From the Classroom: Teachers Integrating Technology (Part 1)
Just as an expert restaurant chef makes use of all of the techniques–from frying, to baking to poaching to molecular cooking with liquid nitrogen– [and] tools–from paring knives to rolling pins to food processors to steam ovens [and] ingredients that [she] has at her … disposal, [that chef] has the requisite deep knowledge, skills and experience to know what to use with what as well as how and when to use them. An expert [teacher] also makes use of all of the techniques–different pedagogies and approaches to instruction and learning from lecture to computer supported collaborative learning to games/simulations, etc. [and] tools–books, whiteboards, computers, mobile devices, wet labs, and ingredients–content domain, adjunct questions, feedback, learning objectives, etc., [that teacher] has the requisite deep … pedagogical content, and technological … knowledge and skills and experience to know what to use with what as well as how and when to use them.
Professor Paul Kirschner at Open University of the Netherlands
Analogies between teachers and chefs or orchestra conductors or staff sergeants or master performers stud the literature describing effective teachers. I happen to like the different analogies because they get at how particular teachers combine the art and science of teaching, the evanescent and abiding, the simple and complex into daily lessons. When it occurs, it is a pleasure to see. And so it was when I observed three teachers in the San Mateo Union High School District in northern California a few weeks ago. The teachers invited me into their classes and gave me permission to use their names. These three posts describe the lessons I saw where teachers were like chefs (readers can choose another From the Classroom: Teachers Integrating Technology (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:
