From Master Teacher to Master Learner
Think you might want to read this book?
Will Richardson makes it clear from the get-go in From Master Teacher to Master Learner that the model teacher needs to now be a learner first and foremost. He reinforces the idea that our students no longer need teachers who have encyclopedic knowledge, but rather those who can model learning and guide students through what learning should look like in the digital age. This is a great read for anyone who believes, or is willing to entertain, that premise.
What Would Socrates Ask?
What percentage of the work your students do has an authentic purpose outside of the classroom?
What if students were given the standards for a unit and were allowed to propose different ways they wanted to demonstrate mastery?
Should we ask teachers to reflect on their own learning in school more often?
Should classroom cultures be evaluated for their focus on teaching or learning?
Research
Student engagement drops every year from fifth through twelfth grade, falling to a low of 44 percent in high school.
In 2012, only about half of college graduates were working in jobs that required a four-year degree.
Concepts
“Digital Revolution”- the moment when personal computers and online networks merged to allow individuals to create, disseminate and access information everywhere.
What teachers need to “unlearn”:
We are the smartest people in the room.
We have to organize everything.
We can do without technology.
Everything kids do must be quantifiable.
We should only ask questions with a definite answer or an answer we know.
Curriculum is the main driver of learning.
Quotes from the author
The system of schooling that most of us use are products of, and is based on, a series of structures and efficiencies that do not work well with the messier, less linear, more self-organized ways we can learn, create, and connect on the internet.
There is no question that many institutions are suffering for a taste of the complexities and challenges afoot, ask any journalist or musician if the digital transition has been an easy adjustment.
… digital classrooms are those where learning is valued over knowing, where making and doing are more important than consuming and memorizing, and where our students are empowered to learn deeply, richly, and authentically using the modern tools and technologies that are so common in their lives.
Frankly, it’s almost impossible to discuss change on (a grand) scale given the deep nostalgia we hold for our own school experiences and the deep financial investment that huge content and technology supplying companies have in the traditional way of doing things.
Transformation is not about more technology, personalized learning, or flipped classrooms. It’s instead about rethinking our roles as teachers and the purposes of our classrooms.
Teachers who choose to let students pursue their own interests and go deeply into the topics they care about within the context of the school-mandated curriculum report a shocking result: the kids are OK. In fact, they’re better than OK. They still pass the test, they still get into college, and importantly, they sustain high levels of engagement for learning.
Make sure that your students’ work has an authentic place in the world. Grapple with real questions that neither you nor your students know the answers to. Encourage them to do work with a personal connection to their lives.
Schools are primarily made up of cultures of teaching rather than cultures of learning.
My prediction for the near-term future of teaching and learning? It’s going to get ugly… community members, parents, legislators, and lobbyists will resist large-scale, transformative change at every turn because they are tied so deeply either to their nostalgia for school as they knew it or to the potential windfalls of making traditional schools “better”.
Quotes from Others
Most of us will soon be “living and working perpetually on a learning curve.” - Liz Wiseman
“Our kids learn within a system of education devised for a world that increasingly does not exist.”- David Edwards
“There is a sizable discrepancy between what we know about how high school aged youth learn best and the characteristic practices of high schools.” - Realizing the Potential of Learning in Middle Adolescence report
“I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” - Albert Einstein
“Today we work in an environment where information is vast, fast, and fleeting… Those trying to cling to the mastery model in today’s world will surely struggle… (they) will cling to their amassed body of knowledge and expertise, trying to hold their own in a culture that no longer values their brilliance.” - Liz Wiseman
“The critical skill of this century is not what you hold in your head, but your ability to tap into and access what other people know.” - Liz Wiseman
Implement tomorrow?
Generate a list of questions on the board that neither the teacher nor the students know the answer to and leave it up on the board. Don’t assign it as homework or mention it and see how many students look up the answer over the course of the next week or so.
Organization Working on Answers
Gateways to Further Learning
Referenced books for purchase
The applicability of this book to education is ….
Resources
