TEACHING NEEDS TO CHANGE

 

TEACHING NEEDS TO CHANGE

The more I teach, the more I feel students have changed. Students no longer respond very well to the demands of a fixed curriculum. I find that I am no longer teaching "local" students. Rather, I find myself working with global learners. There are good reasons for this.

The goal of a student ten years ago was to be local professional. Today, learners are more interested in global opportunity. The level of learner (self) awareness today is much higher than it was ten years ago. Many students already know what they are taught in the first eight years of school from the TV, internet, news media and politics. This may be the reason for the high level of boredom and poor behavior in some of our schools.

In the old days, a certificate supplied a job. Today, only character secures a career. In the old days, we were punished for poor grades. Today the only viable reprimand is for poor character. However, no single curriculum is able to meet the needs of the new global reality. In our school, we combine several curricula and learning content to meet the needs of global learners.

Teaching needs to evolve from schooling in a curriculum to learner development programs. This will make sure that teaching remains flexible enough to prepare learners for global life. I suggest that the school, and not curriculum, should be the centre of education.  And that teachers should be free to select aspects from a range of (relevant) curricula to prepare learners for global life. Teachers in every school, should not prepare pupils to pass exams, but should be given the power to train world-class citizens.

Allan Bukusi