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Why Do I Need a Teacher When I've got Google?: The Essential Guide to the Big Issues for Every 21st Century Teacher
‘The future of the world is in your hands’ I know that might seem a bit steep considering you’ve got that Year Ten coursework to sort out and the lesson observation on that nervous looking NQT, but that’s the way it is I’m afraid. You chose to be a teacher, you mould young minds on a daily basis and those minds have got to grow up and save the world.’ – Extract from Chapter One Why do I need a teacher when I’ve got Google? is just one of the challenging, controversial and thought-provoking questions Ian Gilbert poses in his long-awaited follow up to the classic Essential Motivation in the Classroom . Questioning the unquestionable, this book will make you re-consider everything you thought you knew about teaching and learning, such With his customary combination of hard-hitting truths, practical classroom ideas and irreverent sense of humour, Ian Gilbert takes the reader on a breathless rollercoaster ride through burning issues of the twenty-first century, considering everything from the threats facing the world and the challenge of the BRIC economies to the link between eugenics and the 11+. As wide-ranging and exhaustively-researched as it is entertaining and accessible, this book is designed to challenge teachers and inform them – as well as encourage them – as they strive to design a twenty-first century learning experience that really does bring the best out of all young people. After all, the future of the world may just depend on it.
220 pages, Paperback
First published July 14, 2010
13 people are currently reading
217 people want to read
About the author
Ian Gilbert
104 books18 followersIan Gilbert is an educational innovator, award-winning writer, entrepreneur and inspirational speaker, delivering training to schools and colleges in the UK and Europe for the 'Independent Thinking' organisation, which he founded in 1994.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 14 reviews
October 23, 2010
Wow. What a great book. Gilbert likes to stir things up, but he confirms my belief that I have the most important job in the world and that I can have great influence over my students. I'm 27 so I should be a 21st Century teacher- using technology, but still providing kids with the emotional support they need from a trusted adult. This books seems like it will be all about technology, but it is mostly about the science behind learning (and not teaching) and how you can "tap into that."
I love my students and I hope that I am providing them with some of the emotional support they need in order to be happy adults. Our future depends on it. Because today's adults are not as happy as they could be.
I love my students and I hope that I am providing them with some of the emotional support they need in order to be happy adults. Our future depends on it. Because today's adults are not as happy as they could be.
May 1, 2012
Short chapters to get you thinking about the big things like the purpose of education. Fab
December 13, 2014
Like great dinner party discussion, this was a terrific book. If you like Malcolm Gladwell, and are interested in education, this is your book.
Ranging in topics from neurobiology to corporate politics, Gilbert draws from a wide selection of ideas, tying seemingly disparate items together in intriguing and sometimes infuriating ways. It is NOT a screed on the evils of the Internet, nor a bell weather about the coming demise of the teaching profession. It is a set of mostly well-reasoned arguments for educators to be proactive about relating to their digitally saavy charges.
Some things require a bit more explanation, IMHO, but for the most part, this breezy, easy to understand book is great fodder for faculty discussions.
Ranging in topics from neurobiology to corporate politics, Gilbert draws from a wide selection of ideas, tying seemingly disparate items together in intriguing and sometimes infuriating ways. It is NOT a screed on the evils of the Internet, nor a bell weather about the coming demise of the teaching profession. It is a set of mostly well-reasoned arguments for educators to be proactive about relating to their digitally saavy charges.
Some things require a bit more explanation, IMHO, but for the most part, this breezy, easy to understand book is great fodder for faculty discussions.
March 14, 2016
This book is like herpes for your intelligence. It is contagious and it stays with you forever.
The title gave me high hopes for a considered and fresh engagement with pedagogy and androgogy. What I received was wikipedia references and dumbed-down neuroscience. I cannot believe that Routledge would publishing this nonsense.
It is so basic, it is so condescending to the past and the present, teachers and students. Considering the richness of media literacy and information literacy, this book has no place in the thinking of teachers, teacher educators or education researchers.
Yuck.
The title gave me high hopes for a considered and fresh engagement with pedagogy and androgogy. What I received was wikipedia references and dumbed-down neuroscience. I cannot believe that Routledge would publishing this nonsense.
It is so basic, it is so condescending to the past and the present, teachers and students. Considering the richness of media literacy and information literacy, this book has no place in the thinking of teachers, teacher educators or education researchers.
Yuck.
August 24, 2012
A fantastic insight into the world that today's children are growing up into with regard to their schooling, and the many ways that schools need to shift their way of thinking to cope with this. Unpudownable, even for an academic book.
December 30, 2010
So much to think about...
And now I've finished it there's just more and more.
Wow - what an excellent read.
And now I've finished it there's just more and more.
Wow - what an excellent read.
December 2, 2010
Gives us teachers lots of food for thought...the need for educators to change their curriculum to meet the needs of today's students.humor intertwined throughout the whole book
July 25, 2016
Ian Gilbert provides much food for thought in this book. Through questioning the need for teachers in today's information rich world, he brings to light the common mistakes that teachers make in their teaching career.
