When I say educational “institutions”, I am thinking of schools; but I’m also thinking of any person or group or organization, formal or not, who purports to teach. I certainly am thinking of traditional public schools when I mention controlled learning. The traditional educational experience is highly controlled. Come to school at 8:15, get out your math books, turn to page 142, complete this assignment, take this test, this is what you will learn, this is when you will learn it, and this is how we evaluate it… now go eat lunch.
Perhaps the rationale for this control is that it does support or enable learning; but, in reality, such control supports the institution more than the learner. The institution must measure you against their standards, the institution must accodomate many learners all at once, the institution must move you from one place to another physically and mentally. These elements all beg for a highly structured (i.e. highly controlled) organization. You have not chosen the institution; and it has not chosen you. A perfect match is HIGHLY unlikely.
Learners needs are diverse. Learners interests are diverse. Learners talents and skills (faults and weaknesses) are diverse. Today’s classroom communities are in a state of ever increasing diversity. How can a school or teacher effectively reach, engage, motivate such diversity?
To be fair, despite all this structure and control, many teachers still manage to create a highly fexible, fluid learning environment in which learners can blossom and thrive. But why must teachers have to overcome such obstacles, such controls? Why must learners? Especially when a lifetime of learning, without schools, without teachers, without assessments… is just a few clicks away.
I am currently getting my teaching certificate from Western Governors University, an online university. As I get closer to my certificate, I am increasingly haunted by the following questions. In what kind of “institution” do I want to teach? What does an “institution” that enables learning (instead of controlling it) look like? I expect it doesn’t look anything like the school I was anticipating.
I will continue to spend time here, grappling with those questions.
John Gregory
[tags] education, learning, shifts, web2.0[/tags]
