Opening Keynote: A New Job Description – The Capacities of a Contemporary Teacher & Professional Learner

Marie Alcock - Learning Systems Associates, President

Many of us have been trained in the techniques and pedagogy of yesteryear. Not only do we see gaps between our generation and those of the students we teach, but we have many different generations all in the one school building. But, age doesn’t define your generation. Generation is also defined by key elements of geographical location, parenting styles, and availability of technology during one’s early years. Generations are exponentially changing – grade 12 students are a different generation to students 3 years younger. To make things even more challenging is the fact that the world and that of learning is changing before our eyes.

As educators we can feel constrained by the following:

•        We still have school as an industrial model.
•         There’s a culture of threat.
•         Not enough time.

We need to challenge these narratives. But how?

How free are we to fail in education? To innovate – we must risk!

How might we rethink & redesign school in terms of:

•         Time
•         Space
•         Grouping of students & adults

3 Pedagogies to think about are:

•         Antiquated pedagogy – What do we cut?
•         Classical pedagogy – What do we keep?
•       Contemporary pedagogy – What do we create?

The contemporary JD upgrade includes these 6 capacities. They can be overwhelming, but I’m wondering how challenged you might be (like me) by the following list:

•         Self-navigating professional learner
•         Social contractor
•        Media critic, media maker, & publisher
•        Innovative designer
•        Globally connected citizen
•        Advocate for learners and learning

See details below that come from Marie’s new book (released 17 Feb 2017!) http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Overview/Bold-Moves-for-Schools.aspx

The bigger question we need to ask ourselves is: Where do we go from here? It starts with me – how might I equip myself and how might I be influential in ushering in the needed change to help prepare our students for their futures?