His entire book rides on this premise that "we can't solve the problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them". Education is more than just teaching students all the current knowledge that we know. Rather, this knowledge that we teach them is the medium through which we cultivate their thinking and social skills. We can't just make our students as smart as us, but we have to ensure that they are smarter if we want to make the world a better place. (sounds really cheesy I know).
Rather than just basing his book on his past experiences, Gilbert uses current research in neuroscience and contextualizes it for his readers in order to create a better understanding of how to improve the teaching methods that are currently employed. More than just the 'hard' sciences, Gilbert also focuses on correcting the common perspectives that teachers have, and his greatest advice is for teachers to create a learning environment rather than just a teaching one. It is important for teachers to have the right 'soft' approach to their teaching, as there are many subtle nuances present within the teacher and his environment that must be accounted for.
His lighthearted and 'short and sweet' chapters provide the necessary impetus for teachers of all backgrounds culminating in this phrase: If students can't learn they way we teach them, we have to teach them the way they learn.
Quotes:
The things is, its not you, me of James Martin (a smart guy) who are going to solve the problems. After all, we created them. Its going to be the children whose coursework you were going to mark before you picked up this book; its going to be that bottom set year seven maths group you so dread teaching on a Thursday afternoon; it could even be - and this is where the pressure really is on you and your colleagues - that girl you are just about to permanently exclude for not following school rules. These are the people that James Martin refer to as the 'transition generation'. They are the ones who are going to get us out of this mess. But they can only do that if we, as teachers, quip them with what they need to achieve this. That's not just knowledge but the skills, attributes, passion and commitment to make a difference, all combined with the ability to think, not our thoughts, but new ones of their own.
With this scenario in mind, (fungible jobs - jobs which are easily outsourced) I worry that, with our focus in education on grades, the successful schools being the ones with, ergo, the top grades, what we are doing is preparing the next generation of unemployed accountants. They're very good, very qualified, but hey, who needs em?
We're not advocating content-free lessons. The key will be to learn the content in a way that also develops the skills, attributes and competences, something that the traditional chalk and talk lesson can't do. (...) To allow children to develop the skills and all-important attitude they will need to succeed as adults as well as pass their exams with flying colours.
The role of the twenty-first century teacher, I am suggesting, is to help young people know where to find the knowledge, to know what to do with it when they get it, to know 'good' knowledge from 'bad' knowledge, to know how to use it, to apply it, to synthesize it, to be creative with it, to add to it even, to know which bits to use and when and how to use them and to know how to remember key parts of it. Add to that your powerful role in helping them develop their communication skills, their creativity, their curiosity, their ability to work well as a team, their confidence and self-esteem, their sense of what is wrong and what is right, their ability to deal with adversity, their understanding of their role as a citizen of the world - in other words all the things computers can't do yet - then you have a powerful role for the twenty-first century teacher.
After innumerable hours of interaction and investigation with the individuals in this sample as they grew to adulthood, I had to conclude that many influences on happiness and success are like love - it is possible to say how it feels and what happens because of it, but there is no sure recipe to apply to others. For the rest we do have very clear information about what the gifted and talented need by way of support towards self-fulfillment - an education to suit their potential opportunities to flourish and people who believe in them.
Who we are is a complex series of interactions between hat we were born with and what we were born into, none of which is written in stone. If to be poor and stupid is your fate then what is the point of school? I am often asked by teachers if there really is anythings they can do to hep children who have already suffered at the hands of people and life they were born into and, even before I came across this research, (nurture has an impact on nature) I felt I had to say yes, absolutely, or else what's the point! What the latest research findings are showing teachers everywhere is that yes there is a point, you don't just make a difference; you make everything different. Because as Ian Roberston points out: Schooling and education, without doubt, physically change the brains of children.
What if you were to plan lessons that, rather than just focusing on what you wanted them to learn or the skills you wanted them to develop, also included how you wanted them to feel and what you were going to do help them have the opportunity to do so?
One way to think about the concept of multiple intelligence is to think of human intelligence like a cake. We all have a cake and we all have eight slices of cake. Of course, our slices are of different shapes and sizes from each other but, and this should be written up on a wall in your staffroom, we all have a full cake. (...) So, over the course of a term or a topic, to what extent do you roll that cake? Over, say, a four-week period, do you ensure that at least once, logical mathematical intelligence comes to the top, at least once musical intelligence comes to the top, at least once intra-personal intelligence comes to the top? That, over that period, everyone has the chance to (a) play to their strengths and (b) work on their weaknesses? And notice too, that we are talking about their strengths and weaknesses, not yours.
I am suggesting that as teachers we step out of the limelight a little more to allow learners to step into it and take their place as confident independent learners, empowered by a teacher to experiment and innovate the way the teacher has been empowered to do by their leader.
His entire book rides on this premise that "we can't solve the problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them". Education is more than just teaching students all the current knowledge that we know. Rather, this knowledge that we teach them is the medium through which we cultivate their thinking and social skills. We can't just make our students as smart as us, but we have to ensure that they are smarter if we want to make the world a better place. (sounds really cheesy I know).
