Computers and
Internet have changed education. While schoolrooms still use books, paper pen
and pencil, the tools of learning are increasingly computers, laptops, pads,
cell phones and Google, not to mention Facebook and Instagram. Wikipedia has
replaced Encyclopedia Britannica. I, as a teacher of English to
engineering students at a college in Israel for over 25 years, have experienced this transition first hand,
admittedly with mixed feelings and some resistance.
This
revolution brings into question what exactly the role of a modern teacher is.
Specifically, children have direct, unlimited and easy access to far better
sources of information than any single teacher can produce. Students can find
countless problems and solutions, including explanations, for any technical exercise
in any field online, including English grammar, mathematical problems and chemical reactions. These online services are available around the clock, whenever
students have the time and inclination to learn, as compared to the artificial
hours of 8:00 am to 3:00 pm. Moreover,
the students can make errors, work at their own pace and express confusion
without fear of ridicule from others, unless they choose otherwise. In
other words, they can choose their ideal conditions.
Notwithstanding
all these advantages, while today’s students may know more facts, they are far
from better achievers from their antiquated parents or even grandparents. A
look at achievement test scores, matriculation tests and even Facebook
conversations worldwide paints a sad picture of current thinking and
understanding skills. It is as if the plethora of information is at the expense
of the ability to understand it. As a way of analogy, ancient Greek and Roman
doctors, lacking imaging equipment and often the right to even do an autopsy,
extrapolated incredible amounts of information from their limited data.
Several years
ago, my department head, for some reason, asked the staff what we thought our
main role was. My answer did not mention grammar, reading comprehension or
vocabulary. I wrote at the time that it was to open the world to our students.
What I meant and still mean is that my role as a teacher is show how
information is related, the connection between past, present and future and the
manner in which this world was and is being created. I am not there mainly to provide facts or
techniques but to shine a light on the whole picture, much of which students
are completely ignorant and unaware, and give them tools to understand and
interpret it.
As an example
from my youth, in High School, we were studying the American Civil War
(1860-1865), specifically its background. The teacher has us recreate the Dred
Scott Supreme Court case (1857) in which it was ruled that a black man that
escaped from the South was still considered property even though he lived in
the North, where slavery was illegal. We spent at least two weeks researching
and playing our roles. During these two
weeks, that teacher could have covered much more material, i.e., information. However, we students gained an understanding
of the social, legal and political situation in the United States before the
Civil War, which could be extrapolated to after the war and even today and how
to understand decisions from other cultures and eras that don’t make sense
today. Thus, the teacher did not feed us facts but instead illuminated a historical
and learning process.
As I am
fortunate to teach a subject that is a tool, not a body of knowledge, I have
the privilege of discussing, exposing and educating. Teachers can and must communicate
the how and why, not only that the what. Learning should
not only create pride over good grades but also a feeling of “wow” as a result
of a moment of illumination as suddenly, for a moment, the world becomes
clearer and more connected, even four dimensional. Teachers are, at their best,
the flashlights of understanding, then and now.
No comments:
Post a Comment