issues of teaching and learning : a call for action in the 21st century
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W. Brennan
Issues of Teaching and Learning
A Call for Action in the 21st Century
By: William Brennan
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W. Brennan
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him
for life.” I really do love this expression. As a matter of fact, it serves as a powerful
metaphor for my own practice. As I begin to examine the issues facing teaching and
learning in the twenty-first century, I do so with an emphasis on what it means to teach
and how learning occurs. By examining progressive transaction teaching and learning I
will demonstrate the need for educational reform, highlight some challenges along the
way and share ideas of how I believe certain conditions may exist which I believe will
allow us to move in the right direction, away from transmission teaching and learning.
A good place to start is by examining what the word teach is trying to suggest in this
famous Chinese proverb. Haas and Poynor, two professors from the University of
Connecticut, suggest that “teaching is often equated with telling – teachers deliver
information that students absorb and at the center of this process is a relationship between
teacher and student.” (Haas and Poynor, 2005) I begin by asking, what does a man need
to know in order to be a good fisherman so that he can eat for life? Might a beginner
fisherman need the skills of casting, reeling in a line, configuring the pole with weights,
knowledge of what bait to use, understanding of tides, migration of fish and filleting and
cooking techniques? Perhaps you might think I am an experienced fisherman because of
all the prior knowledge I demonstrate. While I do possess some background knowledge
and cognitive structures of how to fish, I am sure that my lack of real-life experience
would leave me and my family very hungry at the end of the day. With that being said,
I believe teaching and learning occur best when learning is done by doing.
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W. Brennan
Exceptional learning should not only lead us to deeper understanding, but it should
leave us more curious. Grounded in behaviorist’s theories, transmission practices are
quite the contrast as it suggests students are not permitted to question the importance of
what they are doing. Where is the ownership in learning? “In transmission teaching,
learning activities have single, clear correct answers, progress from simply to more
difficult and often involve memorization.” (Haas and Poynor, 2005) This is precisely
what our system of schooling does today. In his book, The Global Achievement Gap,
Wagner writes, “Why is it that the longer our kids are in schools, the less curious they
seem? What is it about the way we school our children that stifles curiosity?” I submit
that it is the result of this long standing tradition of transmission teaching. Wagner
asserts that “the Seven Survival Skills are for the future generations as the “Three R’s”
were for the previous generations. They are the “new basic skills” for work, learning and
citizenship in the twenty-first century.” (Wagner, 2008) Wagner asserts the following
seven survival skills for the new economy: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving,
Collaboration across networks and leading by influence, Agility and Adaptability,
Initiative and Entrepreneurialism, Effective Oral and Written Communication, Accessing
and Analyzing Information and Curiosity and Imagination.
If Wagner’s assertions hold true, notwithstanding the best efforts of educators, the
United States school system is dangerously approaching obsolescence. His work is the
culmination of many interviews with business leaders and has observed hundreds of
classes in some of the nations most highly regarded public schools. His outcome is a
disconnect between what potential employers are looking for in young people today and
what our schools are providing. Wagner contends that our schools are passive learning
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W. Brennan
environments with uninspired lesson plans that focus on test preparation and reward
memorization. Lets take for a second one of the major skills required to be successful in
the workplace, Collaboration across networks and leading by influence. As a former
middle school science teacher, I seem to remember that children are born with the ability
to socialize. Yet, we ask them to check their social skills at the door the second they
enter our classrooms. As a school leader, I believe it is my role to guide the
conversations of teachers. Can the same be said for teachers and students?
According the Vygotsky (1978), people learn by first doing with others what they
cannot do as well by themselves. Known as “zone of proximal development, people
negotiate meaning and co-construct knowledge and the meaning of
intelligence.”(Vygotsky 1978) I want to pay particular attention to the idea of “others.” I
think “others” implies working or learning with people, yet it doesn’t give any leads on
who that might be. Yet in schools, we are totally grouping children by age and
sometimes using perceived intelligence as a tracking measure. Regardless of whether I
am enrolled in school, I will always consider myself to be a student. This is because I am
constantly trying to acquire new knowledge and build upon my cognitive structures.
Oddly enough, I often find myself with people of varying ages, and of many different
intellectual levels who truly do shape my thinking and teach me a thing or two. So why is
that we are so stuck on this tradition that students need to be grouped with students of the
same age? How does a transmission style of teaching promote a democratic approach to
learning when it is rare that students are not encouraged to engage is group learning or
talking to other classmates?
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W. Brennan
“Changes in school practices as profound as the shift from transmission to transaction
teaching will require grassroots organization, collegial support, and educational outreach
to all aspects of the school community (Fleischer, 2000). It could require starting one’s
own school (Glover, 1997). Transaction schooling, then, should be viewed as a radical
social movement arrayed against powerful forces that do not want it to succeed.” (Haas
and Poynor, 2005)
Similar to the mass circulation journalism of scientific management of schools, we
are in the midst of a huge public discussion about schools. With a breadth of new
research in the human brain and more communication channels than we know what to do
with, I expect educational leaders and policy makers to build momentum towards
transaction teaching practices.
