Old teaching04jul12

Here we are, in a village school in Greece, in 1983.

The teacher sits at his desk, on a little stage at the front of the classroom. ‘Look this way’, he says. ‘Listen to what I tell you. Answer my questions, hands up, only one person speaks at a time.’

‘Now, everyone read chapter 7—carefully, and silence, please …’

… and now, answer the questions a the end of the chapter. No talking.’

One student looks up for a moment. Is she thinking about her work? Or is she daydreaming?

Then she turns. ‘Turn around, Soula,’ says the teacher. ‘Don’t disturb the girls behind you’

The classroom is a communications and knowledge architecture.

Here is the pedagogical design of this classroom in Greece in 1983, and tens of thousands others like it before and since:

Some typical discursive flows:• Teacher talks -> students listen.• Teacher Q. -> students A. (‘hands up!’,

‘one at a time!’).• Teacher says ‘read chapter 7’ ->

students read and memorize.• Teacher sets test -> students respond

with correctly memorized answers.

Here, by contrast is the communication and knowledge architecture of the Scholar classroom.

This, we call the ‘new learning’ or ‘transformative pedagogy’:

Some typical discursive flows:• Teacher scaffolds peer <-> peer feedback.• All students involved simultaneously in

constructive peer <-> peer learning dialogue.

• An active, knowledge producing community.

• Continuous formative assessment, supplementing teacher assessments with structured self and peer assessments.

Scholar changes to role of the teacher and the responsibilities of learners.

Teaching and learning will never be the same again.