W. Brennan

Issues of Teaching and Learning

A Call for Action in the 21st Century

By: William Brennan

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W. Brennan

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him

for life.” I really do love this expression. As a matter of fact, it serves as a powerful

metaphor for my own practice. As I begin to examine the issues facing teaching and

learning in the twenty-first century, I do so with an emphasis on what it means to teach

and how learning occurs. By examining progressive transaction teaching and learning I

will demonstrate the need for educational reform, highlight some challenges along the

way and share ideas of how I believe certain conditions may exist which I believe will

allow us to move in the right direction, away from transmission teaching and learning.

A good place to start is by examining what the word teach is trying to suggest in this

famous Chinese proverb. Haas and Poynor, two professors from the University of

Connecticut, suggest that “teaching is often equated with telling – teachers deliver

information that students absorb and at the center of this process is a relationship between

teacher and student.” (Haas and Poynor, 2005) I begin by asking, what does a man need

to know in order to be a good fisherman so that he can eat for life? Might a beginner

fisherman need the skills of casting, reeling in a line, configuring the pole with weights,

knowledge of what bait to use, understanding of tides, migration of fish and filleting and

cooking techniques? Perhaps you might think I am an experienced fisherman because of

all the prior knowledge I demonstrate. While I do possess some background knowledge

and cognitive structures of how to fish, I am sure that my lack of real-life experience

would leave me and my family very hungry at the end of the day. With that being said,

I believe teaching and learning occur best when learning is done by doing.

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Exceptional learning should not only lead us to deeper understanding, but it should

leave us more curious. Grounded in behaviorist’s theories, transmission practices are

quite the contrast as it suggests students are not permitted to question the importance of

what they are doing. Where is the ownership in learning? “In transmission teaching,

learning activities have single, clear correct answers, progress from simply to more

difficult and often involve memorization.” (Haas and Poynor, 2005) This is precisely

what our system of schooling does today. In his book, The Global Achievement Gap,

Wagner writes, “Why is it that the longer our kids are in schools, the less curious they

seem? What is it about the way we school our children that stifles curiosity?” I submit

that it is the result of this long standing tradition of transmission teaching. Wagner

asserts that “the Seven Survival Skills are for the future generations as the “Three R’s”

were for the previous generations. They are the “new basic skills” for work, learning and

citizenship in the twenty-first century.” (Wagner, 2008) Wagner asserts the following

seven survival skills for the new economy: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving,

Collaboration across networks and leading by influence, Agility and Adaptability,

Initiative and Entrepreneurialism, Effective Oral and Written Communication, Accessing

and Analyzing Information and Curiosity and Imagination.

If Wagner’s assertions hold true, notwithstanding the best efforts of educators, the

United States school system is dangerously approaching obsolescence. His work is the

culmination of many interviews with business leaders and has observed hundreds of

classes in some of the nations most highly regarded public schools. His outcome is a

disconnect between what potential employers are looking for in young people today and

what our schools are providing. Wagner contends that our schools are passive learning

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environments with uninspired lesson plans that focus on test preparation and reward

memorization. Lets take for a second one of the major skills required to be successful in

the workplace, Collaboration across networks and leading by influence. As a former

middle school science teacher, I seem to remember that children are born with the ability

to socialize. Yet, we ask them to check their social skills at the door the second they

enter our classrooms. As a school leader, I believe it is my role to guide the

conversations of teachers. Can the same be said for teachers and students?

According the Vygotsky (1978), people learn by first doing with others what they

cannot do as well by themselves. Known as “zone of proximal development, people

negotiate meaning and co-construct knowledge and the meaning of

intelligence.”(Vygotsky 1978) I want to pay particular attention to the idea of “others.” I

think “others” implies working or learning with people, yet it doesn’t give any leads on

who that might be. Yet in schools, we are totally grouping children by age and

sometimes using perceived intelligence as a tracking measure. Regardless of whether I

am enrolled in school, I will always consider myself to be a student. This is because I am

constantly trying to acquire new knowledge and build upon my cognitive structures.

Oddly enough, I often find myself with people of varying ages, and of many different

intellectual levels who truly do shape my thinking and teach me a thing or two. So why is

that we are so stuck on this tradition that students need to be grouped with students of the

same age? How does a transmission style of teaching promote a democratic approach to

learning when it is rare that students are not encouraged to engage is group learning or

talking to other classmates?

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“Changes in school practices as profound as the shift from transmission to transaction

teaching will require grassroots organization, collegial support, and educational outreach

to all aspects of the school community (Fleischer, 2000). It could require starting one’s

own school (Glover, 1997). Transaction schooling, then, should be viewed as a radical

social movement arrayed against powerful forces that do not want it to succeed.” (Haas

and Poynor, 2005)

Similar to the mass circulation journalism of scientific management of schools, we

are in the midst of a huge public discussion about schools. With a breadth of new

research in the human brain and more communication channels than we know what to do

with, I expect educational leaders and policy makers to build momentum towards

transaction teaching practices.

