Seven axioms for teaching our "traditional" students

As community college instructors we are faced with the unique challenge of living up to the open access required by our mission. That means we take all learners as they are and help them become all their talents allow. Facilitating the learning of our "traditional" students, those freshly graduated from high school, is complicated by all of the layers of policy and theory and politics layered into their schooling. Many of my counterparts point sadly to the No Child Left Behind act as the culprit responsible for the preponderance of students we enroll, saying they have learned to memorize long enough to spill the facts on a test and forget as the result of a test based standard in our public schools.

I don't think the problem is that simple. I see our instructors employing the same instructional techniques as those used in their own education and wonder how our Next Genners can adapt to such a stymied atmosphere when they are used to personal learning techniques that provide instant access and information. Of course these techniques are ot generally applied to the formal learning we try to stuff down their throats, but I don't know a single one who hasn't self-learned to use their cell phones, text a message, or locate downloadable music. As I see it, the issue is to find a way to adapt our delivery of instruction to match the interests and learning preferences of these students.

In an article entitled "Backwards into the Future: Seven Principles for Educating the Ne(x)t Generation" in the June / July Innovate Journal [Link, registration required], authors Helen Sword and Michelle Leggot offer their insights for teaching for the future in their seven principles:

1. Relinquish authority
2. Recast students as teachers, researchers, and producers of knowledge
3. Promote collaborative relationships
4. Cultivate multiple intelligences
5. Foster critcal creativity
6. Encourage resiliance in the face of change
7. Craft assignments that look both forward and back

The article highlights tips and techniques from the authors' "Poetry off the Page" which they teach at the University of Aukland.

The concepts presented would be a stretch for most of us; but what if we each chose one or two to implement and study?