Sage or Guide?

There has been a great deal of rhetoric criticizing the “Sage on the Stage” mindset of some educators in favour of a “Guide on the Side” approach. Rote learning, Socratic, traditional, old school all have become derogatory in pedagogy. However, the sage must continue to play a vital role in education.

     

My daughter is currently in grade 8. In her history block, she was directly taught 5 reasons for Canadian Confederation. She was then guided to rank the reasons  according to their importance and identify who was left out of the process, This led to expanded research to support conclusions. All of the real, demonstrable learning was built on the initial step of explicit teaching. According to her, “If we had been told to find 5 reasons for confederation we might have found 2 and not really understood even those. Even if I had been told to do the other 2 parts of the lessons, they would have been pointless - I wouldn’t have learned anything.”

My daughter is generally a self-motivated learner - a perfect candidate for all the recent trends in education: Genius Hour, PBL, Inquiry Projects. But what she desperately craves is to trust the knowledge and skills she is receiving. She craves a teacher to start her learning on a clear path with the believable illusion of an objective measure and achievement of standards that move her forward in her knowledge and skills. She talks about being prepared for high school. At this difficult age, she wants to have some confidence in her education, which comes from having confidence in her teacher, her trainer, her sage. When a teacher provides her with a variety of paper and digital resources to explore and learn the content and skills on her own, she becomes frustrated and disappointed. Why go to school then, if I have to teach myself? Yes, the world is in a state of constant change and the most important skill we can teach youth is “how to learn” effectively and efficiently. But part of that learning is the necessity of automaticity and internalized knowledge that doesn’t require Google. It means that new skills and knowledge need to be built on a solid foundation and one of the responsibilities of teachers is to provide the materials for the foundation and train young people how to assemble them.

There are times when learners are ready to assume the reins and work with the support of guides and mentors. But not until they have the foundational knowledge skills.

The following foundational skills need to be explicitly taught and assessed in schools:

• Behave appropriately for the classroom (follow instructions, listening without interrupting, raising your hand, sitting down and working quietly)
• Grade-appropriate vocabulary
• Read & comprehend grade-appropriate texts
• Write with correct grammar
• Write legibly (penmanship & spelling)
• Speaking clearly to express ideas, ask questions
• Writing in grade-appropriate forms to express ideas
• Use grade-appropriate research tools (dictionary, textbook, online, library, citing sources)
• Age appropriate math facts
• Algorithms for solving age-appropriate math problems
• Basic knowledge of national and world geography and history
• Apply the Scientific method
• Understanding of ecosystems

I am a Secondary School English teacher, so I am aware that my list is weighted heavily on communication skills. But these skills align with the Conference Board of Canada Employability Skills. There are many other skills and knowledge areas that are also important, engaging, inspiring, and empowering to learners. I am not trying to limit our role as teachers to drill sergeants, to the exclusion of all else. I am, however, saying that we have a professional and ethical responsibility to make sure that all students can succeed at these skills and, if they cannot, they need more instruction, directed practice, and remediation, not more free time. And, yes, that means less time for independent learning, project-based learning, play-based learning, inquiry projects, and genius hour projects.

As a parent, I want my children to have the opportunities to explore their strengths and interests - it makes them feel good. Yet, when they can’t print legibly or speak clearly or divide numbers or read accurately, this is what they need most.

"Mechanical Pencils": Finding Balance between Basics and Forward Thinking

Our school is launching an Ad Hoc Committee to plan our school's technology needs.   Jokingly or not, someone responded, "Mechanical pencils!" A few chortled at the response, and then we moved on. But the question remains.

When parents, community members, and business leaders express their woes about education, the back to basics concept is held up as a holy grail: Arithmetic, Reading, Writing, and perhaps Vocabulary, Spelling, Manners, Life Skills, and Penmanship.  I am not even sure I disagree with them,  Of course I want my children and students to be able to multiply in their heads and print legibly.  There must be room in 14 years of schooling (from JK to Grade 12) to ensure some degree of competence in such basic skills without compromising the rich, meaningful, personalized learning that has become the ideal in today's education.

I believe that we could find agreement among stakeholders about what basic skills are non-negotiable in the learning process.  In fact, many schools are developing exactly that: a "Non-negotiable" curriculum for each grade (Common Core in the US and Non-Negotiables in the UK). An infographic that captures such trends was compiled from a survey by Education Week. The danger of course is that a "back to basics" approach will fall into a "drill and kill" pattern, with some children falling short of mastery.  What about the value of student-centred exploration, project-based learning, interdisciplinary connections, differentiation, choice, and personalization?

Excerpt, "Teaching Well-being in Schools" from pioneer in Positive Psychology, Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman, full article can be read here.

First, a quiz: 

Question one: in one or two words, what do you most want for your children?If you are like the thousands of parents I’ve polled you responded, “Happiness,” “Confidence,” “Contentment,” “Fulfillment,” “Balance,” “Good stuff,” “Kindness,” “Health,” “Satisfaction,” “Love,” “Being civilized,” “Meaning,” and the like. In short, well-being is your topmost priority for your children. 

Question two: in one or two words, what do schools teach?If you are like other parents, you responded, “Achievement,” “Thinking skills,” “Success,” “Conformity,” “Literacy,” “Math,” “Work,” “Test taking,” “Discipline,” and the like. In short, what schools teach is how to succeed in the workplace.

Notice that there is almost no overlap between the two lists.

Yet parent would not want the so-called academic skills abandoned and often do not trust approaches to teaching that differ from the way they were taught.

The pendulum swings back and forth, and we need to find a balance.  Parents want their kids to come home excited about what they are learning.  Students who want to learn are more apt as pupils.  As long as we work from a belief that all kids can learn functional skills (barring neurological impairments) , the expertise of the teacher and school should be harnessed to recognize and facilitate students' personal learning readiness, providing an environment where all can thrive.

So, it is not a balance between back-to-basics (i.e. mechanical pencils) and innovative methodology (i.e. student blogs) that we need.   It is immersion in both, where each provides fuel for the other.