Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Schlechty on Education

What is learning? How are skills and knowledge acquired? Learning is a process that requires action and experience, specifically voluntary action on the part of the student. What teachers do is less important than what teachers are able to motivate students to do. Students learn by activities that include “imitating, listening, creating, muddling around, and talking (p. 42).” Yet what matters less than the mode or style of learning is the meaning students attach to what they do and learn. Knowledge and skills cannot be acquired if the material presented is neither relevant nor compelling, and if they cannot be actively involved in both choosing and doing the job of learning

Who is to teach? Teachers must be facilitators, leaders, and inventors. Not only must they be constantly inventing knowledge work, they must understand their students. Many teachers, even the creative and inventive ones, are presently operating in schools intuitively (and sometimes consciously) viewing students as customers. Unfortunately, many teachers seem reluctant to acknowledge that students have the power all customers have: the power of choice.

Teachers need to know.
1) How to interest students in topics they would not ordinarily care about but need to care about.
2) Allow students to make choices that will lead to important, relevant learning.

Because of the great many responsibilities that teachers have, those interested in becoming educators, and those who already are in the profession must be:
1) endlessly motivated to discovering how to challenge students,
2) must be willing to lead as well as step aside when the situations demands it, and
3) must be reflective and self-critical to determine how well the work is being invented for the learners involved.
Source: http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Schlechty.html

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