Rethink Teaching

A Wicked Problem

A wicked problem is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. The use of term “wicked” here has come to denote resistance to resolution. – Wikipedia

There is an ever increasing disparity between the skills we expect students to have and those they have actually mastered. Citizens today are expected not only to be technologically literate, but also be able to use the information technology offers to assess and analyze problems. The wicked problem here is asking how we can rethink the roles of educators to fully prepare students emerging into society. The infographic below explains this problem more fully.

https://www.easel.ly/index/embedFrame/easel/3912465

A Possible Solution

To think about this problem further and analyze possible solutions, I met with two colleagues over the course of three weeks within our class at MSU on Applying Educational Technology to Practice. You can find the blogs related to my colleague’s educational practices and rethinking teaching here (Lindsey) and here (Brett). After discussing many solutions including project-based learning, educational and professional development opportunities and strategies, and cross-curriculum teaching (the fact that there are many potential solutions and any or all could be beneficial or not depending on their implementation is another aspect of this problem’s “wickedness”), we finally settled an a three-tiered solution.

Create student-centered classrooms
Implement project-based learning
Utilize technology appropriately

While each of these could be a solution on its own, we tried to focus on using these three things in conjunction in order to have maximum impact on broadening student skills.

You can read further about our solution in the white paper linked below.