Tuesday 4 November 2014

The Twenty-First-Century Teacher - Revisiting the Story Model (5P42)

THE STORY MODEL 
 
 The story model describes a change process in expanding contexts from the personal to the social, cultural, global, and universal. The frames of the Story Model represent ways of knowing. The first three frames suggest our knowing is informed by individual or social differences; the universal frame also informs out ways of knowing and speaks to the aspects that connects us to others. 

- Our knowing is filtered first through a frame informed by our personal experiences. The students in your class will all learn a bit differently because they will connect new knowledge with their unique past experiences. Your personal frame will also affect your own learning.
- The second frame is a cultural frame; culture is defined as a set of values and beliefs that drive group life in the particular culture we live in. 
- The third frame is the global frame. In the twenty-first century, we are all connected to and affected by global conditions, and the global frame is evident in education. Students in classrooms around the world collaboratively engage in tasks ranging from peer editing to sharing ideas about solutions to global problems. 
- The outer frame is the universal frame. This frame reminds us that, regardless of our differences, we are all human beings with similar needs, drives, and emotions. 

(Drake, 2014, p. x-xi)



 Chapter 6 - The Twenty-First-Century Teacher in Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment written by Susan Drake, Joanne L. Reid & Wendy Kolohon provides a look at how teachers can educate and engage with students effectively in the twenty-first-century. 

A Canadian Education Association study called Teaching the Way We Aspire to Teach: Now and in the Future (2012) asked teachers what they valued. The teachers identified the following:
  • passion for teaching and learning
  • caring and commitment for students
  • creativity, flexibility, and willingness to take risks
  • knowledge and drive for self improvement 
  • energy, enthusiasm, and engagement
  • trust, collaboration, and connectedness 
As a complementary view, when asked what engaged them, 220 students wanted teachers who love their work, who believed in students, and who acted like human beings (Wolpert-Gawron, 2012). 

A close match existed between how teachers aspired to Be and how students wanted their teachers to Be. 

I was curious to see how other twenty-first-century educators are predicting and preparing for fast changing educating practices in the upcoming years in North America. While poking around on wordpress blogs I came across one blog called Rliberni's Blog - Radical Language that posted about his predictions for teaching and education in 2060 and the journey we have to get from here to there.

He proposes that classrooms will be radically different. We will shift completely away from passive learning where students sit in rows and they copy information (image on left) to active/creative/meaningful discovery (image on right).




Image citation: From video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiKrFcgVSIU

This shift, he explains in his video, comes from the changing needs of the society for different kinds of labor and economy players. He proposes that there are three kinds of thinkers and industry players in society that ensure the stability of our economy and society. Yellow represents physical labor (which he suggests is the most prominent and needed component of the work force today). Pink represents mental labor which makes up a good chunk of today's work force. The small blue box in the stack on the left represents the amount of art/innovation/creative/active/discovery labor that exists currently in society. 

If we compare these three types of labor to the existing model of education, we can see how the stack of labor on the left is representative of what exists today in the work force. If educators and students alike have identified the need to shift from the existing story model of education to one representative of twenty-first-century thinkers and innovators, we can see the need for teachers to shift their practices too. Educators need to be responding and assisting the shift from passive learning to active discovery learning to keep up with the predicted shift in societal and labor patterns.

1 comment:

  1. Of course I love it when students connect to the Story Model. That is because it makes so much sense to me. Your example here is a great one. Not sure though that the physical labour is the most needed today - in first world countries at least. The shift to mental labour is part of the economic issues facing places like Ontario today. AND we are rapidly moving into a time for creative thinking to be a dominant force. Look at design thinking and the new emphasis on design itself happening everywhere in the world. Maybe Rliberni's vision will happen sooner
    than he predicts. P.S. Did your image come from his blog? Needs attribution. THX. S.

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