As the world continues to digress away from the ‘old-fashioned’ ideals of education, a shift in technology and learning has forced us to restructure and reconceptualize the future of education. Public Secondary Schooling should reconceptualize (structure, curriculum, and pedagogy) to be effective in 2025 by incorporating more community and parental partnerships, integrating technology, and encouraging project-based learning.
By incorporating the community and parents into schools, not only does it encourage students to hold themselves accountable for their schooling, but students truly believe they are a valued resource in their communities. Taking from Lipton and Oakes’ strategy of some constructive forms of engagement from parents, teachers will be supported, health and social services can be offered, culture can be bridged into the curriculum and parents and teachers can develop a partnership in the students education. Teachers and parents must come to a healthy understanding in regards to each party’s involvement in the student’s education which can be easily solved with good communication. Respect for each other’s role in the student’s life, as Garner suggests, must be of the upmost importance in communicating the wants and needs of the relationship between teachers and parents. Communities, as suggested in the edutopia.org video 10 Big Ideas for Better Classrooms, want to interact with schools in order to show the students that they, the students, are a valued member of society. This is important do to the fact that communities are already shifting to. As Draves and Coates describe, the community in 2025 will continue to evolve into divisions of neighborhoods where the work environment may become even more internet based providing options for telemarketing and thereby forcing members of the workforce to seek social interaction through interest centered groups and clubs. By incorporating the community and families into the student’s life, you provide a support system that will build confidence and reassurance in the student’s abilities making them want to contribute back into the society which supported them.
The integration of technology has already become such a large development in schools in the past decade, but in 2025 technology will be found everywhere in every aspect of schooling. Draves and Coates demonstrate how even the technological advances of the twentieth century, including cars, suburban and office building sprawls, is quickly losing ground against the intense presence and growth of networks, intranets and telecommuting. For students, technology will be integrated into schools in scaffolding multidimensional aspects of instruction to challenge and engage student interest making it a fundamental aspect of learning. As shown in 10 Big Ideals for Better Classrooms, schools are beginning to understand that students respond well to technology and applying it to class work. One example was a group of students using GPS tracking devices to pinpoint the location of frogs on a class field trip. The teacher describes how the students would not be interested on the field trip had it not possessed some kind of technological instruction making it a meaningful lesson. Students are even engaged to participate in ‘game show’ review where each student has a handheld devise and respond to a multiple-choice on a television screen. Where educators cannot shy away from is being intimidated in integrating technologies into instruction and there must be a continuation of teacher development programs to ensure their confidence in using different technologies.
The final concept of encouraging project-based learning not only encourages student to learn through projects but also focuses on teaching them the fundamentals of working in a collaborative effort with their peers to gain valuable life skills. In the video on edutopia.org, there are many examples of how projects and student-centered learning has been a success in the comprehensive assessment of the student’s learning as opposed to standardized tests or appraisals. Students are energized and focus and feel a greater sense of accomplishment when they complete a project rather than perform well on a test. The tangible nature of projects and seeing an end result allows the students to evaluate their achievement from start to finish, building their confidence in learning. Draves and Coates describe the advantages of learning through the internet by allowing students more immediate methods of discovery and experimentation and a relevant connection to the lessons. Students will not only accomplish projects through the internet individually or exclusively, but students will have to continue to work together to collaborate their strengths and weaknesses. As Gardner suggests, students must take an example from the respect teachers demonstrate in working together to pursue the common goal of a student’s success. Students must use their own ways of learning and collaborate with other students and be open to other ideas and suggestions. As many people in the workforce find, there is a time for linear thinking and then one should think outside of the box: students need to learn to cooperate with other learners in order to achieve their goals.
Sources Used:
10 Big Ideas for Better Classrooms
Draves, W.A. and Coates, J. (2004). Nine Shift: Work, life and education in the 21st century. River Falls, WI: LERN Books.
Gardner, H. (2008). 5 Minds for the Future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
Oakes, J. and Lipton, M. (). Teaching to Change the World. New York, NY: Mc-Graw Hill.
No comments:
Post a Comment