Learning from U.S. to prepare teachers for future generations

Learning from U.S. to prepare teachers for future generations

Totok Amin Soefijanto, Boston/ Massachusetts

There is a Javanese saying: "A teacher is to be listened to
and followed." The problem is, we as a society do not know how to
make teachers teach and lead professionally. Unfortunately, in
this era of globalization when technology is influencing every
aspect of life, including schools, our teachers are the last to
learn of the opportunities available from improvements in
educational technology.

We can learn from other developed nations that have been
struggling to introduce technology in their schools. Yes, it is
indeed a struggle, not a smooth implementation as we might think.
Many educational technology thinkers in Europe and Northern
America have complained about the slow uptake of technology use
in education.

Despite the speed of progress in information technology in
business and medical fields, classrooms in the United States are
still using whiteboards, books and desks.

Some elementary schools and colleges might have been using
computers, Power Point presentations and the Internet in the
classroom in the last three years. For the pessimists, that kind
of technology implementation is not enough. For the optimists,
they would consider it as progress nonetheless.

We might disregard American pop culture as a good example, but
in the case of technology implementation in Uncle Sam's schools,
we can learn an important lesson: put into practice the student-
centered teaching method and constructivist approach. This spring
semester, I will teach a course called Educational Technology Lab
for undergraduate students.

This mandatory course is to prepare future teachers to create
a web-based lesson for teachers they are working with. The
college has assigned these students to do internships in
elementary schools in the greater Boston area. During the spring
semester, the students will go back and forth from their
practice-schools to the lab and lectures on campus to build a
web-based lesson for real teachers in a real classroom setting.
In addition, the students will also read an article or two about
educational technology, and write papers about them.

The process of teaching undergraduate students to use
technology, in this case the World Wide Web or Internet, is well
arranged and organized from week to week. Every week, students
have one major lecture and one lab section. In the first two
weeks, it is common for some students to show hesitation in using
the computer.

It is certainly harder to make them build a website with this
initial hesitation. However, they eventually work on the web-
based project and related assignments, and pass the course with
flying colors. What is the secret? Often, the key to success
depends on how the lecturers of this course teach, what kind of
teaching method and style they use, and how the whole learning
process accommodates students' needs.

Evidently, if the faculty employs a student-centered teaching
method and style, such as discussion and facilitator as Anthony
Grasha of University of Wisconsin suggested, the students are
more engaged in the learning activities and willing to walk extra
miles to make their projects successful in helping teachers
utilize the Internet in the classroom.

The discussion teaching method is different from the lecture
method because the former encourages students' active
participation in the learning process. Furthermore, the
facilitator teaching style is the opposite of the formal
authority style because the former requires the teacher to let
his or her students explore information from other sources to
complement the teacher's sources.

There is an optimal result because the teacher implements a
constructivist approach that considers knowledge coming from the
students' own understanding of the subject matter, not from
outside of them. European thinkers such as Rousseau and Maritain
called this experience as "epiphany," or a feeling of finding an
answer from contemplation on events around oneself.

American seminal thinker John Dewey suggested that a
constructivist approach could be achieved when we allow students
to reflect upon their learning experience in a knowledgeable
manner. In the case of web-based project, students have plenty of
time to compare two worlds: the practice world when they meet and
observe teachers in the classroom, and the academic world where
they go back to the campus and computer lab.

For example, listening to the teachers' and their elementary
students' criticism of their web-based lessons is invaluable
because for the first time these undergraduate students realize
that in any learning endeavors, knowledge about learners and
their preferences is precious for the effectiveness of their web-
based lesson.

Now, how can we learn from this case? Our colleges that train
and educate teachers can start reviewing their teaching
practices. For a starter, we ought to ask ourselves what kind of
teaching style and method the faculty applies in their daily
lectures. The experience with undergraduate students in the U.S.
college above at least can remind us that even a developed nation
needs to work hard to implement technology in their schools.

In fact, this story is just the tip of the iceberg of
educational technology advancement in the United States because
the U.S. Department of Education has been using this approach for
training teachers to utilize technology in their classroom.

This competency is necessary in order that parents and society
respect them. Otherwise, the Javanese saying that infers a
teacher should be listened to and be followed will make a mockery
of the teaching profession.

The author is an adjunct faculty at Boston University School of
Education and a researcher at Harvard University's Program on
Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research. He can be reached at
totok@fulbrightweb.org