Who+is+the+Teacher?

Teachers of the future are people who are adaptive and facilitating. Teachers of the 19th and 20th centuries were the 'sage on the stage.' The teachers lectured and the students took notes. Often homework was given and students had to struggle through it without having a chance to 'give it a try' in the classroom.

Now we know better: we explain the lesson and allow for the presentation of new information, we model it, we allow time for guided practice, and then independent practice. In the 21st Century we are getting away from just lecturing and then expecting the students to just go home and be able to complete the homework by themselves.

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The teacher of the 21st Century is, therefore, someone who walks the student(s) through the lesson, with check points along the way. More difficult material is not introduced until the student has mastered the lower level tasks. The teacher is working with the students and answering many questions. The student is guided in the right direction and given feedback quickly and often from the instructor.

The teacher of the 21st Century will also play a large role in a virtual classroom. Online courses and learning, home schooling, and tutoring will become dominant features in 21st Century education in general. As Salman Khan explains in this video, video instruction is the future of learning. Why is that? Do we want to allow our children to just sit in front of the the computer and watch youtube videos? At times the answer is 'yes.' But certainly, not always. The future of learning is about diverse ways of reaching students.

As educators we are discovering that students learn in many different ways. We are able to reach students if we try something new. We have already been introduced to the idea of Multiple Intelligences. Gardner (1999). Students may have logical-mathematical intelligence and be good with numbers. Other students may have musical talent or have bodily-kinesthetic strengths. The way to reach these students is through what interests them and their natural strengths. However, we can now add to how students learn by the methods and environment where the actual teaching takes place. Some students learn well in a classroom setting. Other students learn better in a quiet and relaxed environment. some students learn earning through video instruction is highly effective. Students can pay attention in a controlled, comfortable, and safe environment. There are students out there who for a variety of reasons don't get the instruction they need or deserve in a regular brick and mortar classroom setting. Many times it is no fault of the teacher, but rather an issue of 'the system.' There could be a student who is over-stimulated in a loud, bustling classroom (just the noise level of ordinary teenagers discussing at a low voice level, causes distraction or headaches.) There are students who don't feel physically safe in school and are per-occupied with thoughts of being bullied rather than paying attention to how factoring down to prime numbers takes place. In this regard, students can watch a teacher teaching on a video and concentrate on the task at hand.

In a regular classroom, students normally hears the lesson one time and if they were distracted or not paying attention (they really should be paying attention at all times, right?), they have missed the crucial information. That wrinkle in time is gone! However, in the online world, students can rewind and replay and repeat as many times as they need to. If they are distracted, and this happens to everyone, they can just listen and watch again until they understand. Now learning becomes about understanding!

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Previously, the classroom was teacher focused. In 2025 the learning will be student focused. For years teachers set the curriculum and set the pace. Students needed to digest the material exactly how the instructor doled out the information. In the future, students will have control of their learning. They can speed up the learning, slow it down, rewind or fast forward. Just as we manipulated cassette tapes, the instruction could be replayed and paused. How wonderful for students who need extra help and want to hear something again. How nice this will be for students, who already have an understanding and want to move on and be challenged.

How teachers will assess students will also change. Students previously were tested on lessons with little or no practice time. There was no way for the teacher to judge if the student was “getting it” before the exam. How could the teacher know if the student even completed the readings? The future teacher does formative as well as summative assessments. The teacher checks for understanding every day in the class by asking questions of the students and walking around the room. The teacher monitors and facilitates games and projects. The teacher makes sure the student is on the right track so that time is not wasted if the student is solving a math problem incorrectly. Formative assessments are like the preparation and practice of learning to drive. There are so many hours spent working on the simulator and so many hours on the road behind the wheel of the car. The student has the help of the simulator and of the driver instructor while he/she is learning. The instructor is guiding the student in the right direction while the learning is taking place. Once the student has demonstrated a given number of quality practice hours, they are ready to take the summative assessment of the state driver’s exam. This is how learning should work in the future.

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