by Linda Stine
This has been a
particularly difficult week. The week’s writing assignment in my online class, I discovered, had not been explained well enough, as evidenced by the essays students were submitting that
didn’t address the assignment (at least the assignment as I had it in my
mind), so I was spending a lot of extra
time posting explanations and feeling
guilty for making my hard-working students essentially do double work.
Non-teaching duties kept piling up as well, with meetings to attend and reports
coming due and all of the administrative details that nibble away at every
spare minute. I was immediately
interested, therefore, when I happened upon an article on teaching* that
started out, “Have you ever become so frustrated with students and overwhelmed
by your workload that you start questioning what you are doing?”
“I sure have,” I
muttered, as I read further.
The authors,
Candice Dowd Barnes, Ed.D. and Patricia Kohler-Evans, Ed.D, remind us that we
need to “remember and affirm our purpose, acknowledge the contributions we
make in students' lives and professional pursuits, and respect the call or
passion that brought each of us to the teaching profession.” Two of the most important of these
contributions, they suggest, are helping students to think deeply and helping
them to build relationships.
How can we, they
ask us to consider, bring about those occasions of cognitive dissonance that
force students to question their previous ideas and ways of thinking so that they
can enrich, deepen or change them? How
can we, additionally, build the kinds of relationships with students that set a
model for them later in life as they build personal and professional
relationships with others?
I would love to
hear how you have answered any of those questions for yourself. Why do you teach? What kind of activities have you created that
help students think more deeply and critically about the subject you’re
teaching? How do you structure your
relationships with students so that you might provide a good template for
their relationship-building in life after Lincoln? Any thoughts?
*The full article
can be found at
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/philosophy-of-teaching/remembering-our-mission-to-teach/
The first question about "helping students to think deeply" or "What kind of activities have you created that help students think more deeply and critically about the subject you’re teaching?" can easily be answered by philosophy. Philosophy is the only discipline, that I know of, which is specially designed for or dedicated to deep and critical thinking. In fact, deep and critical thinking is the definition of philosophy. Students should be encouraged to take a course or two in philosophy and encouraged to apply it (philosophy to other subjects).
ReplyDeleteAs for the second question about "helping them to build relationships" or "How do you structure your relationships with students so that you might provide a good template for their relationship-building in life after Lincoln?," I am not sure it is worth answering unless it is a course in relationship-building (that one is teaching). The job of a teacher is to teach, and teach well. Whether one, thereby, provides a good template for the relationship-building of students, in their lives after school, is secondary. Teachers, like all others, should try to live a good life. Whether students would emulate their teachers once they graduate, is up to the students. People, you must admit, sometimes prefer to model their lives after gangsters and criminals and have relationships with thieves and dictators. That, I am afraid, is their choice.
Safro Kwame
Good argument for more philosophy majors! I wonder, though, if simply taking the courses is enough to make people think critically. What sort of assignments/activities have you discovered to help students learn to stretch their brains and sharpen their thinking? What can other non-philosophy faculty do in their courses that "encourages students to apply their [critical thinking skills]?
DeletePerhaps a faculty workshop or brown bag lunch about managing burnout/stress or something on time management could be of great utility. Consideration for collaborative projects with one another may reduce some of our individual responsibilities.
ReplyDeleteSo, Dr. Wadley, are you offering to share your therapeutic skills with us and deliver a stress-reduction workshop? (At a professional discount, of course.) If so, CETL would be happy to organize it!
DeleteHopefully more faculty will respond to an invitation to a faculty workshop or brown bag lunch and attend, than respond to a blog. It may be worth trying.
ReplyDeleteQ: What sort of assignments/activities have you discovered to help students learn to stretch their brains and sharpen their thinking?
A: Reading of any of the philosophy classics e.g. Plato's Apology or Descartes' Meditations.
Q: What can other non-philosophy faculty do in their courses that "encourages students to apply their [critical thinking skills]?
A: Incorporate an applied philosophy reading. There is an applied philosophy reading related to almost every discipline, e.g. philosophy of science, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of education, philosophy of law, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of sex, philosophy of religion, philosophy of politics (political philosophy), philosophy of morals (ethics), philosophy of art (aesthetics).
Safro Kwame