The Evolving Role of the Teacher
Type the word “teacher” on Google image search and you get hundreds of stock images of teachers standing at the front of a classroom with a chalkboard behind them and regimented rows of students sat before them. This traditional image of the teacher may seem like a caricature to those who are used to seeing the modern, city-based teacher in international schools — with their tablets instead of books and smart boards in place of chalkboards. However, if you consider the millions of students who do not go to urban schools in large parts of the world, the conventional image of the teacher that we find on Google fits the bill.
The traditional role of the teacher was that of a “sage on stage” — the fount of knowledge, the repository of information, and the purveyor of facts. Today, the teacher is more of a “guide on the side”. Teachers are encouraged to be facilitators and counsellors more than lecturers and disciplinarians.
However, the rise of 5G networks, broadband speeds, and ubiquitous smartphones has led to an increased focus on flipped lessons, Challenge Based Learning, and new learning pathways. There is a gradual shift in emphasis toward real-world competencies and transferable skills.
Of course, most schools still follow traditional curricula and are based on conventional subject-based timetables. However, there are new educational organisations emerging that are breaking the mould.
Consider Agora in the Netherlands, for instance. This is a “school” that has traded courses, timetables, classes, and tests for challenges, collaboration, and coaching by teachers. Their learning environment is a mix between a university, a monastery, a laboratory, a marketplace, and a theme park.
Another example of a future-focused learning model is Awecademy. Based out of Dubai Future Foundation’s AREA 2071 and Intel and HP Inc’s Innovation Garage, learners are given the opportunity to develop new competencies, future fluencies, advanced skills, interdisciplinary problem solving, and powerful values for them to have a positive impact on humanity. The focus is on personalised learning pathways, individual industry-specific mentorship, and solutions-based projects.
At Awecademy, the role of the educator is different from that of a regular teacher in a conventional school. In a conventional school, the teacher is a subject-specialist whose primary role is to teach a set syllabus. At Awecademy, the role of the educator is different:
Learning Pathway Designer: Works with students, parents, and learning journey mentors to set learning goals, track students’ progress and pacing, and model potential sequences of activities that support learning experiences aligned with future fluencies and new core competencies.
Skills and Fluencies Tracker: Maps real-world learning opportunities and tags online courses by the competencies they address in order to support personalised learning.
Technology Evaluator: Works in collaboration with technology creators to identify best current learning tools (including VR, AR, AI, ed-tech apps, and social media).
Portfolio Supervisor: Oversees the learner’s portfolio and offers guidance and direction on how best to capture and showcase learning and accomplishments. Also oversees the credentialing process.
Network Manager: Advises the learner on how to build their personal brand, identify mentors, and expand their personal network.
Milestones Checker: Co-creates with the learner checkpoints for the learner that provide structure, support, and the right tools to get work done, while still allowing space for self-directed, creative, and inspired learning.
Learning Collaborators: Moves away from being subject experts and instead, leverages the power of students, seeks new knowledge alongside students, and models positive habits of mind and new ways of thinking and learning
Most, if not all, conventional schools hire teaching staff based on their academic degree and their teacher training qualification. That emphasis had utility in the past; it doesn’t necessarily anymore. It is much more important for educational organisations to attract the best and brightest adults from society into the educational sector regardless of their academic qualifications. We need inspirational thinkers, doers, and entrepreneurs to motivate our kids, help them find meaning and purpose, and create opportunities for them to have an impact in the real world while they are still young.
