When best practice simply isn't good enough

These last months have been eye-opener for me. I have become more cognizant about my role as an educator and the massive responsibility that this entails.  There is one quote by Eric Hoffer that has resonated in my head:

"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists."

This quote has forced me to question my own practice. I have always strived to use best practice in my instruction. It is not the first time, for instance, that I've redesigned a lesson to cater for different learning styles or created a learning activity to reinforce a skill. After all, isn't that what conscientious teachers do? They try to go that extra mile. They try to use all the tools in their toolbox to make learning better. Yet, I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that this is not enough.

Educational visionaries such Tony Wagner and Will Richardson convey a clear message: education should not be reformed, it must be redefined.  If we truly want to make a difference in our profession, we should not limit ourselves to best practice because it simply can't be the best because of the paradigm it finds itself confined in; best practice, in this case, would be transforming our pedagogy.

I am totally for articulating skills horizontally and vertically or differentiating instruction to facilitate student learning. These are all good steps one can take to reach out to students. But let us make no mistake here. These alone might be enough to prepare students for university but do not suffice in the long term. If we truly want our kids to tackle the unfamiliar world, we, must start to follow suit; we must leave our comfort zones and start questioning more. After all, Eric Hoffer's quote speaks directly to us, the educators: we have been equipped to teach in an educational system that should no longer exist because for learning to be meaningful, is has to reflect our ever-changing world. In other words education can't be the stagnant system we've made it be. It must continue to evolve.

This is what makes the whole concept of learning fascinating: there are no clear and linear answers. Like our students, we educators, must be able adapt to our new environments and work collaboratively to obtain creative and effective solutions.   It all boils down to trial and error. Instead of suppressing uncertainty we need to start embracing it.