My class is filled with inspired and passionate students who come ready each week to share their experiences working in the ECE field with others. It is at times, an exhilarating experience to be in a room surrounded with adult students who enjoy the exchange of information and experiences that are shared by their classmates.
Aside from recognizing that they all come from different backgrounds; both culturally and socio-economically, there is a common thread amongst them of a desire to learn and a desire to give. This by itself has been immensely rewarding to me as a first time professor. I am wondering if it has happened because of this particular mix of individuals or because I set the tone for them in the manner in which I embrace teaching. Whatever combination of the two ideas, I appreciate it and them.
As I read the other entries in this blog, I see that many of you share specifics about the practice of teaching that you find relevant. For me, the emotional and social construct of working with others is the most important aspect. As we determined with children, they will all learn to read and write in their own time. But, will they all learn to be kind, giving respectful contributors who are open to the ideas of others, willing to play and share nicely? The answer is not necessarily, unless they are provided with role models for whom doing just that, are received as valuable skills to master.
Mentor teaching is one of the most important jobs we can hold as an educator. Each one of you does it on a daily basis, whether you are teaching Math, Music, Science, or Child Development classes. You share your enthusiasm with your students for the subject you teach, hopefully because you not only excel in the subject matter but also because you enjoy the discussions and helping students to understand its specifics.
Every class experience opens a new door for me, and what I learn from my students and am reminded about in human nature and human development are the gifts that I take away.
I’m going to confess that I struggle with this. I believe that our intellectual contributions, and our desire to help students understand our discipline, is at the heart of what we do. Some teachers excel at the emotional and social aspects of the job, but others do not. This does not mean they are not offering students what is needed – rather they are emphasizing the intellectual. In my field, which is a transfer field, this is very important since that is what students are most likely to encounter at university.
Hi Lisa,
There is no doubt that the intellectual curiosity that adults seek is incredibly important and in helping adult students meet their educational goals, there is a due process in learning. I’m simply stating that providing the perspective of delivering information or messages to students whether they are children or adults , in a reciprocal manner often gets us to the place we want while achieving our goals. At least that’s been my experience in working with children and adults over the last twenty plus years. Thanks for sharing your experience with me.
Reciprocal is a great word – thanks for the clarification. (And my apologies for your comment being in the moderation queue – I thought WordPress would let authors comment without blocking.)
Oh, no worries. Have a great rest of your week!
Very interesting discussion. I would suggest that intellectualism and emotional considerations– learning to be kind, ,sharing nicely– could go hand in hand. Deborah Tannen, Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown, talks about this very issue in her book The Argument Culture. She expands on the idea that our society has “become overwhelmingly adversarial.” She traces the origins of such confrontational discourse to the education system, explaining how this male-dominated, logo-centric ethos of this system has created classrooms in which intellectualism is synonymous with one’s analytical abilities to constantly question assumptions, poke holes in others’ arguments and generally just attack– see the conversations of the academic journal discourse. For her, such a system may help knowledge grow in any given field, but at what cost? She claims such an approach in the classroom has a heavy cost– to the human spirit. Sure, individuals may get credit for being logically correct, but what happens to respectfulness, empathy, and consensus? She advocates other approaches…moving beyond dualism (i.e., no only two-sided debates, etc.), playing the ‘believing game’ instead of the ‘doubting game’ (trying on another’s ideas), among others. In sum, for Tannen, intellectualism is inextricably linked with a more pathos-heavy view of the classroom. If interested, here’s a link to a one of her pieces: http://courses.knox.edu/FP-Denial/Tannen.pdf
Diggin’ the conversation,
Tony
Thanks Tony, for the feedback. It takes both sides of the fence to create a learning environment that is strong in all areas. I appreciate your insight and thoughts on social/emotional/intellectual development and I will check those sites you mention out. Thanks again!