TIMES, THEY ARE ACHANGIN
Have you wondered why the things that you were taught at school don’t seem to be the things your child is learning? Like general knowledge, various facts and figures such as the names of countries of the world, the names of the continents, their capital cities and flags, what the 7 ancient wonders of the world were, and who lives in mud huts.
Have you wondered why the things that you were taught at school don’t seem to be the things your child is learning? Like general knowledge, various facts and figures such as the names of countries of the world, the names of the continents, their capital cities and flags, what the 7 ancient wonders of the world were, and who lives in mud huts.
One advantage of being a teacher for a number of years is being able to observe short and longer term trends and changes that have (and are) occurring. Some changes have been fads— for example perhaps some bright idea that someone in the Ministry of Education came up with that someone had seen working well in one context and then tried to transplant into other schools and communities. Sometimes a change was as a response to some high profile incident, with the proposed remedy being “ to provide children with more education about X,Y and Z, in our schools”. Hence our “crowded curriculum” where there is so much to be taught that there is no way to adequately cover everything, and teachers get burnt out trying. Some things which were seen as “best practice” when I first began teaching went out of favour and are now returning, albeit packaged in different language, but never-the-less, the same.
Some may regard many of these as superficial changes. However there is a more fundamental change that is occurring, a change that will forever change the face of education world wide. Such a change occurred in the time of the Industrial Revolution , with the replacing of a largely agriculturally based society based on manual labour with a one dominated by industry and the manufacture of machinery. Along with this came great sociological change. We again live in such times. (See the video over on the right hand side of this page).
Some may regard many of these as superficial changes. However there is a more fundamental change that is occurring, a change that will forever change the face of education world wide. Such a change occurred in the time of the Industrial Revolution , with the replacing of a largely agriculturally based society based on manual labour with a one dominated by industry and the manufacture of machinery. Along with this came great sociological change. We again live in such times. (See the video over on the right hand side of this page).
Not only is there change, but the pace of change is increasing. The change we are currently going through, and the resulting society our children will be living in is sometimes termed the Information Age, Digital Age or the Information Society.
As a school we have begun a process of investigating what this means for us as educators and for the children we teach, your children. There is a realisation that as adults, the world they will be in will be quite different from the world we grew up in, and even the world as we know it now. Over the coming weeks I may share further on this topic.
Have a great week,
As a school we have begun a process of investigating what this means for us as educators and for the children we teach, your children. There is a realisation that as adults, the world they will be in will be quite different from the world we grew up in, and even the world as we know it now. Over the coming weeks I may share further on this topic.
Have a great week,
Peter
