*This is a legacy provincial website of the ATA. Visit our new website here

From the Mouths of Deans

March 4, 2015

Education deans ponder the question, “Teacher education in 2030: What will be different?”

Meaningful connections

Dianne Gereluk

Teacher education programs have arrived at a crossroads. Having journeyed through more than 150 years of compulsory schooling, one of the most pressing issues facing today’s teacher education programs is rooted in the debate over this question: What does teaching entail?

Frequently in today’s educational environments, there is pressure for a return to traditional teaching approaches based on more student memorization, more worksheets, more homework and more tests as the solution to improved student achievement. Yet anecdotal reporting and formal research repeatedly confirm that such teaching generates the lowest common denominator for student learning. In this respect, there is an urgent need for teacher education programs that are capable of delivering sound teacher practices that stimulate real-life conversations and promote heightened levels of student engagement and understanding.

Teachers need knowledge that is both specialized and interdisciplinary. They must also be attentive to differentiated learning and social diversity. And teachers benefit from the ongoing commitment to their own research and professional development.

Since teaching is a collaborative and connected endeavour, our vision of education in the next decade is committed to a creative deepening of the ways teachers make meaningful connections between student learning and the broader issues of today’s society. This entails paying close attention to the diversity of each child, building every student’s learning strengths and removing barriers to personal growth. Above all, this entails empowering teachers as a stimulus for learning that is socially relevant, interpersonal, personally responsible, interconnected and immediately applicable to the world in which we live.

Dr. Dianne T. Gereluk is the associate dean of undergraduate programs in education at the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary.

Technology and Diversity

Yvette d’Entremont

This question raises the issues of what competencies, skills, attributes and knowledge will be essential to function efficiently in 2030. It is certain that technology will be an essential component of the classroom. The advances in technology promote a more fluid learning infrastructure.
Knowledge is now at our fingertips via the Internet. Teacher education will continue to address the advances of the digital classroom: what this means and how it will meet the academic needs of the students. Advances in technology lead to constant changes in teaching strategies: remote learning, the flipped classroom, the use of electronic devices, competency-based education rather than age-based education. However, face-to-face communication will remain extremely important. Many of us have experienced a miscommunication via email caused by the absence of facial expressions.

Literacy and numeracy will remain the cornerstones of learning. Student assessment continues to change and continues to be a challenge. Teacher education will provide the opportunities that tie it all together: digital learning, communication, numeracy and literacy, frequent engagement, sharpening professional skills, providing challenging content. Changes in teacher education will depend on a number of factors such as technological advances, cultural diversity within the classroom, curriculum reform and the assessment of student performance. The rapid evolution of the world today makes it difficult to predict the educational challenges of tomorrow.

Dr. Yvette d’Entremont is the senior vice-dean of education  at the University of Alberta’s Campus Saint-Jean.

Relationships and engagement

Fern Snart

“To look at possibility is to be free.” — Maxine Greene

Schools in 2030 will represent an interconnected ecology wherein diversity in students, teachers, communities and cultures will be brought together as a great and defining strength. Technology will have fundamentally changed our relationships with teaching and learning, knowledge and each other.

Preparing teachers to be successful given the context of schools and the needs of learners will require a deep understanding of the power of diversity and the essential nature of humanity in a society where constant change will be the norm. Reciprocity and responsibility will be educational goals in new ways as learners must be engaged as respectful citizens. New teachers will need to challenge the status quo and concepts of “normal” and invite students to “unlearn” and find different (and often difficult) ways of viewing and understanding the world around them.

Teacher education must provide thoughtful and engaged pedagogy with teacher graduates who will place relationships at the centre of our schools. With growing global inequity, education must move beyond a process of repetition and complicity to a practice of deep engagement and transformation. This is an education of courage wherein we help students to see their lives as the greatest act of creativity that exists.

Dr. Fern Snart is the dean of the faculty of education at the University of Alberta.

