All too often, educators are driven by the delivery of content and the pursuit of higher grades. This may not be by personal choice but rather, it may be the remit that we are given by our Schools and Colleges. As educators, however, we cannot absolve ourselves of the responsibility to question why we ?teach? and what our role is, given that we are living in an age where information is available at a click and where our relationship with our students must evolve and adapt to the world in which our young learners are living.
It may be a disturbing thought, but it is also true that we are educating young people for a world which does not yet exist and which is perhaps beyond even our capacity to imagine. If there is one thing above all that we must do as educators, it is to model how to be curious, willing, agile and adaptable learners. Students will not engage and learn when they are talked at and delivered to. They need us to facilitate learning, guide them through the maze of information overload, and re-imagine with them ways of learning as we navigate the new tools which can make learning fun.
If we want the next generations of young people to be well-placed to face the challenges which will face the world in the decades to come; if we are counting on them to be critical thinkers who can problem-solve, take risks and resolve the pressing global issues that they have inherited, then we need to nurture their creative instincts as we provide ?safe-to-fail? spaces wherever we engage with them in teaching and learning. This can only be possible if we too, as educators, are willing to become learners who are ready to try, ready to learn and not afraid of making mistakes. That is how the young people in our care will learn to get back up, dust themselves off, and get on with the business of making the world a better place.
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