Old teaching04jul12
- 1. Here we are, in a village school in Greece, in 1983.
- 2. The teacher sits at his desk, on a little stage at the front of the classroom. ‘Look this way’, he says. ‘Listen to what I tell you. Answer my questions, hands up, only one person speaks at a time.’
- 3. ‘Now, everyone read chapter 7—carefully, and silence, please …’
- 4. … and now, answer the questions a the end of the chapter. No talking.’
- 5. One student looks up for a moment. Is she thinking about her work? Or is she daydreaming?
- 6. Then she turns. ‘Turn around, Soula,’ says the teacher. ‘Don’t disturb the girls behind you’
- 7. The classroom is a communications and knowledge architecture. Here is the pedagogical design of this classroom in Greece in 1983, and tens of thousands others like it before and since: student student student Some typical discursive flows: • Teacher talks -> students listen. • Teacher Q. -> students A. (‘hands up!’, ‘one at a time!’). teacher • Teacher says ‘read chapter 7’ -> students read and memorize. • Teacher sets test -> students respond with correctly memorized answers. student student student
- 8. Here, by contrast is the communication and knowledge architecture of the Scholar classroom. This, we call the ‘new learning’ or ‘transformative pedagogy’: student Some typical discursive flows: student student • Teacher scaffolds peer <-> peer feedback. • All students involved simultaneously in constructive peer <-> peer learning teacher dialogue. • An active, knowledge producing community. student student • Continuous formative assessment, supplementing teacher assessments with structured self and peer assessments. student
- 9. Scholar changes to role of the teacher and the responsibilities of learners. Teaching and learning will never be the same again.