Musings on the Many Metaphors for Educators…

So what metaphor would you use to describe how you view teaching and learning? This discussion is cliché in many educator circles and can be envisioned in conversations for pre-service teacher candidates in an introductory educational methods course as well as teacher interviews. As a matter of fact I posed this question to my graduate pre-service M.A.T. students this week in my social studies methods course. One particularly enthusiastic student brought up the teacher as a gardener metaphor, which comes up frequently in education. Each metaphor that teachers and teacher candidates come up with reveal an approach, or philosophy, of education. It can provide a snapshot for how an educator will approach teaching and learning. It provides a definition of learning and the role the teacher plays in the learning process. Driscoll (2005) highlights two important aspects of the definition of learning. The first is, “they refer to learning as a persisting change in human performance or performance potential” (Driscoll, 2005, p. 9), which leads to how do students demonstrate a change in performance. The second aspect of learning according to Driscoll (2007) is that, “…a change in performance or performance potential must come about as a result of the learner’s experience and interaction with the world” (p. 9).

Regardless of what metaphor educators and researchers use to describe the learning process it is important to understand that the learning process is complex. No metaphor is able to truly encapsulate teaching and learning, after all even researchers and educators are still attempting to understand and measure the learning process. Siemens (2008) highlights Brown’s idea of Educator as a Master Artist, Fisher’s view of Educator as a Network Administrator, Bonk’s description of a Educator as a Concierge, his own understanding of Educator as a Curator (p. 15-17). All of these metaphors are informed by “a common attribute of blending the concept of educator expertise with learner construction” which includes both “instructivist/constructivist” ideas (Siemens, 2008, p. 17). All of these metaphors have inherently theoretical orientations based on current educational philosophies that are connected to the increasingly important role technology is playing in our educational process. These metaphors also lend themselves to a student-centered educational process, particularly Bonk’s Educator as a Concierge and Educator as a Network Administrator. Fisher’s Educator as a Master Artist and Siemens’ Educator as a Curator also highlight the idea of an educator creating and/or selecting displays for the audience, or students.

All of the metaphors are shaped by two important forces in our current educational milieu, technology and student-centered instruction. Are any of these metaphors better than the other? Well, it depends on what your educational philosophy. I like the idea of an educator as a curator by Siemens because I spend a lot of my instructional planning time finding digital resources that are relevant to my instructional unit that introduce and reinforce my essential questions and daily instructional goals. I select, create, display, and revisit important media selections in a certain order to drive instruction so that my students are exposed as many times as possible and in different ways to maximize learning. The students demonstrate knowledge through carefully selected activities that introduce and reinforce the essential questions and daily instructional goals so that they can be assessed. My idea of the learning process based on my current teaching context and my educational philosophy lead me to agree more with Siemens Educator as Curator metaphor. Others may reflect on their current teaching and learning process and agree with another metaphor that Siemens introduced, or create another metaphor that more closely describes their teaching. Is there a right or wrong answer? Of course not, it is merely a difference of educational philosophy. Researchers and theorists will always explore which educational philosophy works better than others, but there will always be different opinions in education. I can say that confidently because in the history of education, educational theory, and educational technology there always has been different opinions. What do you think?

References:
Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Siemens, G. (2008, January 27). Learning and knowing in networks: Changing roles for educators and designers. Paper presented to ITFORUM. Retrieved from http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/Paper105/Siemens.pdf