From facilitator to knowledge-builder: a new role for the teacher of the future

The influence of constructivism and the spread of information and communication technologies (ICT) in classrooms are both expected to change the role of the teacher in the classroom from the expert dispensing knowledge, to the facilitator of student learning. In such a student-centred classroom the teacher is expected to understand individual learning styles and appropriate means to scaffold learning while social constructivism emphasises student collaboration and interaction with the learning context. The notion of the teacher as facilitator in a student-centred classroom may have been useful to progress pedagogical thinking, but limits attempts to create a knowledge-building community which requires social relations to be reconceptualised. Some suggest that the focus should be on learning- centredness and many teachers using ICT are happy to acknowledge that they are themselves learners rather than experts. Further, economic and educational imperatives, and the frequent complaint that teachers have 'no time' now require that teachers engage in a community of practice where their own learning activities are purposeful and authentic because they are situated within their work. This community can include teachers and students as co-learners, while technology as a communication medium opens up the possibility for collaboration within and across schools and with other learning partners locally and internationally. Scardamalia and Bereiter argue that where a collaborative knowledge-building approach is adopted, the work to be done in schools becomes the construction of collective knowledge and students become participants in a learning organisation. Similarly it seems that teachers working in a learning organisation cannot operate in isolation, but must model collaboration with other teachers as they reflect on and improve their practice and develop new knowledge. As Hargreaves suggests, the knowledge teachers bring and create should be better managed to help schools realise their intellectual capital. This paper describes some current examples of teachers and students working together in knowledge-building activities in schools.