Teacher Education for Liberating Learning

Education happens in many contexts-at home, among friends, at school, other activities, etc-All of our vital experiences make us grow and mature; some more than others, some otherwise than others. By their ability to make learners experiment many real situations, active learning methods make learning easier, acting as a catalyser and reducing the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical skills. They allow the full development of the person using some natural impulses-discovery, experimentation, meeting diversity, etc. This sort of experiential learning enhances a practical approach when coping with new or unusual situations. In the 21st century this is an asset for everyday life. People do not learn only at school, but also outside. We test and we also learn about life through our body, our senses, all our emotions and sensibility. The educator, as a facilitator, has a key role to support this situational learning process-which makes him, indeed, a tutor. As talent liberators, these pedagogies want to help young people discover and develop their full potential to find their own path of life. Many educational trends have developed strategies for learning beyond traditional school curriculum. The child or learner is no longer someone into whom knowledge is poured; he becomes the master of his own learning. The child becomes the one who develops his multiple intelligences: he himself can choose what he will learn. Thus, through active teaching, he will choose not just for himself but also for and with his community of peers-sharing projects, organization and action. This vision of the human being-often found in the new pedagogies-wants to make the child or learner meet his own reality. Recent evidence also indicates that reforms of teacher education creating more tightly integrated programs with extended clinical preparation interwoven with coursework on learning and teaching produce teachers who are both more effective and more likely to enter and stay in teaching.