Summary-Chapter 1
In chapter one, the
author talks about a new pedagogy for new educational landscape which is
partnering. He mentioned that young students need to focus on using new tools,
finding information, making meaning and creating. Also, teachers are not just
the one who gives students all the information; instead, teachers need to focus
on questioning, coaching and guiding. The author used metaphor to imply that
students as rockets, and teachers as rocket scientists. On the other hand, the
author explains how partnering works. He states “Letting students focus on the
part of the learning process that they can do best, and letting teachers focus
on the part of learning process that they can do best.” With technology,
student roles in partnering are researcher, technology user and expert,
thinker, etc. As teachers’ roles in partnering are coach and guide, goal
setter, learning designer, etc.
After reading this chapter, I felt I
learned a lot from it. When I was learning, we didn’t have a lot of technology
tools that we can use in class, so the only way we can learn was taking notes
from our teachers. For me, teacher is the only one who can give me knowledge
and answer all my questions, but in today’s world, we have technology as a
strong resource for us to teach ourselves. I think for teachers, they need to
adjust their attitude about using technology in their teaching, they are not
the only one who can give the answer, instead of teaching students everything,
who not just let them teach themselves and we just help them when they need.
Very true. I think that for many teachers, it is like being a parent with a new teen-age driver--it is difficult to hand over those keys and let them drive. But, we have to let our students sit in the driver's seat and take ownership of their learning.
ReplyDeleteYes, I always tell myself I have to let go, trust my students, but somehow I am still adjusting my attitude about this.
DeleteWhen I read this chapter I could not help by think about our Methods class when Dr. McKinney made us consider what type of teacher we would consider ourselves (Executor, Mentor, Technological, etc). I know the teaching method you were primarily taught with was the Executor approach; however, chapter 1 seems to dynamically reject the Executor approach to teaching. The author states that students learn from self exploration, rather than simply lecture. Not only do they learn better with this approach, but they also prefer this. I know the self-directed teaching method is very different from how you were taught in school. Do you buy into the self-exploration method or are you pro Executor teaching?
ReplyDeleteI have to say I believe each method has it's own good and bad, right now I am actually adjusting my attitude about self-exploration.
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