Final Exam - An Agenda for Action

I imagine that when most people think about education in the 21st century, they would be moved to envision technological gadgets, virtual classrooms, and the like. Ironically, my vision for education in the 21st century does call for some radical changes in the learning environment, but has very little to do with accomplishing them via new technology. In today's society, students are accustomed to having information at their fingertips at all times. The "knowing of facts" has no practical use in a world where knowledge is only a Google search away. However, there are some serious issues facing society, and today's adolescents are going to be presented with solving some very complex problems that we have created for ourselves. Schooling, in my opinion, needs to address these changing demands. Students must emerge from our education system as confident, creative problem solvers with the ability to listen, appreciate opinions, effectively use resources, constantly question norms, and think critically.

A step inside most high school classrooms will reveal that, by and large, education has not renewed itself to reflect the changing needs of society. Especially in mathematics, teachers still tell students how to a solve problem before sending them off to practice 50 more just like it. In real life we are frequently presented with problems but rarely are we told how to solve them. Over the course of the next semester, I fully intend to provide students with problems/tasks that they have no idea how to solve....and let them try to figure it out. I imagine students will be very resistant to this idea. After all, they have been conditioned to believe that all math problems have a right answer. My goal is to show them that becoming a good problem solver is just as much about the process as it is the product.

As I learn to implement these types of problems into the classroom, I also feel that it is important to provide the opportunity for students to work on them in a structured groupwork environment. Success in society and the job world rely on the ability to work well with other people. As educators, we must prepare students for this demand by allowing them the opportunity to practice it in a meaningful context. Furthermore, groupwork can be designed to tackle some of the status issues that permeate much of societal relationships. Group roles, multiple abilities, and fostering confidence in our students can help level the very unequal playing field that we live in.

Lastly (at least for now), an action I would like to take during my early teaching career is designing methods of assessment that support this model of education. If we truly believe that arriving at the "right answer" is not the primary goal in problem solving, then it follows that we are more interested in assessing student processes. This becomes a very difficult task because of the subjectivity involved. Grading needs to be changed to reflect this belief. There are many ideas that I would like to experiment with: summative portfolios, rubrics designed around central unit themes, grading for progress, project-based assessment, and others. At this point in my teaching career (which officially has not even begun), I have no idea what will work. But, I honestly believe that there are better assessment methods than the unit test and I also believe that not all people can fully demonstrate their understanding through a test. Not offering these options is doing a lot of students a great disservice.

All of these actions require a change in curriculum, the role of the teacher, the structure of the school, and the assessment of the student. That is a lot of change in a system that heavily discourages it. But, believing that it can't be done would be the first step in ensuring that it doesn't.