Over the course of the last few days, I have had the opportunity to reflect on important questions concerning education. The focus of this reflection is about change in the educational system. The following questions and responses are based on my own personal opinion as a future educator.
Do we need to reimagine education?
I believe that education is constantly evolving. As time progresses and new knowledge is discovered, education is reimagined. This change is beneficial to society as children learn what society deems important. By focusing education on important real world problems, the children of today will have developed the correct skills and competencies to improve the future. However, some individuals may view this change in education as problematic. Some individuals may view the reimagination of education as allowing too much freedom and not focusing on solely academic skills. I find that education must be centralized on social, academic, and career skills to allow children to discover their interests in the real world.
This link will take you to the British Columbia Curriculum Redesign website: Curriculum Redesign | Building Student Success – B.C. Curriculum (gov.bc.ca)
What obstacles do educators often face when they try to change pedagogy?
The definition of pedagogy is “the art, science, or profession of teaching” (Pedagogy Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster). Every educator has their own personal approach to pedagogy which is developed through teacher training and personal experiences. When educators try to change pedagogy, they often face some challenges. These challenges may include difficulties balancing the different learners in the classroom, losing focus of the curriculum, extensive planning time, and funding. In addition to this, changing pedagogy does have some equity issues as not all schools have the same resources to allow them to do so. Changing pedagogy is a difficult task for an educator as it requires extensive time and planning which is not abundantly found in the classroom.
What concerns and/or excites you about this approach?
This approach allows more freedom as an educator but also creates more pressure to incorporate everything from the curriculum. It is exciting to allow a teacher to create a personalized learning plan that best suits their classroom. By abandoning a strict curriculum and pedagogy that mandates all teachers to teach identically, it creates a more positive learning environment for the children. This is a wonderful change that has occurred in the British Columbia education system as teachers have the ability to teach to their students needs as long as the curriculum is being followed. The only concern that I have is ensuring that everything in the curriculum has been completed. Evidently, there are positive and negative factors associated with changing pedagogy. With all this being said, education should be centralized around the learner.
This is all for now!
Thank-you for listening,
Kyra
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