What's the best way to teach our kids?

Thanks once again to Lisa Saunders, Director of Programs at Bridgeway for contributing more of her writing on education.  Lisa is working on her Master's degree at Acadia, and will sharing some of her studies with us in guest postings on our blog.

Enjoy!

Rhonda

By Lisa Saunders

Over our history there have been and continue to be many great debates: is the world flat or round, does God exist, are carbohydrates good or bad?  Within educational circles one debate rages on; what is the best way to teach our kids?  Traditional education offers the stability and predictability of reading, writing and arithmetic, long-established customs found in schools that our society has historically deemed appropriate.  Progressive education, on the other hand, has the qualities of well-rounded education that western society has come to covet; a focus on each student’s strengths and interests, assessing in various ways that support diverse learners.

Throughout the past 100 years many studies have been carried out with the sole purpose of investigating how we learn.  Many of these studies have shown an overwhelming amount of evidence supporting the implementation of the characteristics of progressive education: individual instruction, informality in the classroom, multi-sensory teaching practices and the use of group discussions and laboratories as instructional techniques.  Successful implementation of this very practice has been seen all over the world.  From establishment of progressive education techniques by John Dewey in the early 1900’s to the public uprising against the No Child Left Behind Act, progressive education has been a supported teaching practice spanning over two centuries, albeit with varied success.  As long as we have administrators and policy makers fully immersed in traditional education, progression will not be fully realized.  Difficulty lies in separating the two ideas in that, elements of traditional education: external motivation, memorization of rote facts and concentration on skills in reading, writing and math, are sewn into the very fabric of our educational system. 

Each generation experiences the upcoming generation doing things a little bit differently – how did our parent’s parents feel about television, or our parents feel about computers; how do we feel about social networking and assistive technology?  These tools can be seen as barriers to learning or they can be seen as tools, stepping stones for the next generation to express what we have taught them.   As each generation learns more about how the next generation of students learn, educators attempt to predict what skills will be most beneficial in the next generation’s society.   Central skills include the need for workers to have a proficient ability to receive, store, process and communicate information.  Teaching our students to be independent thinkers will always serve them, no matter their career choice. 

Critics in education will always exist, projecting their view on an education system that is slow to change and seems to cater to the average student.  The essence of learning is not to regurgitate facts, memorized for that expressed purpose, rather it is to understand, investigate and discover in a way that is meaningful to each of us.  As we are all different in thoughts, experiences and viewpoints, so must our learning and evaluation be diverse from that of our classmates.  There are many students who have gifts that reach far beyond memorizing multiplication tables and mastering spelling bees, who require creative and out-of-the-box teachers to guide them towards becoming the forward thinkers of the next generation. 

It makes sense to tailor education to each individual. Though many of our traditionalist teachers and administrators work in their comfort zone, relying on those methods that were bestowed upon them as students,   we all want to teach and support our next generation of children in a way that will be beneficial to society.  Teach a student what to think and humanity stays stagnant, teach a student how to think and who knows how far we will go.

What are your thoughts on education in the future?  Share them in the comments section below!