I was reading Tyner, and she makes a connection between teachers and librarians that got me thinking. Tyner says, "Librarians are teachers first. Like their colleagues in the classroom, they understand that the power of information cannot be tapped without a human interface." I've heard this comparison before. In my reference services class, we discussed the similarities between the two. Tyner, however, got me thinking about Ivan Illich. Ivan Illich was a philosopher and radical education theorist. In his famous book Deschooling Society, he writes:
"If the goals of learning were no longer dominated by schools and schoolteachers, the market for learners would be much more various and the definition of 'educational artifacts' would be less restrictive...The professional personnel needed for this network would be much more like custodians, museum guides, or reference librarians than like teachers. From the corner biology store, they could refer their clients to the shell collection in the museum or indicate the next showing of biological videotapes in a certain viewing booth. They could furnish guides for pest control, diet, and other kinds of preventive medicine. They could refer those who needed advice to 'elders' who could provide it."
All of those tasks he mentions sounds like things a librarian does. Illich takes the idea of student-centered learning Tyner discusses to a whole different level. Maybe instead of "librarians are teachers first," Illich would say "First, teachers should be librarians."
If you are interested in Illich you can read the full text of Deschooling Society at:
http://reactor-core.org/deschooling.html
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2 comments:
Some schools have tried to move to more problem based learning which would put more emphasis on student-centered learning. Yet, schools and teachers are constantly confronted with testing and the constraints that it has put on activities in the classroom. Many teachers now feel that more time is spent teaching how to test and trying to cover material that will be on the test and cannot afford the time that problem based learning requires. It is unfortunate that this occurs. The focus has shifted from learning to passing a test.
Mary, it is too bad teaching to the test has taken over. I cringe when I see in my reading curriculum what could be thought-provoking questions like “What could my purpose for reading this information be?” have answer key answers like it could be on a standardized test. I still think teachers need to be student-centered in their teaching, though. Student-centered learning is absolutely essential to successful teaching!
John, I like the idea of teachers being more like librarians: helping students know how to gain knowledge and guiding them through the experience. Teaching involves facilitating learning, not simply telling or even showing information. Most people learn best in a concrete manner (hands-on, participation, discovery-based, etc.), and the student-centered learning takes advantage of that. A lot of what we’ve been talking about, such as making their own videos or critiquing music could be examples of this. However, I think for student-centered learning to be successful, teachers and students do need to work closely together, setting goals and making plans for what the students are going to accomplish and how they want to do it. Students still will need to be taught how to plan a project and how to find quality information. This can incorporate the student’s trial and error, but also a lot of feedback from the teacher and real self-evaluation from the student.
I see teachers and school librarians as co-teachers (or maybe we should say co-librarians) As a teacher I know the attitude among other teachers at my school is that librarians are simply another “specialist” teacher who takes students for a half hour a week, rather than someone working with teachers to help students learn. Just like librarians and teachers need to make their teaching student-centered, librarians also need to work with teachers at their level. Some are ready for change and eager to try knew things, and others are not.
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