Teaching
Methodology: The Chalk, Walk, Talk’ Days Are Gone
Researches in education
equate schools, academia and our present educational system as a byproduct of
the industrial revolution offshoot of the 20th century. They
critique such institutions not very different from a ‘factory’, which goes
through three phases of processing. Input (admissions),
throughput (teaching-learning), and output (student pass out’s).
They account the 20th century pedagogy as mere transmission of‘facts
and procedures’; with the teacher being hired for ‘chalk, walk and
talk’or retelling; and our student’s merit being tested through
examinations of memorisation and recollection (read, remember, recollect and
reproduce). This forces us to pause, ponder and pose a series of questions.
The question pertinent here is: will such a teaching-learning methodology cope
with the demands of the 21st century? More importantly, will
the 21stcentury teacher create an impact and gain the same reverence
continuing with conventional modes of teaching?
Today,
what we learn, how we learn, from whom and where we learn is changing. Learning
today is not just confined to the four walls of our classrooms, textbooks or
the syllabus framed. Diana Oblinger, Vice President of EDUCAUSE
summarises her research that those born after 1982 have a different
relationship with information and learning than their previous generations due
to their access to internet and computer aided technologies. Her description of
such students are known variously as ‘Net generation’ learners,
‘Millenial students’, ‘Generation Y’ and ‘Digital Natives’. These
‘Screenagers’ are undeniably different. The bottom line is that these
students learn and comprehend in a way that is foreign to many of us, and, as a
result, they often feel disconnected from traditional teachers and schools of
yesteryears.
In
today’s world, the multimedia pervades almost every part of our life.
Students live in a world of digital, audio and text. Marc Prensky
also describes the array of media the students are exposed to in his paper
‘Digital Natives’. By the age 21, our students will have spend 10000
hours playing video games, send 200000 emails, watch 20000 hours of television,
spend 10000 hours on cell phone, but less than 5000 hours reading. It’s
all electronic and digital information mediums with instant gratification. The
21st century learner is also a multi-tasker swayed by the
electronic gadgets. The youth of today can instant message on their laptop,
talk on a cell phone, play a video game wirelessly with a friend down the
street and chew bubble gum – all at the same time. He also has multiple options
of learning and looks at internet as the global source of information,
especially with ‘google’ adding up a new era called the ‘AG’ – After Google!
Mobile, Ipod, Social networking sites, blogs… further adds to this knowledge
pool. Thus a 21st century learner has many possibilities and
learning traits that conventional educators may not be familiar or comfortable
with. We live in a fast-changing world wherein producing more of the same
knowledge and skills will not suffice to address the challenges of our future.
The hyper-text mind of the 21st century learner faces the
conventional 20th century teachers with a wealth of information
and traits, mostly technological and digital.
Though
the criticism that expresses dismay on the nature of today’s student attitude
towards learning stands partly valid, we cannot ignore the fact that the
students of every generation sought change or maturity – intellectual, social
and physical. Now, technical and technological as well. Here again, the
question is, how can a teacher adapt to cope with these
changes? John Dewey, a well-known educational reformer, says it
best, ‘If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of
tomorrow.’
Educational success today is no longer about
reproducing content knowledge, but about extrapolating from what we know and
applying that knowledge to novel situations. With the rate of information
growth continuously accelerating, we must discard the notion that a student is
dependent solely on the teacher; and that the schools can teach everything
every student need to know to be successful in their field of choice. Learning
today must therefore play less emphasis on the amount of material memorized,
but synthesize knowledge with leverage on research, questioning, making
connections, thinking through issues and solving problems through
collaborations with an integration of technology. Moreover, ‘Anywhere,
anytime’ learning is another catchphrase we hear often. To have
anywhere anytime learning, the teacher too must be available anywhere and
anytime. Its here technology yet again comes handy.
Learning
is now a lifelong process of coping with change; and teaching is no longer that
of dispensing facts and theories. Educational institutions of the present day
have to prepare students for jobs that have not yet been created, using
technologies that have not yet been invented and problems that we don’t yet
know will arise. How does a teacher foster our motivated, well informed, techno
savvy learners and prepare them to overcome the unforeseen challenges of
tomorrow? How in this 21st century can teaching-learning be
bettered? How can one be a better teacher? I believe the ‘Learnability’ (openness
and willingness to change) of both students and teachers must become the
hallmark of the 21st century teaching-learning. To survive in
the present environment of change, ‘learn to learn’ must become the core
content of learning; wherein everyone must become partners and facilitators in
the learning process. Let each one teach one. But a lot would
depend on how a teacher generates curiosity in the minds of a learner and make
the learning process more engaging and enduring. Be a transformational
teacher from an instructional / informational teacher. Explore and exploit the
possibilities of learning using technology. Change the ‘Chalk, Walk, Talk’ to
guide our students to ‘Learn to Learn’. Change from a ‘Sage on Stage’ to a
‘Guide on Side’ – be a facilitator, a learning enabler. Redesign our ‘Marks
driven’ curriculum to ‘Research driven’. Appreciate the novel 3 R’s of
learning: Rigor, Relevance and Relationships with the conventional 3 R’s:
Reading, Writing, Arithmetic; and above all, groom our students for their life
than grooming for examinations. Let’s make our learning ‘learner centric’.
Let’s forget not the life beyond the campus. As Fredrick W Robertson
observes, “Instruction ends in the school room. Education ends only
with life”.
Today,
knowledge, understanding and technology are fluid and dynamic. They evolve and
change; which brings with it both challenges and opportunities. To be a better
teacher, we must change and learn as our learning horizons and landscape
changes. To navigate these changes and transitions, the teacher should be
no different from a learner. It’s said, the highest quality of knowledge comes
from teaching. I add, the highest quality of being a quality teacher is that of
being a quality learner – a lifelong learner. To quote Alvin Toffler,
‘The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who
cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn’.
© RISHIKESH KB
രാമനു മുമ്പും പിമ്പുമുള്ള സൂര്യവംശ രാജാക്കന്മാർ ഒന്നിലധികം വിവാഹം കഴിക്കുകയും ഭോഗാലസന്മാരുമായിരുന്നു. ദശരഥനു തന്നെ മൂന്നു പത്നിമാരുണ്ടായിരുന്നല്ലോ - കൗസല്യയും, സുമിത്രയും, കൈകേയിയും. പട്ടമഹിഷിയുടെ പദവി ഉണ്ടെങ്കിലും അമ്മ കൌസല്യയെയും, ഗുണവതിയും സാധുശീലയും ആയ സുമിത്രയെയും അച്ഛൻ ദശരഥൻ അവഗണിക്കുന്നത് കണ്ടാണ് രാമൻ വളർന്നത്. സുന്ദരിയും യുവതിയും ആയ കൈകേയി ആയിരുന്നു എന്നും ദശരഥനു പ്രിയം. പട്ടാഭിഷേകത്തിൽ നിന്നൊഴിഞ്ഞ് പതിനാലു കൊല്ലം രാമന് വനവാസം വേണ്ടി വന്നതിന് കാരണവും കൈകേയി തന്നെ. അപ്പോൾ സ്വാനുഭവംവച്ചാണ് രാമൻ ഏകപത്നീവ്രതം നിഷ്ഠയോടെ പരിപാലിക്കാനുറച്ചത്.
