What would it look like if we completely reimagined the classroom? Carole Basile, dean of the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University, has been working on an answer.
During her keynote speech at the 1st General Session of AASA’s national conference on Thursday, Basile explored the ways in which our education system is failing students and teachers — and why thinking outside of the box might be the solution. Drawing from over 30 years of experience in higher education, Basile argues that team-based teaching models are the blueprint for the future.
Through the Next Education Workforce school staffing initiative, ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation is creating a new kind of classroom, in which students aren’t forced to rely on a single teacher for all aspects of their education.
Basile explained that public schools have been dealing with staffing shortages for years, leading to burnt-out teachers and unchallenged students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 86 percent of K-12 public schools in the U.S. reported issues hiring teachers for the 2023-24 school year. That number is likely to grow. A 2022 survey by the University of Chicago found that fewer than one in five Americans would encourage a young person to become an elementary school teacher in the future.
“The work is often overwhelming. It's repetitive and it's isolating,” Basile said.
While some schools have resorted to lowering their hiring standards, bringing on teachers with shorter and shorter resumes, Basile believes this approach is only a temporary band-aid. It doesn’t make the work any easier, while students suffer the consequences. The real solution, Basile said, lies in collaboration.
The majority of K-12 public schools currently operate in a similar fashion. A group of 100 3rd graders might be split into four different classrooms of 25 students, with each room led by a different teacher. These groups will remain separate with each for most of the day, leaving teachers to teach a wide variety of subjects. For teachers, lesson planning, activity preparation and instruction all take place alone.
With a team-based learning approach, on the other hand, all 100 students would be the responsibility of all four teachers. If one educator excelled at teaching math, they could lead the multiplication unit, while the teacher with an English background could handle the reading curriculum. One teacher could provide one-on-one support for a student with behavioral issues, without leaving other kids unattended.
Basile told the crowd of educators that the program already has seen success. The Next Education Workforce has implemented their team-based models in 143 schools across 17 states, where early surveys indicate greater teacher retention and job satisfaction, along with slightly higher reading scores.
The models aren’t one-size-fits-all, according to Basile. But neither are kids. She told the AASA conference audience that in an education system that caters toward “the average student,” we sometimes forget that no such thing exists.
“It's OK to fail. But we have to give people permission,” Basile said. “To achieve truly inclusive excellence means understanding the difference between rules and high expectations. Bad rules should be broken.”
(Emily Topping, a freelance journalist in New Orleans, is a reporter with AASA’s Daily Conference Online.)
