Teaching in the traditional sense has been viewed as a one way street of knowledge transfer from teacher to student. In some cases, students have been so conditioned to be absorbers of knowledge and not active contributors of it. On the other hand, we encourage students to help their peers because if they know how to explain the concept to someone else then 1) they fully understand the concept and 2) they’re learning the concepts better as well. So why don’t we think the same for the teacher-student relationship?
In the three semesters I’ve taught freshmen I’ve learned just as much as they have. My learning experience was different from the content that they learned in some cases, but as I prefaced to my students during the first semester “this is my first time doing this so we’re gonna learn together”. And I think that’s an important thing to state in the classroom.
Freire lists a few things that describes somewhat traditional (and slightly toxic) teacher-student relationships. -relationships in my opinion, shouldn’t still exist today. When reflecting on the environment I try to set for my students I think about the avenues in Paris. There are 12 large avenues that leads to Place Charles de Gaulle, the traffic circle home to the Arc de Triomphe. If my instructions are to meet at the Arc de Triomphe and I teach you about the easiest way I know how to get there via the Champs-Élysées, why should I stop you from getting there via the other 11 avenues if the goal was for you to reach a particular end point? Now there may be specific instructions that I’m looking for you to follow to demonstrate your knowledge of particular concepts (ex: initializing variables versus user input of values used in coding) but outside of that my motto is “as long as it works”. There is more than one way to skin a cat and to add to the number 10.
In the process of becoming a more independent instructor this semester I’ve learned a lot about things that worked in my class and things that don’t. I understand why certain policies were put in place versus just being told to do so because it’s “what we’ve done”. And I tried to make the same experience for my students. They probably know some upperclassmen who have had a diffferent experience in this course than they’re currently undergoing. And because I as the teacher had more autonomy over my course my students in turn were able to have more autonomy over their learning. And for the new things I tried this semester – we all learned new things together.
There will always be a time where learning is a one way street – usually in the beginning where there’s a clear indication that one person knows more than the other on a particular subject matter. However, one-way streets makes it difficult to briefly revisit information if only the driver (teacher) knows that we’ve missed the destination. Try to recall directions to a place you went to when you weren’t the driver. After a certain point in time, we as teachers need to let go of the steering wheel and alllow our students to be able to take the wheel of their education (because like in driver’s ed, we’ll be in the passenger seat with one hand on the parking break!). Learning is an active process with a two way street of knowledge transfer. With each new group of students I get to teach I have to learn and adapt my approach for what works for them and there’s always someone who teaches me how to do something better than how I’ve done it before. And once I feel that they’ve reached the point to get behind the wheel, I let go a bit to let them discover for themselves. Sometimes we don’t give our students enough credit for figuring things out – we should do so more often.
Thanks for you post! I enjoyed your metaphor and reading about your experiences. As someone who has yet to teach a class, I hope that I can remember your advice and experiences and I enter the classroom in the near future!
Racheida —
First and foremost, your blog is so impressive! I want to ask how you did about five different things. And then, this post! As someone who is “directionally-challenged” and always relying on my GPS, I love the extended metaphor of trying to navigate the Parisian avenues. This idea that there’s other people along the way who know just as much, or more, is especially relevant as we consider pushing our students toward problem based learning!
Hey ask away! I’m always happy to help 🙂
Love this post! I admire how you related teaching to driving and especially relating it to driving in Paris! Such a great analogy. Its great that you were able to change up the course you are teaching, alot of my teaching experiences as been just to follow a syllabus that has been given to me and I did not have the chance or opportunity to change. So its great that you tried new things and both you and your students learned together. I’m sure your students appreciated that you were honest up front stating that this is your first time teaching this and that you were excited to learn together, we need to be that honest with our students. The level of respect will definitely be there with our honesty in the classroom. I hope to have the opportunity soon to TA and mold a course similar to what you have been doing!
Thanks for this post! I appreciate how you shared with your students that you would be learning together, as it was your first time teaching. I am finding that I am learning no matter how many classes I have taught or guest lectures I have given. Learning is indeed a two-way street – sometimes even feels like a multi-directional street! Your post has given me some other things to consider as well.