Expert Guided Ride #1
February 7, 2018 - Landscape of Education / Mistakes in Education
Today I interviewed educational expert (/scientist) Jozefien Bos, core teacher educational science & research at the Rotterdam University of applied sciences. To get a better grip on the field of education I needed an expert who is familiar with working with teachers in secondary education. For this interview / conversation I developed a new method which I like to call: Guided Ride. It is an combination between interview techniques and an ideation session. This made Jozefien talk about her knowledge, but also helped to gain new insights for her as well taking her on a journey through my thoughts and beliefs. In this blogpost I will share a concise summary of the guided ride.
Next to the axes I designed some objects to make the ride easier to follow.
Image 1. Tools in making for positioning on the axes I designed earlier (on which I needed her perspective)
This tools will also be used in ideation sessions with teachers. These sessions are (being) planned for march. In this guided ride the tools were not that useful, a mark on the axes were enough. Next to that Jozefien noticed that locating the schools was a form of research itself, she adviced to place the schools in the model with the schools not with outsiders.
Main insights from this Guided Ride:
- It is really important to answer the question: What is in it for the teacher? When do they start to move?
- A lot of schools need this form of innovation (Maker Education) but they are not aware of it yet
- Teachers are conservative people by nature, not innovators..
- It is not regular in education to keep educated
- Teachers are stubborn (which can be a positive fact, and a negative)
- Teachers can take a lot of different roles, they have a diverse profession
- Teachers are good in reflection / reflecting
- Education (nowadays) is mostly aiming for the main group (and kids are conditioned to be average)
Reaction on the axes
[++]
fixed method vs. flexible method
learner decides learning path vs. teacher decides
teacher chooses method vs. team/school does
[+]
theory vs. practice
internal differentiation vs. external
[0]
teacher as instructor vs. teacher as mentor
education based on individuals vs. based on the (mediate) group
cognitive goals vs. social goals
[-]
alpha vs. beta (+gamma)
Suggestions: Maybe add the most educated profiles (N&T, N&G, E&M & C&M) and special additional courses
In general, “this is a good starting point to start the conversation with teachers and schools”.
Actions and tips
- Find trends in education and place Maker Education in it (HypeCycle?) if it isn’t in there
- Ask teachers what they want or how you could help them..
- Next to iterative sessions or interviews always do a field visit in the school
- Talk with the inspection of education and find out what their perspective is on innovation in education
Some additional quotes.. (translated from Dutch)
“The one who teaches is the one who decides what method is used, and what not. Education is relying on teachers, a good vision is critical but teachers are the ones implementing it.”
“Teachers are good a doing a lot of thing a little bit, but think they can do everything exceptional”
“Teachers start being teachers mostly because they want to do good in the world, but are getting demotivated by the work ethos in the organization.”