On April 3, 2014, Pacifica Institute was honored to host Mr. Terry Walker, Superintendent of Irvine Unified School District (IUSD). Before joining IUSD, Mr. Walker was a commercial real estate broker, and didn’t begin his teaching career until 1997 and in 2011 he became the superintendent. In additional to his business experience, Walker holds two masters degrees, one in Education Administration Leadership and the other in Educational Technology Leadership.
The evening began with Mr. Walker’s quote from Aristotle “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to consider an idea without necessarily accepting it”. He shared how technology and Common Core, is the new method of teaching and learning in the 21st century for IUSD. He touched on how the world has been changing, and as the world changes, we need to adapt to the changing world. Meaning we need to bring in new teaching and learning methods, as well as new technology into the school system. We also need to learn what is not working, and focus on what is. Walker also mentioned that the capacities required to succeed in the 21st century have dramatically evolved, and that we too must evolve in order to provide an education that prepares our students for the future. Education has to align with what students’ need, in order for students to thrive.
Superintendent Walker pointed out that for the last 100 years, the primary focus of education has been to memorize the “right answer” and to the extent that a student can regurgitate or compute the right answer, we label them as “intelligent”. Instead, he stated that teaching and learning methods need to shift to a deeper conceptual form. Students need more time to understand concepts versus memorizing answers. They also need to use more creativity and innovation. Schools need to leverage technology to integrate to the modern times, as well as leverage teacher talents, maximize class time, and implement more inquiry based teaching and learning methods. Parent, community and school involvement are needed to support our students in preparation for future education and career readiness. Mr. Walker ended the program with Q & A from the audience.
Pacifica Institute would like to thank Mr. Terry Walker for an informative afternoon and all the guests for attending.
