Passive Learner to Active Creator

I recently read a post by George Couros Passive Learner to Active Creator and reflected on how this sits with my own teaching style.

Like George there have been many times in my early teaching experiences where I have enjoyed talking and sharing experiences with students about my learning journey and life experiences. I too found it important to make connections and laugh with students and that in doing this I enabled greater connections and engagement, however this required a lot of my input. What I hadn't deeply considered, early on in my teaching career, was the importance of establishing strong self beliefs that enabled the students to believe in themselves beyond their time in my class, without needing me by them to tell them they could do it! Although some ex pupils have told me I had and that I was the one teacher that believed in them when others didn't, I hadn't done this consciously. I wasn't aware of the impact this had until these students had grown up, beyond school.

I used to think it was very easy for a student to tell their teacher that they were the best teacher they had....when they were only 7. However when an ex pupil comes up to you years after you have taught them, towering over you and shares that you were the one person that really impacted, that really cared...it makes you stop and ponder. Ponder about how privileged we are to have such an effect and ponder about how you could have this effect on even more students.

George Couros often speaks of moving students from engagement to empowerment. Sometimes we are oblivious to this shift. However with careful reflection it becomes obvious that we can in fact make increasingly conscious efforts to assist this shift. Students need to know that they can do things for themselves...it is our job to help them get to this point. This requires scaffolding and ongoing encouragement. And from then our job to continue supporting them and steering them in the right direction.

Innovative teaching and learning is about striving to find balance between a traditional lecture style (which has it's place ) and a style that encourages our students to be increasing enthusiastically involved in their own learning. If a good teacher is the result of what their students do and students continue to struggle then we could find another way another support them, another avenue until we achieve the success students deserve. It is empowering to consider that a good teacher might be the result of what their students do because of them!

George says: As you read any new book or attend a new workshop, continuously ask the question, “Is this more about what the teacher can do for the student, or about empowering and finding ways so that the student can eventually do things for themselves?”  This subtle shift will be needed for our students to create their futures, instead of hoping someone else will do it for them.