Knowledge is movement.
It’s summer and while across the Northern hemisphere teachers are enjoying well deserved holidays they’re also preparing themselves for the school year 2009-2010. These days each school year starts as a great unknown. The question is not if disruption will happen during next school year; it’s when, how and how often.
The outcome of next school year will be determined by the dominant assumptions with which we’ll start in September. We have a choice between two opposing assumptions:
- Content is fixed, learning process is variable or incidental.
- Content is variable, learning process is fixed.
The first assumption – that content in the class room is fixed – is the world of standardized tests. Under these assumptions how students grasp the content of an entire school year is of secondary importance. The dominating force during the school year is preparing students for standardized tests, one way or another. This force is the result of the interplay between educational institutions, teachers and students who want to get into college. Learning is memorizing. Schooling is testing. Competence is the capability to perform.
The second assumption – that the learning process is fixed – is the vision of Carl Wieman, Will Richardson, Micheal Wesch and many others inside and outside of education. Under these assumptions learning is a personal, social yet understood process. I define learning as the process through which the muscles of our body – including our brain – grow capabilities that weren’t there before. It’s the world where students look for the help and support by expert tutors to facilitate and improve their learning. Learning is social. Knowledge is movement. Competence is the capability to succeed.
Under the first assumption schools are the facilities and institutions that prepare students for unavoidable and inescapable tests. Competence is performance. Performance is judged through impersonal processes by remote antagonists. The relationship between self and the world is determined by test results, governed by bureaucratic imperatives.
Under the second assumption schools are the most important and formative arena in year-long, round the clock learning. Competence is success. Success is demonstrated by the achievements in the student’s own social space which is publicly visible. The relationship between self and the world is determined by the place one finds through one’s own achievements over the entire year.
It’s clear that if the the first assumptions prevail – content is fixed – next school year will be a failure. Only the prevalence of the second assumptions will turn next school year into a success.
It’s also obvious that if only 1% or 2% of the teacher population strive to make the second assumptions come true next school year will be on the road towards success yet success is not yet in reach.
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