Is traditional classroom teaching enough?
Is traditional classroom teaching enough? How might experiential education differ from traditional classroom methods?
One question that teachers and parents often ask themselves is: “what’s the best and most effective way of teaching and how do I help my children learn?”
At The Hutong, we are passionate about learning and education. Last week, Jiajia ( Program Development Coordinator at the Hutong) had a short interview with Ian Gabrielson (Director of Education at The Hutong), about his views on traditional teaching methods and experiential education.
TheHutong Podcast
Jiajia: What do you think is the biggest difference between traditional teaching methods and Experiential Education?
Ian: What are you thinking about when you saying traditional teaching or how are you defining traditional instruction?
Jiajia: My understanding is that the traditional teaching methods in China are that students sit in a room and focus on textbooks, and lecture.
Ian: Yeah and you have somebody at front of the classroom or stage, giving students the points they need to know and they go back and memorize them then apply to tests.
In my mind, experiential education is a shift away from being the “sage on the stage" to "the guide on the side". Actually, today if you go to some schools around the world, the shift has been going on for quite some time. The move away from “direct instruction”(I am the teacher, I have the knowledge and I will give you the knowledge) as a opposed to more indirect instruction (teacher’s job is to help the learners discover, explore, and grapple with knowledge and skills, not to bear of all the information but to help learners to discover on their own and just be the guide on the side)
Ian: Experiential education is a big umbrella term, there are lots of terms and different things that can fit under it. One of the very core philosophies is the idea that you are not the bearer of all the information, you are not the person who has it all. You, instead, are a guide to help and support them to learn from their experiences and what they are doing.
We use the phrase "guide on the side” versus "sage on the stage” more and more. Especially in the 21stcentury with the internet, the worldwide web and access to all sorts of information, the database of the universe, so to speak at our finger tips. There is a need of a swift away from “ I am the teacher, I am the instructor, I am the expert and I will help, you need to come to me for information and skills” to now more like “helping them to uncover and discover things in various different ways.”
Jiajia: Thank you for sharing with us Ian!
Background information about Ian Gabrielson:
Coming to The Hutong from the USA, Ian is the Hutong’s Director of Education, responsible for helping design and execute our Education programs across greater China. Ian has a great deal of experience in international education, having taught secondary humanities at international schools in China and Taiwan. Ian is a passionate educator and lifelong learner. He enjoys creating innovative, fun and engaging experience for students on our programs.
Learn more about The Hutong Education at https://education.thehutong.com
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