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