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| Wikimedia Commons (Charles Fadel) |
First of all, it is important to remind oneself that the most important factor is learning, which should only be facilitated by a teacher. Technology should hence be used as a useful tool which is used to facilitate learning. A very well creative and informative lesson can be useless if it is not adapted to the learners' needs and abilities. Therefore, a teacher must be flexible and directly approaching the learners in order to be successful. In this case, the learners are not only sitting in the same boat, but they are on the same bike like the teacher, according to this model. This means that ideally the teacher must guide the learners in such a way, that they are going into the same direction. Especially teenagers are often not particular fond of doing the same thing like their teachers. They are rather rebelling and striving for the opposite direction. It is, therefore, important to convince the class to aim for a common goal: learning. It also takes more than one wheel in order to successfully drive a tandem. The teacher's wheel alone cannot drive the learning process into motion. The learners themselves have to set their wheel into motion in order to progress. The pedals are symbolizing the teacher's position as a facilitator, who initiates the wheel of the learners to turn.
Wheels
The planning fraction of the teacher is, of course, bigger than that of the learners. Although it is important to be flexible as a teacher, it is also very important to be well prepared in order to present a successful lesson. Learners immediately realize when the teacher is not well prepared and they will not participate nor listen properly any longer. The teacher should also know more than he is teaching, to be prepared for any possible questions or further explanations. Of course, there are some situations in which you are not exactly sure about an answer and then it is no shame to tell the learner that you will come back to that question the next day. When I was teaching, I even sometimes googled for an answer when I was not sure about it while the learners were doing an exercise. At the end of the lesson, I could come back to the question with an answer.
Another important aspect is that the doing part of the learners should be bigger than the doing part of the teacher. Paul Halmos' quote "The best way to learn is to do; the worst way to teach is to talk." is thus applicable to this model. Learners are indeed learning better when they are actively involved and they will be less bored.
Steering wheel
As mentioned before, the teacher should determine the direction with the steering wheel. The meaning and definition of the direction are however limited, especially for the senior phase, because it is important that the learners develop their own opinions and become critical individuals who can think for themselves. Thus, the same direction should be considered in a broader spectrum. The teacher, as well as the learners, should move forward and strive for a learning environment and a better understanding of the world. In this sense teachers even learn a lot from their learners and it is important for a teacher to think open minded in order to really learn from the learners, to enhance personal growth.
The teacher also has the access to the brake. Sometimes it is necessary to slow down, to ensure that all the learners understand the work. The teacher also chooses the gear or rather the teaching methods. Even flipped learning could be a teaching method which would be still applicable to this model. The brake and the gear are also closely linked since it might be useful to repeat something by using a different teaching method. If a problem occurs, the teacher may not lose the grip of the situation. Challenges are there to overcome and one should not be discouraged.
