EDL 7030

Thanks for commenting Joel. I think you touched on the "dirty little secret" within Higher Ed...It is so easy for Edu professors/instructors to criticize all that is wrong in K12 but very little innovation takes place at the college level. Don't we teach what we know? If a student is exposed to Emily Dickson time and again, she isn't likely to teach Toni Morrison. If a student is taught using traditional forms of reading and writing, won't she teach this very same way (and value it as the supreme way?). Teacher Ed is one of those topics that isn't broached very often by professors operating within it. I guess its true that we all teach the way we THINK is best. None of us want to admit that there could possibly be a newer, fresher, more successful way.

Good point. It's important to look at the pool of trainees -- the teachers of the future -- but it's just as important, if not more so, to look at how they are being trained, and by whom. Danielle is right, if the "old school" training models are still in place, then the newly educated are really just a younger version of old ideas. We see this pattern in all levels of education -- it's a self-perpetuating cycle. Teachers teach they way they were taught (by teachers who also taught they way they were taught, and so on.) Many teachers stick to a comfortable lesson plan (that might be somewhat out of touch with the students' needs/interests) and consequently the students are slowly alienated from the "love of learning" we talk about so often. A lot of "new" teachers seem to continue these patterns because they are being trained to teach in the same old ways, instead of incorporating new concepts and technologies (ie. social networking, globalization, etc.) that are so much a part of students' lives outside of school. As we enter Pink's "Conceptual Age" and begin to consider how to teach creativity and critical thinking skills (rather than information) to our students, how can we also develop these qualities in veteran teachers and teacher-educators who might be unaware or lacking?

I also wonder how much of the creativity and innovative nature of a new teacher is squelched by the emphasis on pass rates on end of course tests? I have heard teachers say they would like to be more creative and do something different but are afraid to vary from the routine of teaching to the test. Eventually you just decide to do what you have to do to get through it- similar to the burnout Diane mentioned in her posting.