Stephen Downes writes:
. . . how we teach depends not only on the nature of the learner (though it
does that) and the nature of the content (though it does that as well)
but also on why the learner wants to learn and why the teacher wants to
teach.And there is no single characterization that will
describe those motivations, and hence, no single characterization of
how best to teach, how best to learn.
Yep. He’s right. But more and more, schools are looking for the one right way, for some good and plenty of not-so-good reasons. School culture, as a whole (private, public, charter, online, etc.) too often looks for the one way, the one thing we can do to/with/for a student to make/help/force them (to) learn.
I’m guilty of that sometimes, too, even as I understand the truth of Stephen’s remark. It’s hard to teach even twenty individuals at once with all of our competing motivations/concerns/frustrations/limitations. And I’m lucky — most classrooms are far larger than mine. A simplistic response to that is to say that a teacher struggling to meet everyone’s needs is possibly suffering from poor classroom management skills — and that might be a piece of the mix — but I submit that managing the needs of everyone in the room all at once is particularly difficult.
"Same, same" culture is a crushing force, and one that exerts more and more pressure upon the" teacher me". It’s the same culture that makes worksheets, multiple choice tests and the like "successful" teaching strategies. Either the worksheet is completed, or it’s not. The paper’s in, or it’s not. Who cares why, right? It’s easy to get cold and heartless about stuff like that when "everyone’s the same." What’s good for the goose, right?
"No exceptions ever" is bad policy. So is "all exceptions all the time." Teaching and learning are very, very messy. How do we create systems that honor differences AND attempt to get maximum magic? (Call it efficiency if you want to, or high achievement if you prefer. Or, simply insert your favorite accountability measure here.)
I wonder why so many of us leave after five years.
