I DON’T KNOW THE TRUTH, DO YOU?

I DON’T KNOW THE TRUTH, DO YOU?

Over the last decade the teaching paradigm has shifted from teacher-centric to student-centric learning. The role of teacher is no longer to impart information; students can access that from a wide range of sources. The teacher is guide and mentor.

We have now whole bunch of theories and information on how students learn effectively. It is also suggested that teacher should prepare students for future. Well then the questions come to mind how can be a teacher so sure about future. We know with a little certainty what will happen tomorrow in this world in its socio-economic sphere, bur with less certainty what will happen next week and with no certainty what will happen next month.  Then how can we claim that we are preparing students for future and thus they will be to function really well in life when we have neither any idea of the future world nor control it. The techniques we have learnt to solve a problem about a decade ago doesn’t seem quite functional today; the situation will be much more complex after a decade when a student will try to solve a problem with the skill what he/she just adopted today in our classroom, because it will be completely a new problem which was never told or encountered. Then what we can actually teach them?

Probably skills in Information Technology (IT) will remain a basic skill to facilitate learning even in the future, but again IT itself is the one ever rapidly changing technology. IT itself appeared in the technological market all on a sudden and quickly outclassed other existing technologies. Who has predicted two decades ago that IT can do such shift? I see none. It happened suddenly without any prior notice and took over our traditional way doing things, such as banking, education, science, medical, entertainment and even has changed the way we used to live and think. These changes remind us same could happen even in near future. We can’t see it now.

Do teachers control future? What are actually controlling them? – Politics, economy, climate change, recourses, technology and so on. And all these are changing every minute, exponentially.

Perhaps a better way to look at this issue is to improve students’ analysis, synthesis and evaluation capability which are indicated in the later part of Blooms Taxonomy rather than only knowledge and comprehension. The competency of a person in future will be determined mostly by his/her analysing skills to a new situation. We need people who are able to function really well in life and work situations for which they have not been specifically prepared.

The test of successful education is not the amount of knowledge, but their appetite to know and their capacity to learn. – Sir Richard Livingstone, Oxford, 1941.

We all learn best when we are undertaking things that are challenging and worthwhile.  We need tasks that are genuinely different (to which we do not already know the answers) genuinely interesting and valuable to students or to the society.