EDET 677 Mechanical
Applications
Week 8 Blog
Essential Question: Can you teach more than you know?
Last school
year I taught a dual credit Calculus class that ended earlier than the planned
high school year. So I decided to lead the class in learning some basic
computer coding skills. I had never done any coding myself but I knew of a class
online that other teachers in Alaska had used to teach coding in high school.
Therefore, I used all of the materials from the class to learn alongside of the
students. Even though I didn’t know any foundations I was able to use the
skills that I was taught in school to persevere in learning new things. This is
how I want my students to live throughout life and with their jobs that they
will have.
It is
possible that in a Makerspace that I won’t have all of the skills that my
students will be using to tinker and create. These situations might be
frustrating for me as a teacher but it will be one of the best ways for my
students to learn a new skill. Martinez and Stager explains that giving
students the ability to take on their own projects and responsibility creates
an environment that is more conducive to learning (2013). Also Barseghian
notices that the trend in education is that “teacher roles are shifting from
owners of information to facilitators and guides to learning.” (2011) It is the
perfect way to let students take the reigns of learning when you can’t teach
them the material because you don’t know it.
By teaching
students in a way that doesn’t dispense knowledge but rather students need to
find knowledge, we are preparing students for a complex life that does not have
multiple-choice questions. Daggett puts it perfectly: “our goal should be to
effectively promote highly rigorous and relevant learning in which students
have opportunities to tackle challenging problems, the kind they are likely to
encounter in life.” (2010)
Resources:
Barseghian, T.
(2011). Three trends that define the
future of teaching and learning. KQED News. Retrieved from http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/02/05/three-trends-that-define-the-future-of-teaching-and-learning/
Daggett, Dr. W.
R. (2010). Preparing students for their
technological future. International Center for Leadership in Education.
Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/Preparing%20Students%20for%20Tech%20Future%20white%20paper.pdf
Martinez, S. L.,
& Stager, G (2013). Invent to Learn:
Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. Torrence, CA:
Construction Modern Knowledge Press.
I like your last paragraph. It is important for teacher to not just transfer knowledge to students. They need to train students on how to teach themselves and become their own teachers.
ReplyDeleteGood points. I agree that we are having to teach them things beyond where we are now in order to teach to the future.
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