Students - "Who are they? What do they need? What do they need to know? What are their goals, hopes or dreams? What are they interested in nowadays? What will their lives be like? Or what kind of changes will they go through in their life time?"
I save the most important question for last: “Do we really need to care about the answers?” If we are teachers, the answer will absolutely be a big “YES”.
This is a video created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University. The video, called “A Vision of Students Today” summarizes some of the important characteristics of the today’s students.
Having watched the video, please share your reflections and comments about the characteristics of today’s students with the group. In your comment, please reflect on any or some of the following questions:
- If your classroom walls could talk, what would they say? Do you feel in the same way? What is it like to be a student in Turkey? What are your hopes, goals or fears? To what extent do you think they affect your performance as a student?
- As a student teacher, to what extent do you think these facts would change your teaching? (your view of teaching and learning, your method, your understanding of tasks, assessments or etc.)
- Just imagine that 30 years later in 2038, you will be still teaching English either to young learners or teenagers whom have years to be born. How do you think you will keep up with the changing conditions especially as far as the characteristics of the students are concerned?
These are the questions that came to my mind. Please do not hesitate to add any more dimensions or thought-provoking questions to our discussion either leaving a comment here or posting on your own blog.
Keep sharing :))
