Education consultant: Teachers must change the way they teach

An ed­u­ca­tion con­sul­tant is call­ing for the evo­lu­tion of teach­ing in this coun­try.

Kitts Cadette, a for­mer school prin­ci­pal, who al­so pi­lot­ed the de­vel­op­ment of the Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices Unit of Trinidad and To­ba­go, said: “Teach­ers can­not teach the way they did be­fore.”

She was speak­ing dur­ing the To­ba­go launch of the Methodists School’s De­vel­op­ment Project at the Food and Nu­tri­tion Co-op Build­ing in Canaan on yes­ter­day.

Ac­cord­ing to Cadette, teach­ers must avail them­selves of new re­search, which speaks to the Neu­ro­science of learn­ing.

“Neu­rol­o­gists tell us that the anato­my of chil­dren’s brains is af­fect­ed by con­stant in­ter­fac­ing with screen tech­nol­o­gy,” she said.

She said teach­ers can no longer think of them­selves as the “sage of the stage” or the “gu­ru of all knowl­edge” be­cause they are now com­pet­ing with Google, in­ter­ac­tive ed­u­ca­tion­al soft­ware and so­cial me­dia plat­forms.

“We must in­clude what has be­come a nat­ur­al tool for stu­dents in the ex­e­cu­tion of our lessons. We must teach as they learn,” she said.

Cadette said the trans­for­ma­tion of the Methodist school sys­tem goes be­yond the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of im­me­di­ate teach­ers and prin­ci­pals.