A Compulsory Switch from Teachers to Students Centered Approach
“Teacher-centered” and “student-centered” are two distinct approaches to instruction that date back to the beginning of the 20th century (Student-Centered Learning, 2014). Yet a century later, teacher’s centered approach is still largely dominant; differentiation remains marginal and game for learning surpass by far gamification. The gap between the skills required for our 21st century students to become successful adults and what is taught and tested in schools is still largely present. (Wagner, 2008.)
Teachers are not to be blamed for this lack of genuinely student-centered approaches. Insufficient training, lack of resources and -most importantly- lack of time have made this approach of teaching unrealistic for most. Differentiating teaching, developing personalized learning path and giving immediate feedback is almost impossible without IT tools. Unfortunately for a long time governments promoted the idea but did not put the founding to help teachers match the expectation. In 2020 “50% of education time is digital while <5% of education spending is on digital.” (EdTech Funding Report 2021- Half Year Review, 2021)
The wide range of IT facilities among schools, as well as abilities of all users (from teachers to student body) were constituting severe obstacles. Only “39.4% of teachers in the EU felt well or very well prepared for the use of digital technologies for teaching”, “lack of equipment (or malfunctioning equipment) prevent(ed) them from using digital technologies”. (Education and Training Monitor, 2019)
Governmental initiatives led the development of digital Education learning tools. The pandemic have compelled everyone to attempt the switch. The Third Edition of the European Edtech Funding Report describes 2020 “as the year that the sector woke up to the solutions being developed by Edtech companies to help people learn faster, more affordably, more efficiently and more effectively” (The European Edtech Funding Report 2022, 2022).
The transition to 100% digital education has not been smooth yet ended up fruitful as it led numerous educators on the innovator path. “Making sure that learning never stops” (#LearningNeverStops COVID-19 education response, 2020) was largely left to the digital aptitude and creativity of individual teachers, the financial ability of the families to afford the cost of the material or the internet. In the most privileged cases, the shift to online education has meant “rethinking lesson plans to fit a very different format” (Gorey) and developing new class conventions for communication e.g switching camera, raising hands before talking… For the rest of the world it had deeper implications for most teachers. The uneven repartition of high-speed internet access between countries -at the beginning of 2020, there were still 3 EU countries below minimum threshold set by the European Commission's European Broadband Plan (F. Caruso, 2021) -or within the countries –“Only 51.6% of rural U.S. residents had 250/25 megabits per second (Mbps) internet access in 2018 compared to 94% urban residents” (J. Lai, 2020), - made homeschooling with parents remote work at time impossible (Cecilia., 2020). The Digital Divide made synchronous teaching unfeasable for numerous classes. Teachers had to become tech savvy and rethink their teaching priorities. The transmission of knowledge and skills became secondary while catering for the digital context of the students and their emotional turmoil became a priority. Out of necessity, teachers became content curators and personal coaches: facilitators. They got propelled onto a new approach to education, far from the standard and practice and final exams (most of them being cancelled). Despite a “lack of teaching models on how to use digital technologies” (EU, 2019), they filled the blank page thinking “out of (their) minds” and embarking on what could lead into the ” global reset of education” envisioned by Sir Ken Robinson (2020)