represented by the concrete mix. They would need endless stamina to overcome the evolving new family unit, a new type of empowered student known as a digital native, a new curricula through Common Core that promises career readiness and numerous gripes about the challenges in the classroom.

Choosing this direction would result in harsh resistance and exhaustion.


Rain soaked Converse

On the other hand, educators could always choose to evolve with the landscape as represented by the shoes. They could make efforts to recognize the needs of a class filled with digital natives accustomed to learning in high-speed bursts. They could put current assessment to the test (see what I did there?) and determine if it’s going to benefit students after graduation.

 Veteran educators always referred me to a pendulum analogy regarding educational trends. Depending on your stance of how a classroom should function, you’re philosophy is either on the up-swing or down-swing. With states adopting the broad Common Core standards, I feel we’re on an exciting up-swing! The standards emphasize authenticity by conducting OTC (Outside the Classroom) applications in lessons requiring more creativity and thinking than regurgitation and bubbles to fill-in.

In my current position, we already assist educators in developing authentic lessons that just happen to align with most or all the Common Core standards. Feedback from teachers suggests this authentic teaching style is more engaging and fosters happier students. Happier students makes for less work for the teacher! It’s a snowball effect towards successful teaching habits!

How will big business assessment companies and data hungry bureaucrats fit into this?

How can I help prepare my teachers prepare for change?

It would be ideal to create a formula, so here's my start:
1. Rationalize the need for change in how lessons are developed
2. Change the view of our students to a more positive stance
3. Develop authentic assessment beyond traditional tests
4. (TBD)