Integrating the Old Story and the New Story

As I begin to read this book, Interviewing Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21st Century Learner, chapter one reminded me of many things I learned last year in EDUC 8P50. The thought of school being a game and when you’re good at the game you will be successful in life. It is usually specific type of people who succeed in this “game of school”, as many teachers teach in a way that only benefits certain types of learners. 21^st century education is attempting to change this and improve education so that everyone can succeed, no matter what type of learner you are.

            I believe in order for this to happen, there needs to be a integration between the old ways and the new ways. The new story can’t be completely new in every aspect, but there can definitely be improvements and changes to the old story. We can’t completely push away from the traditional model, the teacher still needs to teach, and there are still things that students need to memorize (ex. multiplication tables) and be able to concentrate on their own without socialization. If this were to not exist in education in elementary schools and high schools, students would be shocked when they got to university or college. Secondary school still needs to prepare students for university or college or even the workforce, where independent learning needs to exist and you have to be able to obtain knowledge from a teacher or professor.

 I do think that project-based learning can be very beneficial too. It is extremely important for people to be able to work in a group and have good social skills, as this is apart of everyday life and post-secondary school. I think that the curriculum needs to integrate the traditional model with project-based learning to prepare students for life after school whether that is working or more school. The way curriculum is delivered is extremely important. The teacher needs to be aware of the different types of learners in the class. I think it is important for the teacher and the students to have the right attitude when it comes to succeeding. Everyone needs to be aware that anyone can succeed, sometimes this means the teacher having to boost a students confidence and giving them extra help or teaching them in a different way. I don’t think that a teacher can “baby” a student too much though, because again this is not preparing students to be successful in post-secondary school. I think the student has a big responsibility too, they need to learn how they learn best and I don’t really think this is something a teacher can teach them.  The teacher can definitely provide students with different types of strategies on things like problem solving and studying, but students need to be committed to their education and learn how they learn best.

As a future high school physics teacher (hopefully) I am really interested in reading further into this book and seeing real life examples of teachers who are using the new story of education in their classrooms, especially at the high school level in math and science.