"Education as a whole is not a problem waiting to be fixed but a set of issues, problems, and opportunities to be addressed." (Weller, 2022).
I'm an advocate for #DesignThinking. Not as a way of solving problems but as a way of exploring the world. This idea comes from Jon Kolko, a designer.
This thinking helps push past the idea that #education is broken and opens up to us (educators) the opportunity to explore issues, opportunities and problems and develop new approaches (small) based on evidence and feedback.
This is me just unpacking my thinking. 😋 @edutooters
@aus_teach @edutooters I appreciate your thoughts on this issue. I think that as a statement to empower educators to improve the situation reframing the problem is good. We talk a lot about locus of control. What can you change, what can't you change. By addressing specific issues you can make a positive impact.
However, at the end of the day, education is fundamentally broken and can not be fixed. It will take more than incremental fixes to make it work correctly.
@edutooters @aus_teach @scerruti I’d love to hear more about what you feel is “fundamentally broken” about education if you’re willing.
@DavidKnuffke @edutooters @aus_teach caveat: US education system
Lack of respect for the profession has eroded compensation driving the best away. Resulting in lower standards and a feedback loop of declining performance. Florida and Arizona are putting bodies in classrooms. California discussed eliminating the CBEST as a requirement.
Union/government partnerships have carved educational practices and methodologies in stone limiting or eliminating certain forms of innovation.
Etc.
@scerruti @DavidKnuffke @edutooters @aus_teach
As a California teacher who has taken the CBEST, I can tell you it is the lowest of all bars. Anyone who can’t pass that has no business being anywhere near a classroom.
@aus_teach @scerruti @JenRoberts @edutooters I feel this reflect a somewhat ableist perspective. Test anxiety is very real and tests like this are meaningless. Almost nothing in real life is determined by taking a standardized test.
@DavidKnuffke @aus_teach @JenRoberts @edutooters We were actually just having this discussion around a table here at work. I would support an alternate assessment of ability, but California waived it to keep salaries lower by expanding the labor pool to some clearly non-qualified individuals.
Unfortunately there is a lot of money in teacher training as well so that's not filtering people out either.
How do we filter out unqualified teachers without false positives?
@scerruti @DavidKnuffke @aus_teach @edutooters Counseling people out of the teaching pipeline when they clearly don't like working with children is hard to do, and you are absolutely right. Most programs will just keep taking their money and not tell folks they should consider an alternate career.
@JenRoberts @scerruti @DavidKnuffke @aus_teach @edutooters I think there is high variability is counseling out and admissions. There are policy pressures to increase production. There are many for profit programs that benefit financially as you point out. Many public institutions/programs like mine do not get funding on a per student basis, and it actually doesn't help financially to prepare more.
All of this to say that programs that consider themselves ethical have a responsibility to admit, prepare, and support candidates who will become ethical teachers. This includes having structures in place to exit candidates who will harm students.
