Mode 1 and Mode 2 Learning. What?

Differentiate between Mode 1 and Mode 2 learning, and discuss the implications for you as a teaching professional?

Wow – sounds ho-hum – but it’s not really…. read on.

From my reading of the article by Heath, G. 2001. Teacher Education and the New Knowledge Environment, Australian Association for Educational Research Conference, Fremantle, December, I understand that Mode 1 learning is very much steeped in tradition and draws on the requirements of the Industrial Revolution and the skill set required for industrial production – chiefly the ability to read, write and understand arithmetic.

According to a book published in 1994 The New Production of Knowledge written by a team headed by Michael Gibbons (Gibbons et al, 1994), Mode 1 learning is based on knowledge produced in universities and other traditional research centres and is characterised as being discipline based, localised and subject to quality control by peer review. Mode 1 learning is based on the objectivity of knowledge.

In contrast to this, Gibbons et al, 1994, characterise Mode 2 learning as being produced in the context of application rather than in traditional research centres, trans-disciplinary rather than single disciplinary, produced in diverse (global) sites rather than localised, produced in teams rather than by individuals, subject to social accountability and reflexivity. It also involves quality control by market acceptability as well as peer review.

From the readings it appears that schools of today are basically products of the industrial revolution and that up to this point in society, teachers have been seen as possessing the knowledge that needs to be taught and passing this on to students in typical school settings.

I think Heath, G. (2000), puts it quite well when he states that "in a knowledge-scarce environment teachers were among the few people in the population who possessed knowledge and to a greater, or often lessor degree, the skills to transmit it”.

Today however, in our knowledge-rich environment, there are a multitude of knowledge producers and knowledge distributors. Schools and universities are no longer the main sites for learning and universities and research centres are no longer the sole producers of knowledge.

I believe that teachers/educators of the future will play an incredibly important role in filtering large amounts of knowledge and communicating it appropriately to students. Teachers will be learning managers and mediators. Rather than hold all the answers, teachers will facilitate learning by accessing the available information/knowledge and helping students to organise, prioritise and sift through information in order to achieve the desired outcomes.

I think teachers will act like filters of information.

I also believe that ‘life-long learning’, ‘on-the-job training’, and ‘continuous learning’ will not only be expected of individuals and firms/ organisations, but they will become an essential part of society in order to keep pace with the rapid changes taking place on a global scale. Why should the same not apply to the teaching profession?

For me one of the key concepts in my readings was from a Finnish report into teacher education, as referenced by Heath, G. (2000), which suggests that the future of the school as an institution will depend on the importance it gives to the learning of teachers and the extent to which the school acts, not as a monopoly, but as a partner in the delivery of education.

The school environment will change dramatically over the next decade or two, and I have seen evidence that this is already occurring. My son’s school requires all Grade 4, 7, 9 and Senior School students to have their own lap-tops for daily use in the classroom, and makes regular use of on-line learning tools and an electronic whiteboard in most classrooms. This type of technology in schools will require an enormous amount of investment in re-training teachers of today to be equipped to teach in the 21st century classroom.

There may also be a noticeable difference in society whereby those students who have access to technologically savvy schools and teachers, may have a significant advantage over those students who do not. But it’s not just about technology, it’s about knowledge management.

The 21st century teacher will require a whole new set of skills, and I believe schools of today need to start making the transition now so they are ready for the future.

I believe teachers will be a conduit of knowledge, both connecting the students to the multitude of knowledge producers and also to the users of the knowledge, in order to achieve their educational outcomes. As for the changing nature of educational outcomes ... that's a blog for another day.