In the 21st century, educators face a new set of challenges, particularly when it comes to laying the groundwork for their student’s future success. The days of a student’s success depending solely on his or her memory and test-taking skills are over (if they ever were).
Even at a young age, students have to learn a lot of different ideas from many different fields and topics in order to make sense of a world where knowledge is growing and shrinking at a rate that has never been seen before.
In higher education, students are “focused” on more complicated and specialized material, but they still get tons of unnecessary facts thrown at them. It’s a lackadaisical approach to education.
Don’t Cram Facts into Student’s Heads
Teachers should not aim to cram as much material into a course as possible but rather concentrate on a manageable amount of important concepts. Students’ skills in and out of the classroom improve when they can show what they know about a small set of topics through focused demonstrations.
The best way to do this is through conceptual growth rather than memorization by rote. It’s better for students to leave a class with a deep understanding of a few key ideas than to have memorized a lot of information they may or may not ever use and that often disappears from their heads hours or days later.
This newer way of teaching is better from a teaching and moral point of view, and it also makes students happier.
Individual and Societal Impact
Teaching the way we used to is a definite way to fail, and it has been shown to be so. Many schoolchildren have always struggled academically and dislike going to school as a result. This has led to many challenges for them as they get older and for society as well. That old method has to give way to something better.
This new way of teaching encourages professors to take a step back and think about their fields as a whole (many already do). In this way, educators will be able to create assessments and other instructional materials that are tailored to each student’s unique needs and interests.
Many Obstacles Remain
Even though coming up with this new approach is hard and takes work, the payoff more than makes up for the trouble. The moment has come to get down to business and ensure the success and fulfillment of each and every student. Of course, the vast majority of teachers do want this, but they often can’t because of the curriculum or the way the school or school district is run. Factors include standardization and federal guidelines as well. So, I’m not saying that this change will be easy because I know there will be many challenges implementing this new approach, but the results of the effort on individuals and society will be well worth it.