New Pillars of Modern Teaching, The. Gayle Allen

      Chapter 1

       Why We Need to Change Pedagogy

      There are certain students who bring out the best in us as teachers. Often they’re the ones who show so little interest in what we’re teaching that they challenge us to make it relevant to them. For me, Ellie was that student. Each day she’d arrive early and pepper me with facts about the U.S. Civil War. She loved history. The challenge, as I saw it, was that I taught physics. That’s why, as I read her handwritten letter of thanks a decade later, I was so touched by what she wrote that, five lines in, I had tears in my eyes.

      Her letter said that she’d been rethinking her life and career. Her love of American history prompted her to start a graduate program to earn her teaching certificate in high school history. She shared that I’d played a role in that decision, saying that she wanted to emulate my passion, my patience, and my hands-on approach. I was deeply touched by her words and excited to hear her so engaged. Yet strangely, part of me was also sad. That part was wondering why it took Ellie nearly a decade to pursue a passion that her teachers saw in her all the time.

      I tell that story because it speaks so well to why many of us become teachers in the first place. First, we want to empower learners to reach their full potential. Second, we take joy in the privilege of being part of the process. Researchers’ conversations with teachers confirm it. We want to share in our students’ successes and challenges (Joyce & Weil, 2008). We want to encourage students’ growth, direction, and purpose (Murphy, 2006), and we also want to play a role in students’ becoming thoughtful, engaged citizens (Nieto, 2005). That’s how I felt when I read Ellie’s letter—that teaching is about more than test performance. It’s about the kind of learning that empowers students to reach their potential, in and beyond school.

Challenges of Engagement

      If a big part of why we teach is to help learners reach their full potential, then we may be disappointed to learn that we’re falling short of our goal. The thing is, Ellie’s initial dissatisfaction with her work isn’t that unusual, but her shift into more engaging work is. The majority of our graduates are deeply disengaged with their work, and they tend to stay that way, as evidenced by findings from Gallup’s (2013) report State of the American Workplace. Gallup, a research-based, global analytics company, has been gathering these data every two years since 2000. It defines engaged employees as those “involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work” (Gallup, 2013, p. 12).

      The Gallup (2013) figures are disheartening, to say the least: findings show that 70 percent of U.S. workers fall into the categories of “not engaged” and “actively disengaged;” furthermore, most “are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces” (p. 12). Even more disturbing is the fact that, since Gallup (2013) began gathering these data, the numbers remain relatively unchanged, with “actively disengaged” workers costing companies “between $450 billion to $550 billion each year in lost productivity,” as they are “more likely to steal from their companies, negatively influence their coworkers, miss workdays, and drive customers away” (pp. 12–13).

      Now you may be thinking, “We’re not CEOs. We’re educators.” Yet for us, these numbers represent former students. These are our young people who’ve reached adulthood but not their potential.

      As educators, most of us want a different kind of life for our students, the kind that Gallup describes for engaged employees. They’re the ones driving innovation and growth. They’re the ones who “build new products and services, generate new ideas, create new customers” (Gallup, 2013, p. 13). Equally important, long-term engagement has an impact on our former students’ mental and physical health and well-being. If one reason that we teach is so that students can find their path, then we have to admit we’re not having the impact we’d hoped.

      Daniel Pink (2009), best-selling author of Drive, recognizes three environmental factors researchers point to, again and again, as the keys to employee engagement: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. In short, students who are most engaged postgraduation operate in environments where they’re in charge of their own lives (autonomy), they learn and create new things (mastery), and they contribute something positive to the world (purpose). In contrast, our less engaged graduates operate in environments of control, management, and compliance.

      Then big questions for us as educators are: Can we better prepare students to act with this level of engagement in work (and in life) by laying the groundwork for that while they’re still in school? Can we teach them the skills for learning that will help them in each way that Pink outlines? Can we give them the autonomy to choose from among learning options? Can we incorporate into the learning process projects that are meaningful to them and that give them a sense of purpose? If they are performing work with autonomy and purpose, work without easy answers, can they develop a capacity for mastery over time? Would it be possible to teach students to practice these skills right now?

      Absolutely! That’s what giving students control over what, when, and how they learn is all about. While that wasn’t possible in the 20th century because of scarce access to resources, all that’s changed in today’s connected world.

Scarcity Versus Abundance

      Economists Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir (2013), who study the effects of scarcity, define it as “having less than you need” (p. 4). And it cuts across areas like economics, medicine, and education. Learning in a preInternet era meant having access to relatively few resources. It made it difficult to learn the concepts and skills associated with a particular subject. For many, this scarcity bred self-doubt, rather than self-confidence.

      It’s a scarcity that learners have experienced throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Systems like free public schooling certainly improved access for learners. Independent workers who learned easily from texts, and who had access to helpful instructors and peers, benefited from this system. However, a textbook, a teacher, a study group, and a library were not enough for many to own their learning. Most probably gave up on a few learning opportunities along the way when these few options failed to meet their needs.

      For many—but not all—that kind of scarcity ended in the 21st century as connectivity spread throughout our schools. To get a sense of the change, consider that on average, in one minute, we upload over 72 new hours of YouTube videos, over 3,400 new Pinterest images, and over 370,000 new tweets, along with new content, explainer materials, games, and apps (SkyRocket Group, 2014). At the same time, news sites push out articles and videos online as events unfold, and academics, researchers, and journalists provide public access to new research findings (James, 2014). Armed with an Internet connection, today’s learners can access dozens of learning resources in less than an hour. It’s a far cry from the meager and highly coveted three or four resources available in the 20th century. That’s what we mean by abundance. Today’s connected learners are