Ray Tedder - Day 1 - Ted Talk Response

When I listen and watch Sir Robinson's talk I find that it is hard not to be bitter.  Frankly, I felt the need to stop a pray about it.

I teach science.  In the years since started teaching, I began to realize that this system that we have developed is really teaching science but it is teaching about science.  It's much like teaching a young person about a car and about the laws that apply to driving and calling it driver's education without even having the child sit in a car much less drive it.

Pure science is a way of trying to understand the way the universe works.  Applied science is taking that understanding and using to accomplish some goal.  The process of doing science IS a PBL project.

What so many people do not seem to understand is that science is not one lab but an ongoing struggle to ferret out the mystery of how things in nature work.  Every answer to every question that is discovered leads to more questions.

Now, I am not some prophet or genius.  I love the process of science and tried to understand its value and I read a lot of research.  Many people much smarter than me already knew what I was coming to realize.  I did what I could in my classroom to change that model but the lack of support--indeed, the opposition--was overwhelming. While I have kept elements of those methods--elements that are at the heart of what I think is the PBL model, I have largely given up.

So, when someone else in my group yesterday said something to the effect that students and parents will oppose these methods saying, "But you're not teaching us," in my mind I was screaming, "You have no idea."

With that as a preface, let me say that I am both happy and fearful but I agree that changes in the way that education is approached are sorely needed.

On the other hand, I do not want us to, "Throw out the baby with the bathwater."  There is a reason why the traditional method of educational delivery has developed and not all of it is bad.  A look at the history of education (as with many things) shows that society tends to swing back and forth and the most stable place is where the swing will come to rest.

My vision of a PBL classroom, then, is one that utilizes the best elements of all techniques to get as far as students can in the time that we have together.  Because standards are important and time is limited, my vision of a PBL science classroom is one in which the questions or problems will be guided ones... in many cases highly guided.   Those practices that  I will continue to foster are those that will give my students the opportunity to develop the habits of mind of a scientist.  They include encouragement, the kind of guidance that develops self-sufficiency, and modeling of curiosity.

Paradigm shifts are hard and are almost never accomplished in the short term.  Sir Robinson’s call for a paradigm shift is not new.  The problem is that folks haven't been listening.  My response and "greatest challenge" is to forget "what is behind and (strain) toward what is ahead,  (To) press on toward the goal... ."  Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV).