I teach.
I care about how well my students learn.
I think back on how I teach.
So who's learning?
Students? Yes.
Me? Hmmmmmmm......
After reading Dr Sze's blog entry
"Do teachers become more stupid after teaching for a few years? ",
I've got a flash of idea.
Why don't we learn from the students?
And this is what I'll do:
For the coming 60 days, I will put down at least one thing that I have learnt from my students during the day.
Two months later, let's decide whether I've become more stupid or not.
Given our culture (and I guess in Western societies), it's not easy for teachers to accept that they can learn something from their students. I think this has something to do with how we have been conditioned to define 'knowledge': I am a teacher; I have certain 'knowledge' that my students don't have; they learn this knowledge from me; I don't learn from them.
ReplyDeleteBut if we are willing to expand our definition 'knowledge', then there will be numerous things that we teachers can learn from students. Here is one example. Below is a short list of 'things' I have learnt, and can learn, from one of my MA students, who teaches English and Japanese at post-secondary level:
- the Japanese language;
- her experience in acquiring Japanese: this will enrich my understanding of how people acquire English as a second language;
- her experience in teaching Japanese; this will enrich my understanding of TESOL;
- her decision to go into teaching: How do people make career choices and decisions?
- her teaching materials: HOw do teachers apply their professional knowledge and creativity and experience in designing teaching resources?
- her time management: How can she be so productive?
- her willingness to learn from her students: How do some teachers view teaching?
And this is but only a short list. Now, I hope we're more convinced that we CAN learn from our students.
Paul Sze
Thanks for your comment, and for the inspiring question, "Do teachers become more stupid after teaching a few years?".
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit surprised seeing the list that you put up. Perhaps with a bit of reflection, we can all learn something from our students. This actually resonate with what Dr Law (who taught me action research in the first half of this semester) said.