Haas and Poynor contend that the research appears to support transaction schooling,
but the question arises, why hasn’t it replaced transmission schooling as the more
dominant model? Tradition and culture are hard to break, but combine that with a
bureaucratic system which is at the mercy of teacher contracts and bargaining units,
coupled with the financial influences of teacher organizations toward politics, and you
are faced with an almost impossible task. Haas and Poyner suggest that “transaction
practices should transcend from superintendent to principals, from principals to teachers
and from teachers to students.” (Haas and Poyner, 2005) I doing so, they suggest school
communities should work both within and across interested groups. Applied to teachers,
“this might be facilitating a school committee on curriculum after taking university
courses or attending workshops.” (Haas and Poynor, 2005) Unfortunately, I have seen
this in my own practice and it usually works in the opposite sense. Very often
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committees are made up of union officials with special interests who nudge the decision
making process in the best interest of their own people. This, I submit, is the brick wall
we all hit and the product is an outdated educational system.
In combination with teacher/union resistance we are faced with other systemic
challenges on why transaction teaching doesn’t happen today. The bottom line is that
transaction teaching and learning is very difficult to facilitate. It requires time. Time
refers to the ability of teachers to talk, plan and create curriculum and assessments which
support this practice. The current structure of the school day limits teacher collaboration.
My experience has been that teachers find very little time in the day to talk with other
teachers regarding lesson development and student work. Our current system does not
support these transaction practices of teaching and learning. To achieve this practice,
teachers need the time facilitate special projects, collaborate with colleagues to align
projects as well as discuss student progress.
Despite these challenges, I believe we have an opportunity knocking right around the
corner. Last Friday I attended the Annual Long Island Curriculum & Supervision
Conference in Huntington, New York where I had the pleasure of hearing Thomas
Rodgers, Executive Director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents
speak about challenges for the future. Mr. Rodgers reported that some people are calling
2011 as the time for “The Perfect Storm” in New York State. According to Paul
Schoemaker, a strategy specialist and research director of Wharton’s Mack Center for
Technological Innovation Leadership Strategies for Dealing with the Crisis, “The best
opportunities arrive in times of crisis, not in times of stability.” If there is an opportunity
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staring us right in the face, I ask, what is the key to making the most of these
opportunities?
Teaching every student in the Digital Age will provide greater opportunities for
transaction teaching. Getting there will require an educational culture much different
then what we have today. George Sieman’s asserts, the “Internet is changing the way we
communicate and therefore learn.” Through his concept of Connectivism, Sieman’s
presents a model of learning that acknowledges, “Learning is no longer an internal
individualist activity. As knowledge continues to grow and evolve, access to what is
needed is more important than what the learner currently possesses.” (Siemans 2008)
Although not regarded as a learning theory, Connectivism provides insight into learning
skills and tasks needed for learners to flourish in a digital era. I believe there is the
potential for technology, when coupled with effective teaching to transform learning to a
more transactional approach. As we seek to realize this potential, I submit that all
stakeholders must hone in on the research that supports transactional style teaching and
how it will create powerful thinkers and learners rather than children who will memorize
facts. In doing so, I submit that our focus must be on addressing multiple learning styles
in our classrooms and seek strategies to reach all learners. School must not be a place
where students come to watch teachers work, yet an environment where instruction will
provide real life experiences, so that, students can perform real life tasks with real life
responsibilities under the guidance of the instructor.
In conclusion, I leave you with the following quote from Albert Einstein who in my
opinion captures the essence of what education should be about. “Imagination is more
important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the
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entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” I personally believe this
captures one of the single most important aspects of what education should yield,
especially in the twenty-first century. Imagination, curiosity and creativity are most
often taught in the Arts, but rarely in the core subjects in American education. Our
education system which fosters memorization and standardized test will not prove to be
the springboard for innovation in a world and economy that demands it.
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Work Cited
Fleisher, C. (2000). Teachers organizing for change: Making literacy learning
everybody’s business. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
Glover, M. K. (1997). Making school by hand: Developing a meaning-centered
curriculum from everyday life. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of
English.
Haas, E, & Poynor, L. (2005). The SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership, Issues of
Teaching and Learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Siemens, G. (2008). About: Description of Connectivism: A learning theory for today’s
learner. Retrieved October 18, 2009 http://www.connectivism.ca/about.html
The Wharton School, Leadership Strategies for Dealing with the Crisis
Retrieved October 19, 2009 from http://tiny.cc/ K0cLX
Wagner, Tony. (2008). The Global Achievement Gap. New York, NY, USA: Basic
Books.
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