When I first started student teaching my preconceived notions of what a teacher does and what the student is responsible for was really skewed. I though that the teacher's job was a one-man dog and pony show where he/she creates a specific learning atmosphere to which the students respond positively (with emotion, or sensation, or Spirit, or all of the above) and walked out of class as a better EDIFIED person: a daily EFY experience of sorts.
Now that I have a few years under my belt, and I am starting to catch the vision of effective teaching, I realize that the student is just as much responsible for their own learning as the teacher is for his well planned presentation. Simply put, if the student's motivation is ego involved or performance oriented or help avoidance hindered then real meaningful lifelong learning cannot take place.
If I as a teacher can create a classroom environment where students feel safe to share personal experiences and feelings and ask appropriate questions concerning their own salvation or standing in the gospel (whether the question is directed to the teacher or to the peer group) then the application from the lesson, as Piaget would say, becomes lasting in its effects. However, regardless of the characteristics of the instructor, whether he is snore-boring or completely eccentric or the master teacher who gets it right every time, the students NEED to have a desire for content mastery, stay task-involved, and apply it to lifelong learning. Elder David A. Bednar once shared that "[a] teacher can explain, demonstrate, persuade, and testify, and do so with great spiritual power and effectiveness. Ultimately, however, the content of a message and the witness of the Holy Ghost penetrate into the heart [and not just unto the heart] only if a receiver allows them to enter" (Seek Learning By Faith, Feb 3, 2006). Thus the student controls their educational destiny starting with their attitude for learning.
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Marc
ReplyDeleteYour point of the responsibility of the learner is a very true. Until a learner wants to learn there is no way a teacher can force them to do so. So for education to take place it does require both the teacher do the best they can and the learner to strive to gain what knowledge they have. They can learn from bad teachers if they just put in the effort. Even if it is nicer and more benefical to have a great teacher.
Diana
You made an excellent point about a student will not learn if they do not want to. I have not been a teacher, but as a mother I know how true this is. Unless my girls wanted to do something no amount of bribery, force or pleading would make them do or learn it. They are now older and wish they had taken the opportunity to learn in school when it was given to them.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree about how your classroom has be to an open enviroment to share and ask questions for understanding. If this happens then students do what is best for them and not someone else.
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