Teaching in the moment: educational experience in the age of tomorrow

The purpose of this paper is to examine, from a curricular perspective, fresh ideas emanating from the USA that have potential to improve educational settings across the globe. As such, this conceptual undertaking begins by arguing that little attention is being paid to the quality of present experiences in schools and classrooms. Stated differently, there is too much focus on tests, standards, workforce development and college readiness. Subsequently, educators are ignoring present experiences, which in the authors’ view may lead to mis-education rather than education.

To assist the authors in understanding this problem, as well as remedying it, they examine John Dewey’s ideas about experience generally and his notions of continuity and interaction in particular. From there, the authors argue that to delve deeply into present experiences, educators might use ideas found in aesthetic and ecological education. They elaborate upon each based on their prior research into a style of aesthetic education called CRISPA, an acronym that stands for connections, risk-taking, sensory experiences, perceptivity and active engagement, and a mode of ecological education called ecological mindedness.

The authors suggest that educators use CRISPA. Further, they argue that attention be paid to ecological care, interconnectedness and integrity.

The authors believe that workforce development and college readiness are important goals, but to achieve these goals, as well as any others deemed important by educators in their local contexts, we must focus on the quality of present experiences for both teachers and students. Only then will we have an education worthy of the appellation.