An interview with Veteran Teacher Sandra White
Forty-one
years and counting: Interview with Sandra White
Paul
Stolt
Lamar
University
Author
Note
Saundra
White has been teaching in public schools in Arkansas for 41 years. Her current
teaching assignment is in 4th grade. She also teaches education
courses at Northwest Arkansas Community College. Ms. White is one of the first
teachers in her building to implement her district’s new BYOD program in her
classroom.
Teaching,
instructional practices, and strategies
Education
has changed considerably since Sandra White began teaching in 1972. Changes in
teaching, instructional practices, and strategies have been most profound
during the past 15 years of her career as computers, Internet access, and World
Wide Web content began to be steadily
incorporated into pedagogy. These newly
wired classrooms required new teaching and instructional practices to meet the
needs of students. One of the “huge” changes mentioned by Sandra White is that
textbooks are no longer the primary source of information. “We used to have to
use textbooks and we got so excited when there was a new adoption because we
got some new information. We got to go to those things to get new textbooks for
the next few years.” (White, S. 2013) Textbook adoptions are regulated by state
statute with contract periods no less than three, nor more than 5 years for “courses
subject to rapid knowledge-base changes.” (Zinth, 2005) Sandra White has taught
long enough to witness 8 to 14 textbook adoptions in rapid knowledge-base
courses. She now says that “[textbooks] are a thing of the past. Absolutely! We
use them as a resource, but knowledge is at these kid’s fingertips and it’s
fast and there’s plenty of it.” (White, S. 2013) Teachers and their students
are no longer dependent on a three to five year cycle or a textbook publishing
company for information. Internet delivered information has changed the
definition of rapid knowledge-base changes.
Access
to the vast resources of the Internet requires teachers to adapt instructional
practices. As the web developed and evolved from a relatively static depository
of information to an interactive repository of information, instructional
practices changed as well. Ms. White recalls that: “Fifteen years ago, we were
excited to have a list of websites to send kids to. That was our first change.
We had these neat websites to go to and now it’s just anything and everything.”
(White, S. 2013) Opening the web to schools created a need for students to learn
to read and think critically. Instructional practices had to include lessons in
not only reading for meaning, but also how to evaluate information for veracity.
Unlike content in the carefully vetted and edited textbook, students had to be taught
to be critical consumers of information found on the web. “That’s exactly
right,” Ms. White continues. “[Students] have to realize they have to scan it
with a fine toothed comb because it may be truthful and it may be not.” (White,
2013) New strategies for teaching have developed to meet this need for creating
students with critical thinking skills.
One
of those developments is the implementation of the Common Core State Standards.
These standards require students to use a variety of resources in all subject
areas to acquire the “knowledge and skills students should have within their
K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high school able to succeed”
(“About the Standards”, 2012) in college courses and the workplace. Ms. White acknowledges
that teaching strategies have changed due to the new standards.
There’s a whole lot more to
research in science and social studies and so much more non-fiction tied into
the content of science and social studies. You’re not just teaching the content,
as you are teaching how to find the
content, research and communicate. You’re teaching reading strategies and
that’s because of common core. And research, I mean my kids are constantly
doing research - small research projects - to find out information. I may I
introduce them to a topic, but they find out more. I don’t have to stand up
there and throw out knowledge to them. They can find their own knowledge and
then report it and present it. (White, 2013)
Clearly, Ms. White
believes that strategic changes in teaching have resulted from the implementation
of the new nearly nation-wide standards. And students have changed as well as
they respond to new opportunities for learning.
Characteristics
of students
Students’
skills as researchers, constructors and disseminators of information and
knowledge have never been more of a focus in education. Students are “connecting
to information sources and learning in multiple ways.” (Siemans, nd) Learning
has become less about knowing who to ask for information and more about “knowing
where to find information.” (Siemans, nd) Students are also more tech-savvy and harder
to engage with traditional methods. As Sandra White states: “We were losing
them, we were just sage on the stage standing there giving all the knowledge
out to them and they had to basically absorb it or not.” (White, 2013) Students
were losing interest in being depositories of knowledge, especially when access
to knowledge no longer required another person. While students’ chronological
ages have remained constant, their technological ages have advanced exponentially,
challenging teachers to move into the role “of coaches and role models, because
. . . many of the didactic aspects of teaching are not needed anymore, because
the information is so prevalent.” (Gardner, nd) Sandra White has seen a change
in students in recent years. “I think they’re engaged more. I think the
engagement of kids is much more a motivational thing to keep them motivated.”
(White, 2013) She credits technology and less teacher-directed instruction with
this increase in student motivation.
Major
Teaching and Learning Theories
Motivating
students to learn has always been a basic tenet of educational theory. On the
subject of teaching and learning theories, Ms. White was justifiably perplexed;
a lot of theories have come and gone during her 41 years of service. She said
she “had no idea – probably Skinner” when asked about theories prevalent when she
began her career. Harvard Psychologist B.F. Skinner’s Behaviorism contended
that formal education “depends on
the teacher creating optimal patterns of stimulus and response” (Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. 2012) Skinner also
posited that: “Teaching is the arrangement of contingencies of
reinforcement under which students learn.” (Kalantizis, M., & Cope,
B. 2012) From the perspective of 2013, it is hard to imagine how Skinner’s
theory might adequately meet the needs of students in a connected classroom.
Ms. White would not return to those days, preferring
the changes in teaching, instructional strategies, learning, student and student-centered
instructional theories spawned by the Internet. After witnessing over 40 years
of changes in teaching and learning, primarily since wide-spread inclusion of
Internet access and World Wide Web content, Sandra White offers a long-term
perspective of education in a digital age. When asked whether the changes were
good or bad, she quickly replied: “They’re good. I like them a lot.”
References
Siemens, G. (nd). The Changing Nature of
Knowledge [Video file]. Retrieved
from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMcTHndpzYg
