Teaching, learning and unlearning

Well here's a thing. I don't feel too bad now about not being the erudite, educated genius I sometimes feel I ought to be.

Turns out the way I was taught was one of the least effective of all : by relentless dictation from teachers who seemed as bored witless as every one of their students and who couldn't wait for the whole torturous forty minutes to be brought to a merciful end by the bell.*

It was, I now know, a Pedagogical approach. The kind of one way, sausage factory style that looks on learning as a way of hammering facts into young heads and nothing more.

Which has led to another realisation; that the way you taught has a direct influence on the way you teach.

Not in the way you'd expect, by making you determined that the learners in your charge should on no account suffer the same drab experience. But in an subconscious repetition of the past.

It explains why, on occasion, I've felt as though I've short changed a class for 'only' speaking to them for the first twenty minutes of a three hour session!

Because, in my experience, that was what teaching was..

So note to self... out with the blather, in with the interactive engagement, visual stimulus material and all round Androgogicalness. (I'm really getting to grips with the jargon, too!)

It's only week three and I've learned a lot of things - and unlearned one very important thing - already...

* With the exception of Mr Seaton, of whom more in subsequent posts

In at the shallow end (with armbands on)

After enrolment and familiarisation, our first group session and assignment proper. The subject?

'What makes a good teacher.. and a good teaching session'.

As you might expect, the themes were pretty consistent from group to group. Variations on Engaging, Empathetic, Confident, Enthusiastic, Inspiring, Articulate, Authoritative, Patient, Respectful and Interesting seemed to sum up all our memories of good teachers past.

Other more inspired observations included 'Challenging the thinking not the thinker' and 'Teaching the class AND the individual'.

Individuals with all these qualities are, of course, few and far between (which is why we probably all remember the teacher from our past who embodied them) and I was interested to read an advice column in the TES Online today that suggested succesful teachers aren't necessarily brilliant in all areas, but play successfully to their strengths.

So perhaps that's another one for the 'Good Teacher' column: 'Playing to your strengths'

A good session, from a learner's point of view, was deemed to be Memorable, Interactive, Challenging, Rewarding, Involving and Interesting. All the better if it was also well structured, clear in its objectives and offered variety.

Interestingly, there was a brief debate in our little group about whether an Engaging teacher automatically made for an Interesting session. In other words, was it possible to engage a class purely on the strength of your personality and enthusiasm, at the expense of the subject being taught?

Yes, probably was the concensus. So another lesson learned: You might be in the spotlight, but the star of the show is always the subject you're there to teach.