Lecture ain't learnership

[Scott Kinkoph]

Lecture ain’t learnership

A common problem among educators is the need to be the expert at everything. Perhaps this stems from the early days of U.S. education where the teacher had to know everything, yet the educators I work with – awesome dedicated people – still have the wit about them to be experts.  A person who has a focus in one area of study can be an expert.  I think of scientists or doctors for instance. Many have a single focus which drives them to be expert. Teachers should be expert pedagogists – know how to help children learn in a variety of ways such that differentiated instruction is the norm.

Lecture is this – let me tell you everything I know because I am supposed to know everything there is about my subject but I am only going to use one teaching method and that is lecture. This is by far the easiest way to teach and by far the dumbest way to learn. The transforming factor is not available for the student because the teacher is not being transformed in his or her own learning. That learning is to be about pedagogy first followed by content expertise for if the teacher is not inclined to instruct with pedagogical vigor the student is not inclined to learn with effort. So much of what educators seem to focus on is content when content can be easily be found on the Internet. There are those homes, schools, students, teachers, and administration that may not have web access, but this is not the norm so all of the content can be had without a textbook. This leaves pedagogy as the single focus and strong pedagogy leads to strong learning.

Education experts agree that problem, project, inquiry based learning leads to greater understanding of learning and content. This is no surprise because this is how we learn in our natural human state. We are not given contrived learning instances rather we are in the living moment making decisions based on what we can learn to get us to a best outcome. That makes sense to me. An educator must be more informed about how to get to the deep roots of learning for the learning sake of every student. If students are not aware about how to learn (learning process) then they can not solve complex problems. This is real life. This is learning.

Transitioning to a dynamic teaching and learning style takes learnership. Learnership is leadership, pedagogy, and technology rolled into a single education pedagogy. As an educator I lead through example showing students how to learn and learn along side them. Pedagogically I am aware of how to construct learning vs. destructing it into segments that seemingly have nothing in common. Students need a digital tool belt they strap on every time they are asked to create content judging which digital tool allows them to best demonstrate what they have learned. Learnership is highly metacognitive for a teacher must be aware of his or her own thinking about learning and teaching learning using technology as a support tool.

If we are to move away from a lecture and worksheet driven style the new model of learnership needs to be adopted.

How do you see leading and learning through technology?