I was having an interesting discussion with some Scottish educators during the Creative Bravery festival about different ways to teach. One of the topics resulted in the recent post Should We Let Pedagogy Die?. The other topic has taken a bit longer to percolate.
One of the educators suggested that practically anything can be reduced to a 2x2 grid, and that when you are considering how to teach or how to learn something, we should consider that on one axis would be: do we have the capacity (knowledge, skills, and resources) to solve something, and on the other axis should be is there a clear solution. It might look something like this:
If a person has the knowledge and skills, and there is a clear solution, then all that’s necessary to teach is perhaps reference material for refresher. If you know how to drive and follow a map, then all you need is some reference material on the route to your destination. If you know the material you need to take a test, then maybe all you need is some study aids to prepare for the test.
If there is a clear solution and a person does not have the knowledge or skills, teaching and learning should be pretty straightforward. Cover the material the person needs to learn. There is an end of year math skills test, cover the material needed for the test during the year in a way that the person will be able to do well on the test. If a person has to demonstrate competence in some science concepts, teach those science concepts.
The more interesting cases, and probably more common in life, are the cases where there is no clear solution.
What if a person has the general knowledge and skills, but there is no clear solution? What would you want that person to learn, and how would they learn it? Maybe learning different problem solving methods would be a start.
What if we wanted people to be prepared to solve problems where we don’t know today what the problems will be, we do not know the specific knowledge and skills they will need to solve those problems, and, in all likelihood there is no clear solution to the problem?
Isn’t that fourth quadrant what today’s children face with their futures?
Most of us would acknowledge that our current education system doesn’t do that well.
Here is the quick question about the future of education: What should we do about that?
I don’t have an answer, but I’d love to hear yours.
And, you could advance your understanding of potential solutions in future or archived (free) Edchat Interactives.