Pedagogical scenario controller: a new role for the teacher

Teaching is about having someone learn something relatively specific, with an expected outcome. The one who has learned will normally be able to achieve some result and eventually create a new reality or reproduce the same one, with control and efficiency, whether it be music, a plumbing system, a chemical reaction or a potato field.

In principle the teacher knows what there is to learn and teach, all that remains is to construct the path to get there, without necessarily going through all the trial and error of those who traced or discovered the field. We are dealing with centuries of development and a "course" will offer a condensation of the demonstrations, conclusions and know-how that have led to what we know today and this is as much the field of the arts as the sciences.

The pedagogical circuit

Teaching methods are now confronted with the possibilities of student action and participation. We want to learn well, but not only by following THE path.

In "Account of a test regarding online coaching" by Geneviève Nault and Françoise Marceau of Cégep@distance, we find a student's testimony that expresses well the limits of pedagogical scenarios:

"At first glance, I would say that "everything" seems to be there. Everything, everything, everything.

Everything is too much there!

I know, I should read everything. Everything, everything, everything. Probably a lot of things would be clearer. The path seems to be all laid out. All we need to do is read the instructions and follow them. Just fill out our travel kit and hand it in when we're done. Why does this seem so obvious and daunting at the same time?

What are we supposed to learn? Online coaching, you might ask. So why all the paperwork if we're going to work online.

That's all well and good, but finding out about blogging through great reads doesn't inspire me. I'd much rather create one and explore its boundaries. Only then will I be able to truly make a meaningful judgment about this tool. I will also have learned how to use it"

The authors note that, from the outset students

"often felt constrained by the structure of the course. The deductive approach, in which the student first addresses the theoretical dimension of an issue and then tackles its practical dimension, was rejected by the participants, who repeatedly criticized an overly theoretical pedagogy that contravened not only their aspirations but also their learning needs.

They did not limit themselves to criticism, however, but rather attempted to break down the structure of the course, and did so from the very first tasks they were given."

"Without denying the need for a certain linearity in the pedagogical path, we believe that pedagogical strategies need to be revised to allow for more leeway in experimenting with collaborative work and online tutoring tools."

"We find that collaboration requires space for freedom as well as intelligent coaching that respects each person's differences while drawing on their experiences."

Communication and Activity versus the Traditional Teacher Role

Harnessing the available communication tools, abilities, and multiple interests of students is seemingly difficult to reconcile with linear or tightly framed instructional scripting. And it is precisely by these roles of "lesson planner, researcher, and communicator" that many teachers define themselves.

It can be demonstrated quite easily that teaching outcomes have little to do with the virtues or shortcomings of directive, permissive, distance, classroom, linear, deductive, or other pedagogies; it is apparently "pedagogical processes using an explicit and systematic approach to teaching that yield the best results."

In other words, it doesn't matter how, what needs to be explicit are the references that support the information and what needs to be systematic is the intellectual approach that doesn't settle for any grey areas. If there is directionality to be had, it is in the rigor to be maintained, not in the technical means or the pedagogical method.

The scenario in which you are the hero

Thus, if it comes to a "scripting" leveraging ICT, it should arrive at everyone getting all the elements necessary for the final learning, which includes:

• learning objectives (what one is supposed to be able to DO, the observable outcome), what will be certified; whether those defined by the student or by the institution;
• definitions;
• references;
• sequences (the order in which things need to be done to achieve an outcome);
• qualifying elements (being able to assign importances according to contexts);
• exercises;

all according to one or more coherent threads (historical, technical, simple to complex, general to particular, etc.), but which can be approached at any point and in any direction. The student can choose the approach that seems most interesting to him, according to his criteria in view of achieving the objectives to which he has subscribed.

Thus a student can approach the subject by a point that interests him or a question he has, stumble on a definition, a symbol, a practice that he does not know and from there proceed systematically to solve all the obscure points, with or without the help of others.

The new role of the teacher

In practice, one can almost already get all the material necessary to achieve the objectives of a course from the Internet, with the support of a few people and good reference sites. The way we teach and learn is likely to change significantly again in the coming years.

The role of the teacher is very likely to approach that of the thesis supervisor, the intellectual facilitator, the one who ensures the rigor of the learner's individual approach, the quality of the student's learning scenario.

Illustration: Deposit Photos - koctia

Inspiration

Testing story about online coaching

A Vision of Students Today - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o