What to teach and how to teach it
baumann@fi.edu
Tue, 25 Mar 1997 11:05:18 -0500
Traditional content and process emphases in delivering science and math
instruction rarely focused on teachers deciding what and how to teach.
Prescribed curricula embodied in textbooks and more recently in
manipulatives and hands-on materials, never intended for teachers to get
"too creative" in delivering the product. In fact, I can remember
discussions which identified certain curricula, both content and process, as
"teacher proof."
What a challenge we now face when access to network technology brings to the
classroom resources, communications, and collaboration opportunities which
demand that teachers make conscious decisions about what and how to teach.
How are we helping teachers deal with this disconnect?
This is very unsettling to dedicated, veteran teachers who feel caught in a
bind between articulated "district curricula," methodologies that have
supported them as teachers for years, standardized testing geared to old
ways of presenting content, and extensive, dynamic, current opportunities
that come to their classroom each day via network technology.
In my experience with Science Learning Network teachers, their growth in
creating images of a new classroom environment for learning using
telecomputing is astounding. What lags behind are the strategies, time,
support, and skills to design and implement a new learning environment based
on these developing images.
Steve
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Stephen H. Baumann (baumann@fi.edu) Director of Educational
The Franklin Institute Science Museum Technology Programs
222 N. 20th St. (tel) 215-448-1206
Philadelphia, PA 19103 (fax) 215-448-1274