The Education Debate: Teaching vs Learning

 The best teachers in the school sit by their kids during an assembly and treat them as if they are good.” #schoolculture

@ToddWhitaker – Twitter

 

I saw this quote on twitter last week and it hit a nerve with me. So often we see teachers take an approach to behaviour management that assumes kids are going to do the wrong thing. In fact, the term ‘behaviour management’ bugs me too. I prefer ‘behaviour learning’. As adults, we shouldn’t be managing anyone’s behaviour but, instead, should be teaching our kids to control and regulate their own behaviour.

Kids will be kids and mess this up sometimes, but this doesn’t mean that this should be the expectation. I believe if we set high expectations for behaviour, talk about trust and respect and have open and honest conversations with kids about how they would like to be seen by others, they will take charge of their own behaviour learning. We in turn can offer support and guide them along their way.

Too often in schools the focus becomes about the teacher. How will the teacher control their class behaviour, how will the teacher teach the class. This seems to be the conversation being had by our politicians as well. All week I have been hearing interviews with our would be education minister talking of the need for the teacher to return to more traditional teaching methods and about what type of information he feels the teacher should impart to the students. I really thought we’d moved past this. If my students are sitting around waiting for me to impart knowledge, they are going to be severely disappointed. I can teach them how to learn, I can challenge their ideas and provide experiences for learning…. but for knowledge imparting, they are better off elsewhere.

In this current education debate, it worries me that there is no talk about about looking at how students learn. No talk about asking students what works for them. No talk about improving learning…  only about changing teaching. To me, these are very  different things and the emphasis needs to be on the learning rather than the teaching. I’m not sure how to get this message across to the people in charge, but it’s a message they need to hear.