The return of wisdom

Bernie Potvin

We will begin to recover the principles and practices of a lost tradition — that of wisdom (knowledge through the hands). Driven by a recovered sense of wisdom and its importance for everyone, we will emphasize the spiritual well-being of people, the meaning of life and death and the particular way of being in the world that comes about through right relationships with each other, self, the divine and society. In turn, to guide practice, teacher education will emphasize particular ways of being in the world so as to bring about right relationships.

The stakeholders in education in Alberta will work even more closely, more collaboratively than they do now, to develop policy and frameworks for teachers’ professional learning and the design of programs of study for K–12 public schools. The stakeholders’ work will be based on declarative as well as procedural ways of knowing, as well as critical and creative thinking. However, the “new kid” on the educational block will be wisdom.

Dr. Bernie Potvin is the education chair at Ambrose University in Calgary.

Three dimensional

Maureen Stratton

I believe that the difference over the next 15 years will reside in increased attention to three dimensions within teacher education.

One dimension is a career-long continuum of learning. With diverse learner communities, evolving classroom technologies and highly complex work, teachers are continually challenged to deepen their skill sets. I predict that over the next 15 years, our profession will increase its commitment to teacher education through formal studies and ongoing comprehensive professional development.

A second dimension is teachers as researchers. Foundational to teacher education is the dialectical relationship of theory and practice. Teacher education is predicated on theory that is evidence-based to inform our work as practitioners, and teaching is a form of action research wherein we reflect on our practice to develop our knowledge, skills and attributes. I predict that over the next several years, teacher education will be strengthened through an increasing base of knowledge that has been informed by the work of teacher researchers.

Finally, a third dimension is integrated life. In teacher education, comprehensive health and wellness is discussed in terms of promoting student health and maintaining teacher welfare. It is my contention that, while our knowledge of health and wellness is extensive, we are lacking somewhat in our emphasis on modeling and promoting active living. It is my hope that, over the next 15 years, our profession is recognized for emphasizing active living.

While I have identified dimensions in teacher education that might deepen and evolve over the years, there is one construct that remains timeless. As Parker J. Palmer states in The Courage to Teach, the core of teacher professional identity is the student and the learning, framed in heart and hope.

Dr. Maureen Stratton is the dean of the faculty of education at Concordia University College of Alberta.

Goodbye “classroom” teachers

Lorraine C. Beaudin

A recent visit to the 1950’s classroom at McKay Avenue School Museum in Edmonton made it apparent that the structure of the classroom has changed little over the last 65 years. However, those structures are beginning to change, as the walls of the classroom are coming down, largely initiated by the infusion of technology into teaching and learning.

In the next 15 years, technology will become even more embedded in both instruction and student learning. The biggest change for teacher education will be that faculties of education will no longer prepare “classroom” teachers. Teaching and learning will not be limited to either the traditional understanding of a classroom space or a school timetable. Education will become more flexible, individualized and student centered, requiring teacher preparation programs to prepare teachers to build unique and fluid learning environments for each student.

Utilizing physical and virtual learning environments, open content, as well as wearable and intuitive technology, preservice teachers will be taught how to best select and work with community partners, to offer a variety of educational experiences that inspire and guide students to reach their educational goals.

The one aspect of teacher education that will not be different is the strong practicum partnerships between faculty members and inservice teachers. Together, we will grow the next generation of teachers.

Dr. Lorraine Beaudin is the assistant dean in the faculty of education  at the University of Lethbridge.

Technology and collaboration

Linda Dudar

Students in 2030 will strive to equip themselves with technological resources and learning strategies for a world that will continue to change. Teachers will be encouraged to be creative and make necessary shifts to provide support for various learning needs. School leaders will be expected to implement the necessary time-sensitive changes to keep up with current reality and to prepare students for future environments yet to be determined.

Student textbooks will be less evident and replaced with interactive learning through technology devices. The need to collaborate will be more essential than ever. Devising ways to overcome language and cultural barriers will be essential for educators to find common ground for students and members of the school community. Given the pressures that can be associated with these demands, students will recognize the importance of staying balanced, focused and healthy in body, mind and spirit.

Dr. Linda Dudar is the dean of education at St. Mary’s University in Calgary.

Also In This Issue