I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about the role of the teacher. Historically it seems that teachers were dispensers of information (now don't misunderstand me, I realize that teachers provide many other great things to students besides content), yet information is available everywhere and many sources are just as effective of delivering the information as I would be. Some people think that this could mean the end of teaching and they could be right. The teaching profession will most likely undergo a major transformation and it might be the end of teaching as we know it. I am struggling with a few things though. I teach biology and physics. What content is important for a student to know in these classes? The kids seem to struggle with some of the concepts and at what point do I need to become a dispenser of information? How do I balance assessment of content understanding with assessment of bigger and more valuable goals and higher level thinking? How much class time should be allotted for content and how much should be dedicated to skills, collaboration, etc?
This makes me wonder how well I am using the time I am given with the students. The kids read the textbook for homework and then they come to class and I explain the main points. I have always thought it important for the kids to learn how to read a take notes from a textbook and this is a major skill I expect a student in my class to learn. Are textbooks the most efficient way to learn something? For decades now we have had kids read textbooks and then have to come to class so a teacher can explain it. What if knowing the content was expected before the kid came to class and that the kids had more resources than only their texts in which to learn? What if in conjunction with reading the book, the kids watched a short YouTube clip of me explaining a concept? What would we do in class? As I reflect on this most of what I do in class is help kids understand biology (with an occasional lab here and there), but with information being so readily available I am not sure that this is the best use for my time with the kids anymore.
If the kids are going to learn the content of a class they are going to have to be held accountable for that information. They can either be held accountable by a test over the subject, or they can engage in activities that require them to use the information. Being accountable to contributing to something larger with their peers might be a better way to hold the kids accountable than giving them a test. This could serve our lowest performing students the best because they would have a reason to do their homework rather than just having to pass a test. Designing those learning experiences is challenging and something I have had no preparation or training for.
The other piece I feel unprepared to handle is knowing what to assess and how to assess it. Assessing content is easy. Even assessing application of content is easy. But we are now moving to assessing skills that aren't nearly as easy to measure. If knowing the content is only the starting point then what else am I asking the kids to do? I keep thinking about how kids rarely use feedback that we spend hours giving them. I have been thinking that the kids just aren't invested in the ultimate goal of the feedback. For example an English teacher might want a kid to become a better writer, but the kid might not know what benefits he will reap by being a better writer. In sports kids take feedback all of the time and actually use it. Why the difference? Well they know that applying the feedback will help them win a game. What if the kids were invested in the goals of the learning and knew exactly what benefits they will reap by using the feedback immediately?
How do we do this? What goals are the ones we are pushing our students to learn? How do we give feedback for this kind of work? Having time to give this kind of feedback is tough. If we could design our classes in teams (rather than individually) and have the courses laid out beforehand, that would free up a lot of time for assessment and feedback. I think it would also make me think even more about what I am assessing. Right now the majority of my time is spent planning and the grading comes last. This model would make the assessment and feedback the main way I spend my day. If I am spending the majority of my day assessing work, it is going to be pretty dull if I am mostly assessing content. The assignments are going to have to be interesting so that I want to read the work.
That brings me back again to what activities will the kids be engaged in, what skills would I be looking at, and what type of feedback would I provide? Flipping a class is not a new idea, but I believe we now have the tools to now make it a reality. The teachers role is changing and it makes me even more excited to be in this field than ever before.
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