Mastering a New Narrative of Learning

I found myself nodding like a bobblehead while reading Will Richardson's From Master Teacher to Master Learner.

Richardson argues that with our ability to use technology to connect, create and share globally, the basic assumptions of schools are increasingly irrelevant. While focusing on the skills and dispositions of learning (and defining what we mean by "learning"), teachers' current role must change as they become more important than ever in preparing students for a world in rapid transition.

What's valued now is what we can do with what we know and the ability to learn more. As my own journey as a teacher has been to become a learner of learning for the past five years, I wholeheartedly agree with Richardson.

While access to technology is increasing, it's mostly used to gather explicit knowledge and rearrange it in PowerPoint presentations or "research" projects. We must act differently.

"Our job as educators is to understand deeply what it means to be a modern learner more so than a modern teacher."

He goes on to say that modern learners want "freedom in what they want to learn, when they want to learn, and with whom they want to learn." Needless to say, this is highly disruptive for current systems.

So what can teachers do? Teachers need to be learners. And that's not a big obstacle, because when asked about the conditions of when they learned most deeply, teachers across North America had no problem creating very similar lists. The conditions included such things as relevance to their lives, learning with others, autonomy and agency, flow and no time constraint.

How does the intuition of learning get lost in the classroom? From my experience, when even "free learning" involves creating detailed learning plans for passion learning projects, as one student noted today, "it kills the passion." If we are to change what we value, we need to change what we measure and how we measure it.

Converting an R/C car to a Bluetooth-controlled Arduino car.

Referencing Seymour Sarason, Richardson says that "teachers need to become master learners if their students are to become powerful learners." The tricky part about learning is that we must "embrace what we don't know." That means being comfortable not knowing, which is not exactly a core value in traditional schooling.

And then add in technology.

"How must the whole concept of education change with the advent of the networked, connected world of learning?" 

Teachers will have to unlearn what they've accepted as "the way to do learning." They will need to become co-learners, curators, transparent sharers, networkers and connectors, makers, literate learners, and champions and models of diversity.

"...our focus must be on the learner rather than the knower."

My goal is to join Richardson and others willing to create new narratives of learning. This will require everyone. What's your version of a new narrative?


I recommend the book purchase as a very inexpensive investment in professional learning. If you want to learn more, check out the reading list in the Appendix. I'd add Yaacov Hecht's Democratic Education: A Beginning of a Story to the mix.