How to Repair Education...Or At Least Where to Begin

Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky once told the world that we learn best while observing or interacting with someone who is a bit more educated than we are.  This Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) follows the idea that we gradually develop the ability to solve certain tasks without help when observing others.  This same philosophy is used in schools across the world 89 years later, because it works. 

           

At their desks, students are often paired with those close to them in skill to help create a maturing process that is neither overwhelming nor immature. Yet, if this concept works so well with our students, why aren’t we asking our teachers to do the same?

             

Colleges are using collaboration as a way to excel student learning.  Sure, schoolteachers have Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in their schools to discuss ideas, but how do we tap in to the depth of knowledge that successful schools in New York, Texas, or Illinois are drawing from?

           

Being a teacher means being a life-long learner.  We are forever journeymen who shall always continue our quest to become better. Our education system cannot be patched together brick and mortar; it needs drastic change to become successful. 

To do this, every principal and teacher should be both a mentor, and apprentice.  Three times a year, a teacher should observe someone more educated and experienced than they are.  Someone less experienced should also observe them.  This not only holds teachers accountable to teach well, but it disperses knowledge quickly.  Teachers take those ideas they learned and bring them back to their schools, their PLCs, and diffusion occurs naturally.

The cost for three subs a year per teacher will not be extremely cumbersome for districts to fathom with.  This certainly is a cheaper way to conduct professional development days where districts pay some company thousands of dollars for the next “magic bullet” that will raise scores drastically. Not to mention only one teacher per grade can attend, and usually are not allowed to “share” the copywrited material.

We don’t need new curriculum, new computers, more teachers, or fewer students.  We need a platform to both hold teachers accountable, and disperse our knowledge from the ground up.  Top bottom approaches that companies offer simply do not work.  They are merely tools to use.

The ones teaching know how to teach best.  But that knowledge will never be accessed if they never leave the classroom.  These teachers in their isolated pods, I mean classrooms, are begging for networking via Twitter and Pintrist.  Le that process happen naturally, locally, and let teachers hold each other accountable to better improve and inspire us all.