The first time Mary Burns faced a classroom was in Jamaica. She had just left university. Her “mission” was to teach 35 secondary school students enough French to pass their A-level exam. None of them passed. Now she knows why: “I had mastered the art of teaching,” she says. “I had the personality. I liked the children. It was fun. But I had not mastered the scientific part. And the science behind good teaching is the most important thing.” This anecdote, which Mary recounts in an article on the Education Development Center website, marked the beginning of a career in education, first with children and then with teachers.
“We lacked training. We were left in those classrooms, just like that, and we were expected to teach.” Mary decided to change this and set to work. After 10 years of teaching in schools, she started to focus on training teachers. And so she has been bringing “the science of teaching” to teachers all over the world for almost 30 years, from Russia to Namibia and Lebanon, via several Latin American countries.
In all this time, Mary has accumulated plenty of science. And her innate “art” has only grown, inspired by the dedicated teachers she has encountered along the way. In recent years she has become a leading expert in integrating technology into teaching practice. And that is what she came to talk to ProFuturo Observatory about from Portugal, where she is spending some time as a guest lecturer at the Paula Frassinetti School of Higher Education.
In the conversation, together with Magdalena Brier, general director of the ProFuturo Foundation, they talked about technology, education, teachers and the future. For example, what skills a teacher needs to have in order to teach with technology. Or what the main obstacles are that teachers encounter in doing so (and here’s a hint: it’s not their desire or lack of expertise). They also discussed the future of digital education. Finally, we didn’t want to let Mary Burns get away without her offering some advice for teachers who are just starting to introduce technology into their classrooms. Don’t miss it. You can watch them in this video.
