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From being a Teach-er to becoming a Teach-smith:

the transformation of the Century.

An English dictionary grows every year. An English language is alive.  Many words we use today have been invented long time ago.

A linguist knows that a structure of a word often reflects the original meaning of the word even if over time that meaning has evolved.

Many English verbs end with Ò-erÓ; a speaker, a driver, a teacher. Often verbs like that express a simple action: a speaker is one that speaks, meaning Ð puts words forward; a driver is one that drives, meaning Ð moves thing ahead; a teacher is one that teaches, meaning Ð instructs students (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/teacher), tells students what to do.

The meaning of teaching as Òtelling what to doÓ has been known for thousands of years.

A teacher had specific knowledge and skills and in order to gain that knowledge and skills students had to follow the instructions, and they had to do it word-by-word, literally.

Social and economic development, world exploration, industrialization had led to the growing need in more and more literal workforce. Eventually, teaching has become a professional practice which structure reflects the economic structure of the society.

Up to fifty years ago, or by a historical scale Òjust yesterdayÓ, the economic structure of the society has been changing reality slowly. One could learn one profession and keep working until the retirement using almost the same set of skills.

Things are very different nowadays.

Globalization, robotization, informatisation, the Internet have led to the creation of fast and constantly changing social and economic environment.

More and more professionals will have to relearn their profession or even change it during their professional life time; maybe even more than twice.

More and more professionals will have to go through the process of professional re-adaptation (retraining) during their professional life time; maybe even more than twice.

That means that more and more people will need to have not just specific professional skills (learned once and forever), but also meta skills, required for being able to adapt to the changes in the environment (professional environment, social environment, economic environment, political environment, physical environment Ð a.k.a. a climate).

That means that nowadays, teachers need to teach students not just specific practical skills (how to read, to write, to count, etc.), but also meta-skills, required for being able to adapt to the changes in their future life (due to the changes in their professional environment, social environment, economic environment, political environment, physical environment Ð a.k.a. a climate).

The discussion of how to teach students and at the same time help them with developing and advancement of those meta-skills is not new, and has no single point of view (I also address it in my book: ÒBecoming a STEM TeacherÓ, www.GoMars.xyz).

But one thing is clear for sure;

one cannot learn how to adapt to a changing environment if the environment where one learns does not change, if it is still, steady, stationary, fixed.

Many teachers would tell you that classes today are not the same as twenty years ago. That includes the fact that the student body has been becoming more fluid, more diverse (https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/cultural-diversity-at-school/), less uniform (by all possible measures). More and more emphasis is being placed on individualization of teaching (which is a hot and controversial topic: http://www.springer.com/us/book/9781402036194). In theory, many educators are for the individualization of teaching, but the practical realization encounters many difficulties and obstacles.

One such obstacle is ideological: individualization of teaching requires a new view on the role of a teacher, which is completely opposite to the old-fashioned well established view Òa teacher is one who tells students what to doÓ.

Creating for students evolving, progressing, individualized learning environment requires Ð before all Ð being professionally creative.

Interestingly, English language uses a different word structure for (at least some) professions which have a creative nature.

Take, for example, a professional who makes locks. This profession does not exist anymore, but the in the past, one who made locks was called a locksmith. He was not called a locker (or unlocker), because that would mean Òone who locks or unlocks locksÓ. Those days every lock had to be created.

There are other professions, like blacksmith, tunesmith (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tunesmith) which presume from a professional some creative work.

In Merriam-Webster one finds that ÒsmithÓ means Òa person who makes thingsÓ (http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/smith).

Following this pattern, a person who creates learning environment for students should not be called Òa teacherÓ but should be called Òa teachsmithÓ! (I wish I was the first one to come up with this term, but Google said I wasnÕt J )

Using this terminology, we can describe the goal of the currently undergoing education reform in one short sentence:

ÒThe reform is a transition from

being a teacher to becoming a teachsmithÓ.

If we accept this meaning of the education reform, we have to take a closer look at the current state of the field of teacher professional development (www.GoMars.xyz/cash.html).

Like many other contemporary professionals, teachsmiths will also need robust meta-skills required for reoccurring need to re-adapt to the changes happening in their professional field (a.k.a. education). That means, that teacher professional development should also go beyond providing training in just specific content knowledge, or class management skills.

One of the most efficient methods for such a type of teacher professional development is called ÒProfessional DesigningÓ (www.GoMars.xyz).

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set on 09/28/2017