Haas and Poynor contend that the research appears to support transaction schooling,

but the question arises, why hasn’t it replaced transmission schooling as the more

dominant model? Tradition and culture are hard to break, but combine that with a

bureaucratic system which is at the mercy of teacher contracts and bargaining units,

coupled with the financial influences of teacher organizations toward politics, and you

are faced with an almost impossible task. Haas and Poyner suggest that “transaction

practices should transcend from superintendent to principals, from principals to teachers

and from teachers to students.” (Haas and Poyner, 2005) I doing so, they suggest school

communities should work both within and across interested groups. Applied to teachers,

“this might be facilitating a school committee on curriculum after taking university

courses or attending workshops.” (Haas and Poynor, 2005) Unfortunately, I have seen

this in my own practice and it usually works in the opposite sense. Very often

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committees are made up of union officials with special interests who nudge the decision

making process in the best interest of their own people. This, I submit, is the brick wall

we all hit and the product is an outdated educational system.

In combination with teacher/union resistance we are faced with other systemic

challenges on why transaction teaching doesn’t happen today. The bottom line is that

transaction teaching and learning is very difficult to facilitate. It requires time. Time

refers to the ability of teachers to talk, plan and create curriculum and assessments which

support this practice. The current structure of the school day limits teacher collaboration.

My experience has been that teachers find very little time in the day to talk with other

teachers regarding lesson development and student work. Our current system does not

support these transaction practices of teaching and learning. To achieve this practice,

teachers need the time facilitate special projects, collaborate with colleagues to align

projects as well as discuss student progress.

Despite these challenges, I believe we have an opportunity knocking right around the

corner. Last Friday I attended the Annual Long Island Curriculum & Supervision

Conference in Huntington, New York where I had the pleasure of hearing Thomas

Rodgers, Executive Director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents

speak about challenges for the future. Mr. Rodgers reported that some people are calling

2011 as the time for “The Perfect Storm” in New York State. According to Paul

Schoemaker, a strategy specialist and research director of Wharton’s Mack Center for

Technological Innovation Leadership Strategies for Dealing with the Crisis, “The best

opportunities arrive in times of crisis, not in times of stability.” If there is an opportunity

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staring us right in the face, I ask, what is the key to making the most of these

opportunities?

Teaching every student in the Digital Age will provide greater opportunities for

transaction teaching. Getting there will require an educational culture much different

then what we have today. George Sieman’s asserts, the “Internet is changing the way we

communicate and therefore learn.” Through his concept of Connectivism, Sieman’s

presents a model of learning that acknowledges, “Learning is no longer an internal

individualist activity. As knowledge continues to grow and evolve, access to what is

needed is more important than what the learner currently possesses.” (Siemans 2008)

Although not regarded as a learning theory, Connectivism provides insight into learning

skills and tasks needed for learners to flourish in a digital era. I believe there is the

potential for technology, when coupled with effective teaching to transform learning to a

more transactional approach. As we seek to realize this potential, I submit that all

stakeholders must hone in on the research that supports transactional style teaching and

how it will create powerful thinkers and learners rather than children who will memorize

facts. In doing so, I submit that our focus must be on addressing multiple learning styles

in our classrooms and seek strategies to reach all learners. School must not be a place

where students come to watch teachers work, yet an environment where instruction will

provide real life experiences, so that, students can perform real life tasks with real life

responsibilities under the guidance of the instructor.

In conclusion, I leave you with the following quote from Albert Einstein who in my

opinion captures the essence of what education should be about. “Imagination is more

important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the

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entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” I personally believe this

captures one of the single most important aspects of what education should yield,

especially in the twenty-first century. Imagination, curiosity and creativity are most

often taught in the Arts, but rarely in the core subjects in American education. Our

education system which fosters memorization and standardized test will not prove to be

the springboard for innovation in a world and economy that demands it.

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Work Cited

Fleisher, C. (2000). Teachers organizing for change: Making literacy learning

everybody’s business. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Glover, M. K. (1997). Making school by hand: Developing a meaning-centered

curriculum from everyday life. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of

English.

Haas, E, & Poynor, L. (2005). The SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership, Issues of

Teaching and Learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Siemens, G. (2008). About: Description of Connectivism: A learning theory for today’s

learner. Retrieved October 18, 2009 http://www.connectivism.ca/about.html

The Wharton School, Leadership Strategies for Dealing with the Crisis

Retrieved October 19, 2009 from http://tiny.cc/ K0cLX

Wagner, Tony. (2008). The Global Achievement Gap. New York, NY, USA: Basic

Books.

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