Nina Merkel international consultant on education and Nina how has the paradigm of the classroom

changed recently let's say what about the roles of teachers and students very good question back when
education really came into play was the 1800s and the education system was like a triangle and today
the system is more like a circle so in the olden days what we had was there was a teacher that was in the
front of the room and all of the students were looking at the teacher

it was very much a tell and what's happened now is it's more of an ask and the teacher is becoming
more of a facilitator of learning and the students are in a circle versus in a triangle listening to somebody
tell them something in the front so the Barret paradigm is switched from this triangle to the circle in this
context do you prefer the words teacher professor or facilitator oh it's a good question really good
question because when I think about education I think there's a role for a time for a

teacher to tell and so there's a role for teaching and then I think when I think about professor I think of
somebody that's a bit more wise more of a coach or a mentor and when I think about a facilitator it's a
facilitator of learning and that sort of encompasses all of those things that are occurring so if I had to
pick one I'd probably pick the facilitator I think that what we're doing is creating an environment for
students to be self-motivated and speaking of environment what is a fertile environment for

learning oh my goodness well look at this place Guatemala is probably one of the most fertile places I've
ever been I have worked with 55 different countries all over the world and what I've noticed at UFM is
the ability for you to take new ideas and just run with them you are risk takers you have gotten the
ability to say let's question the status quo and let's go beyond what we think is the normal paradigm and
try something new and different so when I think about fertile ground I think about U of M and all things
all

these things considered is it possible to motivate students to learn oh my goodness well all motivation is
self motivation so therefore we cannot motivate the students to do anything it's within their values
within their system their beliefs their ethics all we can do is create an environment for them to be self-
motivated so the question for teachers and professors and Dean's is how do we create this new
environment again with the environment who owns what happens in the environment so there is a
100% responsibility for both the teacher

and the student so they both own it how does the process of learning is like a path through the forest as
you have mentioned before in other occasions okay so somebody's been telling you about my recent
experience here in Guatemala when I first arrived I was a I was invited on a walk through the forest and
it became apparent to me that that's really what's going on in education today that as teachers and
professors we are walking in the forest and we are coming to a fork and we need to be ready to go either
way so that we

might take the high road we might take the low road but our students are going to be that the choosers
of this they are going to be the ones that tell us what they need and we must be prepared and in the
classroom we tend to value the student who participates actively but what about the process of
reflection which looks like it's no participation yes okay so we've been doing a lot of talking over the last
couple of days about this that there are people that are introspective theorists or reflectors as far as
learning styles are
 and then there's those activists are those pragmatists that are more extroverted that we seem to like
because they're talking a lot but what we've found when I've done a lot of research around the world
with CEOs is the majority of people that find themselves in top leadership positions are actually those
that are more introspective that those that that aren't speaking are actually listening so as professors
and teachers we must take advantage of this moment and realize that we have all of the people

in the room and we must do things for everybody that's in the room we must create activities we must
cater to each of these individuals with their different learning styles and that all of us have all of this but
we have a dominant style that will come out during the course of a lecture or a time with when we're in
class does that mean in a way to be in pathetic with the students very much so empathetic is probably
the key word this ability to be genuine and to be empathetic and understanding that we're all coming
from it from different

angles we have our own dominant style and they have their own Dominus style we have been taught in
a certain way that we like we teach in a certain way that we like but there's somebody that needs
something different in the room and we must be aware of it and allow for that to occur and therefore
open up the inter genius in each of the people that are there from from the point of view of the teacher
meaner what is the relationship between content knowledge and the process of sharing discovering and
creating knowledge well one of my

favorite things to talk about is that the quality of the content has got to be good but the engagement
which is talking about the process how do we go about getting the students engaged those two things
together create the transformation of a life of a person and so you can't just think about the content
anymore you must think about the process and that engagement of each and every one of those
different individuals to be able to transform a life so that these people can be all that they could possibly
be

finally individuals and groups are different and also generations of students are very different people
have different learning styles is it possible for a teacher to cater to all well this is very interesting and one
that we've been talking a lot about in the most recent days and I think part of it is what do we do with
this limited attention span you know some call it the Millennial or the generations II Twitter problem this
this is a conundrum for us so how do we do something that will excite them within 12 minutes before we

lose them and how do we use technology in the classroom rather than fight it so getting the students
involved but with using their phones in the classroom is one of the ways to do it just knowing that they
have more information at the tip of their fingers than we ever did and so the problem and the challenge
for professors now is really about they've got the information but they've got to make the connections
they've got to be able to analyze and come through with some conclusions and that's where we can

help you know how do you have a favorite class experience among many while I've been here hope yes
well I'll tell you one of the things that I've found to be the most exciting thing is working with your Dean's
and with the professors and now many of the teacher's assistants are coming through my class on
facilitation and collaboration and it's been so exciting to see everybody excited about new techniques
that they can use so I would say my time here has been the most wonderful so thank you for her

and have you ever been disappointed in a class experience oh sure I mean the wonderful thing about
when you are working with large groups you never know quite where it's going to go and so when a
disappointment occurs it's it's giving you a lot of information so with me it's creating an event so that
somebody could have an aha moment and if it falls flat that's information for me as well so it's as its as
valuable if not more valuable when then when something goes well Nina thank you for sharing with us