Many people have written about the changes in education in
recent times, here are a few pieces that I have found to be of interest.
This short post mentions the
effect of technology on education. One
point the author makes that I found particularly interesting was that children
today are less likely to be satisfied with traditional lessons whereby the
teacher provides instructions and teaching in an oral way. The author refers to the fact that as so many
children are exposed to many different forms of technology (television,
computers, iPads) on a daily basis, they require a more visual method of
teaching in order to remain motivated and to learn. I have certainly encountered many children
who are restless and proclaim they are “bored” when completing tasks that do
not involve some form of technology.
The next article I found is from the point of view of a
teacher, who describes her idea of learning in the 21st
century. The author supports her ideas
with sources and makes reference to specific research. One interesting point she makes is that she
supports the notion of creating a community of practice, whereby teachers have
ways of speaking, sharing ideas and supporting one another. This, she believes, is the key to teachers
continuing to learn and “evolve”.
Recently, within my home university, some students have begun setting up
an online community of practice using Twitter, and my own year group uses a
private Facebook group to post questions/links/ideas that enable us to support each other.
The last article I will mention comes from a 6th
form teacher in England, who writes about the importance of classroom layout
and in particular, the importance of where a teacher chooses to position
themselves during lessons. The author
suggests that sitting amongst your students, as opposed to standing at the
front of the room, allows students to feel more comfortable with sharing their
work with you and, in turn, enables them to receive more informal
feedback. Whilst, in reality this
situation would not always work as many classes are simply too big to
accommodate this type of teaching, I can certainly see the author’s point. When I have the opportunity to work with
small groups of children, I always sit at their table and find they tend to ask
more questions, and I am able to give much more feedback and see exactly who
needs help. This, once again, raises the
issue of class sizes, however, it definitely has its benefits.
http://edudemic.com/2013/03/classroom-of-the-future/These articles, if nothing else, certainly provide food for thought on issues of learning and its evolution.
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