Paradigm Shifts in the Classroom.
1998; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 80; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1940-6487
Autores Tópico(s)Film in Education and Therapy
ResumoMost of the movies about excellent teachers depict a pedagogical paradigm shift, Mr. Lasley notes. Rather than focus on their own teaching behaviors, the excellent teachers portrayed on film get outside themselves and into the minds of their students. A number of movies about teachers draw attention to the power of good teaching. Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds, and Mr. Holland's Opus are but a few of these films. Some of the movies capture the real lives of dynamic teachers (Jaime Escalante, as played by Edward James Olmos in Stand and Deliver); others are fictionalized depictions of idealistic pedagogues (Robin Williams as John Keating in Dead Poets Society). Well documented in the literature is the fact that classrooms are complex places. Movies capture that complexity in ways that stir an array of personal emotions. Jaime Escalante confronts difficult, if not disrespectful, students and makes them want to learn. As we watch him succeed, our personal passion to make a difference suggests that we, too, could succeed at our own local high school. After exiting the cinema or turning off the video, even the most negative of teachers is inclined to think, know I can do better. The movies, however, also offer a powerful lesson about the very nature of classroom teaching. In most of the popular teacher movies, the viewer is able to see a paradigm shift in how teachers view students. Indeed, what makes these movies emotionally engaging is that such a pedagogical shift occurs before our eyes, and afterward neither the teacher nor the students nor the viewer will be the same. All will be transformed. Two Paradigms Robert Barr and John Tagg argue that within American classrooms two paradigms dominate: the instructional paradigm and the learning paradigm.(1) Barr and Tagg address undergraduate education, but their ideas have implications for K-12 classrooms. The instructional paradigm focuses on what the teacher does in the classroom (i.e., how the teacher presents content material), and the teacher who operates according to this model is one who views the teaching act as relatively remote from the learner: taught Hamlet, but the students didn't learn it. Instructional paradigm teachers (and administrators) talk in terms of technique and the quality of a technique: He's a great lecturer or She's fantastic with hands-on activities. Teachers oriented toward the learning paradigm focus on whether and how students learn rather than on the teacher's behaviors. Theodore Sizer's emphasis on exhibitions would fall within a learning paradigm because the teacher's attention is directed toward the student's personal construction and representation of content understandings.(2) Most teachers and a majority of administrators focus on the instructional paradigm. That is not their espoused theory, but it does emerge as their theory-in-use. They and the larger community they serve (parents and a variety of significant others) want to see students looking busy and getting their work done - indeed, for years many state legislatures worried more about the hours allocated for instruction than about the learning outcomes expected of students. Instructional paradigm teachers concentrate on the tasks of teaching and often exhibit a high degree of skill in keeping students' attention on dittos or workbook pages or the odd-numbered problems on page 54. Far fewer teachers embrace the learning paradigm. Teachers who are oriented in this way function very differently in their role as facilitators of learning. They are constantly reading the students to determine how to create a better atmosphere for student growth. Learning paradigm teachers get outside themselves and get inside the minds of the students. They continually ask, How do they learn? How do they construct knowledge? How do they make sense of the word? How can I, as the teacher, participate in the learning process with my students? …
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