By becoming a learner herself, she was able to understand a little of her students' experiences. What we construct ourselves is what we own and understand. It is hard for teachers to change. Fails listed a number of reasons that point toward teacher professional development. To move from traditional to contextual learning, teachers need new equipment, new strategies, new expectations, new skills and new roles.
Teachers have to learn how to ask different questions.
With contextual learning a teacher's role is to guide, discuss, create an environment, question, listen and clarify. A student's role is to explore, investigate, validate, discuss, represent and conduct. And both teachers and students have to learn together. There is wide acceptance of contextual learning but there are many obstacles to overcome before it is widely accepted in classrooms across the country. It is integrated into the latest secondary textbooks, supported by leading educational writers, endorsed and included in the standards from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the American Association of Community Colleges.