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Re: Teaching by the unqualified



I worked with a wonderful man who took exactly this attitude, Henry Newson
at Duke. He was originally trained as a chemist, but became a nuclear
physicist and the director of the accelerator lab at Duke. Whenever someone
said something he didn't understand or said something he knew was wrong he
would ask them to explain it. He would say "I am only a chemist so you will
have to explain it to me". Now there is a good line.

Unfortunately students prefer to be told all the answers. I have had
parents say that I am the authority so I MUST tell students the answers.
This puts me in an awkward situation because they are actually paying the
bills.

Incidentally I took over my current job because the previous teacher, an
excellent biologist could not stand the students' attitudes. She had
trouble with the physics and the students unmercifully ragged her and called
her incompetent. They drove her out. When I took over and tightened the
screws they again did not like it. On the end of semester evaluation they
had the gall to say they wished her back. However I was very successful in
pushing them to think for themselves rather than just sit there and receive
information. She actually was not well qualified to teach physics.

Unqualified can have another aspect besides not knowing the subject. Not
knowing how students think and what to do about problems such as
misconceptions is also a form of being unqualified. Unfortunately a major
in the subject usually does not qualify teachers to address these
pedagogical issues. Teacher training may sometimes be helpful, but usually
it is not. Classroom practice often does not help either. Teachers who
know the science facts and just teach them in that fashion are actually not
completely qualified. I suspect that a teacher who is unqualified in the
subject but uses inquiry methods will actually end up doing a better job
than one who knows the facts well, but does not understand good pedagogy.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX



At 20:26 -0700 2/10/02, SSHS KPHOX wrote:

Kids can respond well when invited to be part of the learning team. Sad
the teacher who feels he must know it all. Even today if a
student came to
me with the idea that 0.99999999...= 1 I would have to ask how they knew
that and if they could prove it to me as I am not sure. I am always
pleased when one of my students can and will teach me something. So are
they.

I really think that is an important part in being a successful
teacher. If learning is truly a life-long experience, then it only
makes sense that the teacher should be learning along with the
students--not necessarily the same things the students are learning,
but a certain level of overlap isn't all bad, and if done with the
proper good humor, even a lot of overlap can work.

It seems to me to be the kiss of death to try to con the students
into thinking that you are the font of all knowledge, and that if you
don't know it, it isn't worth knowing. The students will detect
almost immediately that this is bluff and can make your life
miserable for it. Ken's last two sentences above are one of the most
important lessons a new teacher can learn.

Hugh
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