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From being a Teach-er to becoming a
Teach-smith:
the transformation of
the Century.
An English dictionary
grows every year. An English language is alive. Many words we use today have been
invented long time ago.
A linguist knows that a structure
of a word often reflects the original meaning of the word even if over time
that meaning has evolved.
Many English verbs end
with Ò-erÓ; a speaker, a driver, a teacher. Often
verbs like that express a simple action: a speaker is one that speaks, meaning
Ð puts words forward; a driver is one that drives, meaning Ð moves thing ahead;
a teacher is one that teaches, meaning Ð instructs students (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/teacher), tells
students what to do.
The meaning of teaching
as Òtelling what to doÓ has been known for thousands of years.
A teacher had specific
knowledge and skills and in order to gain that knowledge and skills students
had to follow the instructions, and they had to do it word-by-word, literally.
Social and economic
development, world exploration, industrialization had led to the growing need
in more and more literal workforce. Eventually, teaching has become a
professional practice which structure reflects the economic structure of the
society.
Up to fifty years ago,
or by a historical scale Òjust yesterdayÓ, the economic structure of the
society has been changing reality slowly. One could learn one profession and
keep working until the retirement using almost the same set of skills.
Things are very
different nowadays.
Globalization, robotization, informatisation, the Internet have led to the creation of
fast and constantly changing social and economic environment.
More and more
professionals will have to relearn their profession or even change it during
their professional life time; maybe even more than twice.
More and more
professionals will have to go through the process
of professional re-adaptation (retraining) during their professional life time; maybe even more
than twice.
That means that more and
more people will need to have not just specific professional skills (learned
once and forever), but also meta skills, required for being able to adapt to
the changes in the environment (professional environment, social environment,
economic environment, political environment, physical environment Ð a.k.a. a
climate).
That means that
nowadays, teachers need to teach students not just specific practical skills
(how to read, to write, to count, etc.), but also meta-skills, required for
being able to adapt to the changes in their future life (due to the changes in
their professional environment, social environment, economic environment,
political environment, physical environment Ð a.k.a. a climate).
The discussion of how to
teach students and at the same time help them with developing and advancement
of those meta-skills is not new, and has no single point of view (I also
address it in my book: ÒBecoming a STEM TeacherÓ, www.GoMars.xyz).
But one thing is clear
for sure;
one cannot learn how to adapt to a changing environment if the environment where one learns does not change,
if it is still, steady, stationary, fixed.
Many teachers would tell
you that classes today are not the same as twenty years ago. That includes the
fact that the student body has been becoming more fluid, more diverse (https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/cultural-diversity-at-school/),
less uniform (by all possible measures). More and more emphasis is being placed
on individualization of teaching (which is a hot and controversial topic: http://www.springer.com/us/book/9781402036194).
In theory, many educators are for the individualization of teaching, but the
practical realization encounters many difficulties and obstacles.
One such obstacle is
ideological: individualization of teaching requires a new view on the role of a
teacher, which is completely opposite to the old-fashioned well established
view Òa teacher is one who tells students what to doÓ.
Creating for students
evolving, progressing, individualized learning environment requires Ð before
all Ð being professionally creative.
Interestingly, English
language uses a different word structure for (at least some) professions which
have a creative nature.
Take, for example, a
professional who makes locks. This profession does not exist anymore, but the
in the past, one who made locks was called a locksmith. He was not called a
locker (or unlocker), because that would mean Òone
who locks or unlocks locksÓ. Those days every lock had to be created.
There are other
professions, like blacksmith, tunesmith (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tunesmith) which
presume from a professional some creative work.
In Merriam-Webster one
finds that ÒsmithÓ means Òa person who makes thingsÓ (http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/smith).
Following this pattern,
a person who creates learning environment for students should not be called Òa
teacherÓ but should be called Òa teachsmithÓ! (I wish
I was the first one to come up with this term, but Google said I wasnÕt J )
Using this terminology,
we can describe the goal of the currently undergoing education reform in one
short sentence:
ÒThe reform is a
transition from
being a teacher to
becoming a teachsmithÓ.
If we accept this
meaning of the education reform, we have to take a closer look at the current
state of the field of teacher professional development (www.GoMars.xyz/cash.html).
Like many other
contemporary professionals, teachsmiths will also
need robust meta-skills required for reoccurring need to re-adapt to the
changes happening in their professional field (a.k.a. education). That means,
that teacher professional development should also go beyond providing training
in just specific content knowledge, or class management skills.
One of the most
efficient methods for such a type of teacher professional development is called
ÒProfessional DesigningÓ (www.GoMars.xyz).
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