I am an academic; start the revolution without me!

We, academics, are very conservative people! We claim from time to time that we are liberals, progressive, sometimes even rebels too. But the truth is that we are deeply conservative, at least that's what history has shown so far. Think of how many things have changed during the last century.... (.... thinking ......) ....... I am pretty sure that you thought a lot, huh? The images of the everyday life of your grand-grand parents and that of your current students cannot possibly compare even having the best of intentions.

What did we change in the way we teach? I would challenge you to spot the differences between those two pictures:  

 

University class 1904

 

University class 2014

Well?  ... (.... thinking ......) ......

Apart from variety in colours, gender, race and clothes, what's the difference? The images of  so called "traditional" lectures, with a colleague talking and students listening, with or without some interaction. I am pretty sure that learning occurs not because of the good teachers but because of the more "clever" students that are in the audience. "Cleverness" here is meant to imply the variety of experiences and knowledge that the current students have compared to those a century ago.

So, within a 100 years time, we keep on doing the same act ladies and gentlemen! We teach innovation but we ourselves stick to the same learning, teaching and assessment practices of the long past. We encourage entrepreneurship but we stay comfortably numb in our traditional dinosaur-ic cell. We claim how useful technology is for every profession but we keep having our hands dirty with marker ink and white choke dust. We can master individual behaviours but we cannot adapt ours to our audience. We elaborate on the use of words and language but spoken language is the only means we can accept as communication. We boast about our academic freedom to try new things but we back off when someone holds us accountable for the results. We praise new ideas but we stick to rigid governance structures and practices. We publicly commend best practices but we demote them privately when it comes to adopting them.  

  

Some people call it resistance to change. Some people say it's normal too. I am not opposing that but are we that slow? What I am really trying to say is that academics cannot claim something they are not. All in all, academics are deeply conservative people!

I know you are not like that! I'm neither too :-) That's why we work together in an institution that tries to make a difference!  

Petros Kefalas

IFDLT