Rather than just basing his book on his past experiences, Gilbert uses current research in neuroscience and contextualizes it for his readers in order to create a better understanding of how to improve the teaching methods that are currently employed. More than just the 'hard' sciences, Gilbert also focuses on correcting the common perspectives that teachers have, and his greatest advice is for teachers to create a learning environment rather than just a teaching one. It is important for teachers to have the right 'soft' approach to their teaching, as there are many subtle nuances present within the teacher and his environment that must be accounted for.
His lighthearted and 'short and sweet' chapters provide the necessary impetus for teachers of all backgrounds culminating in this phrase: If students can't learn they way we teach them, we have to teach them the way they learn.
Quotes:
The things is, its not you, me of James Martin (a smart guy) who are going to solve the problems. After all, we created them. Its going to be the children whose coursework you were going to mark before you picked up this book; its going to be that bottom set year seven maths group you so dread teaching on a Thursday afternoon; it could even be - and this is where the pressure really is on you and your colleagues - that girl you are just about to permanently exclude for not following school rules. These are the people that James Martin refer to as the 'transition generation'. They are the ones who are going to get us out of this mess. But they can only do that if we, as teachers, quip them with what they need to achieve this. That's not just knowledge but the skills, attributes, passion and commitment to make a difference, all combined with the ability to think, not our thoughts, but new ones of their own.
With this scenario in mind, (fungible jobs - jobs which are easily outsourced) I worry that, with our focus in education on grades, the successful schools being the ones with, ergo, the top grades, what we are doing is preparing the next generation of unemployed accountants. They're very good, very qualified, but hey, who needs em?
We're not advocating content-free lessons. The key will be to learn the content in a way that also develops the skills, attributes and competences, something that the traditional chalk and talk lesson can't do. (...) To allow children to develop the skills and all-important attitude they will need to succeed as adults as well as pass their exams with flying colours.
The role of the twenty-first century teacher, I am suggesting, is to help young people know where to find the knowledge, to know what to do with it when they get it, to know 'good' knowledge from 'bad' knowledge, to know how to use it, to apply it, to synthesize it, to be creative with it, to add to it even, to know which bits to use and when and how to use them and to know how to remember key parts of it. Add to that your powerful role in helping them develop their communication skills, their creativity, their curiosity, their ability to work well as a team, their confidence and self-esteem, their sense of what is wrong and what is right, their ability to deal with adversity, their understanding of their role as a citizen of the world - in other words all the things computers can't do yet - then you have a powerful role for the twenty-first century teacher.
After innumerable hours of interaction and investigation with the individuals in this sample as they grew to adulthood, I had to conclude that many influences on happiness and success are like love - it is possible to say how it feels and what happens because of it, but there is no sure recipe to apply to others. For the rest we do have very clear information about what the gifted and talented need by way of support towards self-fulfillment - an education to suit their potential opportunities to flourish and people who believe in them.
Who we are is a complex series of interactions between hat we were born with and what we were born into, none of which is written in stone. If to be poor and stupid is your fate then what is the point of school? I am often asked by teachers if there really is anythings they can do to hep children who have already suffered at the hands of people and life they were born into and, even before I came across this research, (nurture has an impact on nature) I felt I had to say yes, absolutely, or else what's the point! What the latest research findings are showing teachers everywhere is that yes there is a point, you don't just make a difference; you make everything different. Because as Ian Roberston points out: Schooling and education, without doubt, physically change the brains of children.
What if you were to plan lessons that, rather than just focusing on what you wanted them to learn or the skills you wanted them to develop, also included how you wanted them to feel and what you were going to do help them have the opportunity to do so?
One way to think about the concept of multiple intelligence is to think of human intelligence like a cake. We all have a cake and we all have eight slices of cake. Of course, our slices are of different shapes and sizes from each other but, and this should be written up on a wall in your staffroom, we all have a full cake. (...) So, over the course of a term or a topic, to what extent do you roll that cake? Over, say, a four-week period, do you ensure that at least once, logical mathematical intelligence comes to the top, at least once musical intelligence comes to the top, at least once intra-personal intelligence comes to the top? That, over that period, everyone has the chance to (a) play to their strengths and (b) work on their weaknesses? And notice too, that we are talking about their strengths and weaknesses, not yours.
I am suggesting that as teachers we step out of the limelight a little more to allow learners to step into it and take their place as confident independent learners, empowered by a teacher to experiment and innovate the way the teacher has been empowered to do by their leader.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 29, 2022
Really interesting and well structured book for the modern teacher / parent. Made me laugh that 5 pages in it predicts a covid pandemic.
April 1, 2013
I found this book both inspiring and thought provoking. It's really made me rethink my approach to teaching. It should be on every teacher's bookshelf.
December 21, 2013
Thought-provoking. Highly recommended for teachers and educators.
August 28, 2014
Really liked this book, started off a little dull but picked up as it went on. In the end it inspired me to try some new ideas in the classroom and revitalised my interest in pedagogy.
unfinished-books
January 24, 2016The issues discussed have already been discussed many times among educators. Nothing new, so I wasn't interested to finish the book.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 14 reviews