Prensky in Practice

I believe that Marc Prensky’s partnering ideas are very realistic. A challenging component in all educational initiatives is change. I subscribe to the theory that change is a process not an event.  I have seen motivated teachers take on partnering work and succeed brilliantly and I have seen resistant teachers get stuck, mostly by choice, and fail.

Top down or bottom up? As an educational leader I would get a positive core group of teachers working on partnering. They would need time to observe it functioning in other schools and opportunities to process and reflect with each other as they prepared revised units of study.  Opportunities for professional development both in and out of the district would need to be provided.  I have found that long term, job embedded professional development versus the onetime events is a far more successful model in fostering real change in instructional practice.

 I would strongly support Prensky’s notion of starting small and building to entire units and complete courses of study. The core group of partnering teachers would share their successes with the rest and the faculty and build an interest and excitement around partnering. As an observer, I would need to be prepared to help faculty members turn traditional lessons into powerful partnering lessons.  Teacher coaches would also be a valuable component in implementing partnering.  I am sure that student engagement and ensuing enthusiasm, in the partnering lessons would be noticed by the faculty. The most powerful result of successful partnering would be improved student achievement which would provide undisputable evidence that partnering is an excellent means to the desired end. Many faculty members would want students to have that enthusiasm for their course and “buy in” to partnering.

In Partnering there is a delicate balance around control and meeting desired curricula objectives. Prensky states, “…it is still the teacher’s job to point out the connections and ensure they get made.” This statement addresses the idea of a guaranteed viable curriculum and it turn student success on standardized assessments.