As usual, Professor of Geology Dr. Robert Badger was facilitating a lively discussion in his Geology of Our National Parks course and wandering the classroom while students contributed ideas about the big bang theory and deconstructing the universe through geological evidence. The question of the number of planets in our solar system came up.  Is it nine or is it eight?  It all depends on how you classify Pluto. Somehow they were left with the question, “What do they teach kids in fifth grade these days?”  Nobody knew.

The class was left to ponder that unanswered question when… “It couldn’t have been more than two minutes later,” Badger explains, “because I wander around the room a lot and I was still in the same spot when Emily Green, a senior, chimed in, ‘They teach eight.’” 

When Dr. Badger asked her how she magically arrived at that answer, Green replied, “I just texted my fifth-grade cousin, and he asked his teacher. She said eight.”

Some people who hear that story are appalled at the fact that both college student and fifth grader were text messaging each other during class. Others are amazed at the immediacy of information literally at our fingertips in the classroom. 

However you interpret the episode, this is one way to illustrate the difference in a classroom of today and one of 175 years ago, when the SUNY Potsdam (then St. Lawrence Academy) School of Education was of ficially supported by the State of New York with public funding, making it one of the nation’s oldest publicly funded teacher education programs. 

“One hundred and seventy-five years signifies a very long tradition of teacher education at this institution, and as a result, we are pretty good at it,” said Dr. William Amoriell ’68, dean of the School of Education and Professional Studies, “You know what they say, ‘practice makes perfect.’”

The College’s National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) certification is one indication that SUNY Potsdam has been true to her roots. 

“NCATE is the most prestigious and most rigorous of the teacher accrediting bodies, and SUNY Potsdam was one of the first institutions in the state to earn it seven years ago,” Amoriell said. “It shows we have a commitment to preparing the finest educators for the region and the state.”

"They (teachers) need to be scholars, actively inquisitive and modeling it for their students. They need to be great writers and love reading."

All that may be true, but reflecting on 175 years of a program begs the question, how much has the classroom changed?  Or has it really changed at all?

In 1934, chalkboards and maps were the technologies applied in the classroom to disseminate information. Today, it is smart boards, clickers and, in some cases, mobile devices used with or without the teacher’s permission, like in the case of Green and her cousin.

As technology evolves and transforms the features and tools in a classroom at a dizzying pace, Dr. Lynn Hall, associate professor and chair of the Department of Literacy, believes there are certain aspects of teaching that remain the same regardless of the number of centuries or electronic devices involved.

“The teacher-student relationship is really at the core of any good classroom,” Dr. Hall remarked. “I think primarily teachers have to be role models in so many ways. They need to be scholars, actively inquisitive and modeling it for their students. They need to be great writers and love reading. They have to be someone who doesn’t always have to tell but can listen to children’s ideas and work with them and recognize them as individuals.  Someone who models good citizenship.

“One of the challenges today for teachers is to be up-to-date with technology. It changes faster than any school budget cycle,” Dr. Hall said. “Teachers just started using Powerpoint and now they have smart boards. In a way, the teachers are always being pulled forward. The kids are the ones who come in more technologically savvy, and the teacher is playing catch-up.”

One example is clicker technology, which allows each student to have a remote in the classroom. The teacher can ask a question and provide a multiple-choice selection of answers. Each student can respond and the class can immediately examine the results of the response.

“In some ways, it gives students more voice in the classroom,” Dr. Hall said. “It gives every student a chance to choose an answer; however, it doesn’t allow them to craft an answer.”

Is the technology now taking away a vital part of the exercise of students composing the words themselves in their own unique voices? Have they lost a vital part of learning in the exchange?

“In the end, technology is part of the teacher’s toolbox,” Dr. Hall said. “If technologies start to interfere with the learning, then we have got to reconsider their usefulness and get back to the basics of the exchanges between teacher and student.”

When considering pedagogical changes over the past 175 years, Dr. Dennis Conrad, associate professor of special education, has an entire laundry list of themes to consider, especially in relation to teaching to diversity. After all, he teaches “Diversity and Advocacy” and “Caribbean Studies.”  Technology is at the top of the list as a tool to disseminate information and ideas.

He also acknowledges the fact there are more women, both as students and as teaching professionals, and greater gender equity, including wages.  “There was a time when women teachers were not allowed to work in inclement-weather months,” Dr. Conrad said.

He cited a number of issues that could be semester-long discussions in their own right: “Shifts away from meritocracy; change in a system from charity and reading & writing schools with emphasis on the Bible to more universal education philosophies; a more global impact and shifting demographics; the role of university education being more accessible (although at a price); a less authoritarian, more constructivist education; a greater concern for social justice; and the recognition that there is diversity in learning styles even within homogenous groups.” 

Even though Dr. Conrad can point to numerous ways classrooms have changed over the last 175 years, he notes that what is critical for SUNY Potsdam teacher education candidates is collaborative skills and relationship building.

“It will be their positive responsiveness to learner differences and parent, student and inter-, intra-professional collaboration,” he said.  “Yes, literacy and technology will be  key ingredients, but these are only means to an end of a more equitable society.”

So with 175 years of practice, how does SUNY Potsdam maintain excellence in teacher preparation?  Dr. Hall believes we have to go back to the beginning.

“I think you have to look at how our institution began. What makes us unique is that we have always held strong that the liberal arts, including the fine arts, make a strong educator and a strong teacher,” she said. “We’ve always known that teaching is an art. It is not a science.

It incorporates all the facilities of knowledge. We work hard to incorporate all aspects of the campus to enrich the preparation of new teachers. This fosters an understanding of each individual’s diversity in learning that is timeless.”