Teaching... the core of my program. Nowadays, formal education obviously works a lot differently than it did back in the day. Traditional teaching has been by approaches such as the CLT, Constructivism, Cognitivism, among others. Before, students felt trammeled by a teacher centered  system. Conversely, today, classes are student centered. Teachers are merely guides and facilitators.

For instance, when we talk about Progressivism, we know this: Students should construct their own learning by using schema (previous knowledge), social interaction, methods such as Scaffolding, etc.

If we go on with the educational views of Vigotsky, who not only was the first expert to study Progressivism, but also came up with theories such as ¨The more knowledgeable other¨ and ¨Zone of proximal development¨. In one students need the assistance of a more capable individual (MKO) to learn a subject matter; whereas, in ZPD, students can begin constructing their own learning. Notwithstanding, if they get stuck, they can get help either from a teacher or a peer. Anyhow, this time I came across Sam Chaltain´s speech. This history professor and author has lots of stuff to say about ¨The art of teaching¨. He explains how the job of schools is to adjust to students. That is why traditional teaching methods did not work. Students would lose focus and get bored during a common lecture. This even could cause them to flout the rules. Due to this, considerable changes in education were made ever since the late 60´s. Besides, Chaltain´s talks about The scientific method. This works well because as we all know, students must recognize a problem, gather data,  formulate a hypothesis, and even experiment. Moreover, Sam talked about Constructivism from the point of view of John Dewey, who believed learning happened through meaningful experience. Chaltain even mentioned that scientists are developing a skin bracelet, that measures the level of students´ engagement based on the perspiration of the skin. Lack of motivation can preclude learners meaningful knowledge acquisition. Further, it could even make educators less helpful. Ergo, it is crucial to not only apply, but to take as much advantage as we can of these innovative teaching approaches. Nobody said that revolutionizing education was going to be as easy as bobbling a stupid ball. Nonetheless, measures have to be taken to improve this situation. Sam Chaltain works alongside school-boards and gives speeches throughout the US on how to create better learning environments. Perhaps we do not need to create knowledge gourmands, but innovative individuals.