The multi-media CALL teacher acts as a gatekeeper of knowledge. We define what is worth knowing. We need to be careful about what we teach. Does our curricula content represent long-term concepts and sturdy foundations, or are we just taking up the latest fad? For example, was there any justification for the effort put into teaching business process reengineering? Similarly, for example, should we teach extreme programming? If we are considering doing so, do we simply adopt industry practice and teach that or do we raise critical questions about XP?
As an influencer of students, we need to be promoting new ideas where we think they are critically valid. This may involve reducing their complexity such that the principles can be understood and the importance of the concepts grasped. For example, if viewing IT as a service industry is practically and theoretically important, then we should be advocating such a mind-shift and promote such ideas in the classroom and industry.
As a gatekeeper, the teacher is deriving material from sources and recommending it to students. Thus the teacher must be in touch with both research and practice and must transmit enthusiasm and commitment to the students. The gatekeeper is totally convinced of the absolute importance and rightness of the principles he is espousing. His single goal is to get students to accept and practice what he believes and practices, to transmit belief concerning what are the right principles and practice.
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Hi, Mr.JI, I agree with you on this point that teachers act as a gatekeeper on knowledge delivery. What we teach students depends on not only the curriculum but also our beliefs on teaching. That is why we need to balance our beliefs with students' beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that a balance of our beliefs is very importan, which makes our beliefs unbiased
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