Learning to Unlearn, and then Relearn: Thinking about Teacher Education within the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis

ABSTRACT For decades now, in the context of teacher education, we have been discussing the importance of paying attention to the fast and profound changes both in society and in people’s personal lives, as a consequence of the widespread use of new digital technologies. Yet, not much has changed in schools, where traditional teaching still rules. Students continue to be more knowledge consumers than active knowledge producers; besides, the use of technology for educational purposes remains as either a threat or an unattainable goal. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled educational institutions to rethink the role of technology in education. In this article, we comment on the crisis that has struck higher education and how it has set our institutions and ourselves, as professors and teacher educators, into a deep process of rethinking our past practices and reimagining our future.

摘要 数十年来，在教师教育（teacher education）领域，我们始终围绕关注社会与民众个人生活因新型数字技术（new digital technologies）广泛普及而产生的快速且深刻变革的重要性展开讨论。然而，学校教育领域几乎未有改观，传统教学模式仍占据主导地位。学生依旧更多扮演知识接受者的角色，而非主动的知识生产者；此外，将技术应用于教育场景的尝试，要么被视作威胁，要么沦为难以企及的目标。不过，新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）疫情迫使各教育机构重新审视技术在教育中的作用。本文中，我们将就这场冲击高等教育（higher education）的危机展开评述，探讨其如何推动我们——作为教授与教师教育者——以及各院校自身，深入反思过往的教学实践，并重新构想未来的发展路径。