Author: Leena Nair, Principal New Era Senior Secondary School, Vadodara, Gujarat.
Students adapted to online tools better and faster. As for the educators, it has been a roller-coaster ride. Is it a sign that it is time to redefine teaching in an age of uncertainty, when two-thirds of today’s school children will work in jobs that don’t yet exist? Do they need teachers when they are more likely to look for a solution on the internet? How can a teacher sustain, be ready to meet students’ expectations, and engage with them meaningfully? Students today are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. They have grown up in the information age and therefore have a different approach to sourcing and processing information. They function best when they are networked and thrive on frequent rewards, all of which mean that educators too must approach teaching in a new manner.
There is no denying that Generation Z also needs the kind of teaching which is intensely human and interactive. There are different learning styles, a plethora of educational aims, a variety of curricula, a profusion of communication techniques, different skills to be taught and learnt; therefore, teachers must be able to juggle and keep all these balls up in the air.
Teachers need to develop themselves professionally and move away from convergent to divergent thinking. Education will need to become comprehensive, effective, practically accessible, as what has worked in the past will not work in the future. Teachers of today, therefore, need to become champions of change and innovations.Teachers could use ‘Kolb’s learning cycle’ as a model required for complete learning and the principle of continuous ‘Reflection in Action’ as two approaches to deal with the difficult task of teaching Generation Z.
KOLB’S LEARNING CYCLE
The above model works in steps as given below:
1. Concrete Experience (a new experience of situation is encountered, or a reinterpretation of existing experience).
2. Reflective Observation (of the new experience, of particular importance, any inconsistencies between experience and understanding).
3. Abstract Conceptualization (Reflection gives rise to a new idea, or a modification of an existing abstract concept).
4. Active Experimentation (the learner applies them to the world around them to see what results).
The learner, in this case the teacher, can begin the cycle at any point but must follow each step in order.
METHOD:
—- A trainee teacher uses role play in a session (CONCRETE EXPERIENCE) to portray different characters. The role play is partially successful.
—- The teacher reflects on the use of this learning method and considers how it could be improved and made more effective. (RELECTIVE OBSERVATION)
—- She talks to more experienced colleagues and as a result, formulates an improved version of the activity.
(ABSTRACT CONCEPTUALISATION)
—- The next time she plans to use role play, she incorporates her new ideas into the planning. She may show a movie to the class and ask learners to observe, take and share notes, and then makes them enact or role play based on her colleagues advice. (ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION)
This leads to a new concrete experience and the repetition of the cycle and the process of reflection helps a teacher to monitor own development from raw beginner to experienced professional.
Teaching is like an orchestra, there are many different instruments, and to reach everyone you need to put a symphony of different kinds of pedagogy together.
