I’ll show him/her
I believe one valuable concept related in this course so far was the idea behind not speaking down to students and not portraying oneself to be all knowing. Besides the fact that there is always someone with more intelligence with one subject or another, I believe it establishes an instant adversarial class room component. It can establish an “I’ll show him/her†state of mind that can resonate not only with one class but within an entire program. I for one strive to avoid this by recognizing that learning is a life-long process and students do have insight into subjects that I may have not considered.
David,
Thank you for these comments because the reflect what we can learn from our instructors. My students constantly share with me different experiences they have had that I am able to learn from and share with others. This is part of what makes teaching so much fun.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Being in the medical imaging field almost 20 years makes me feel like I have seen it all (which I haven't!) but also makes me feel "above" my students. I occasionally ground myself by asking what they have learned at their clinical sites and discovering that they are experiencing things that I've only read about in the medical journals!
Candace,
I agree with you about how much we instructors can learn from our students. It is amazing what life experiences our students bring to class. Never boring as an instructor that is for sure.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I love the idea and the practice of student discussions. As an instructor, learning what the students are thinking is a great tool. I make sure the students feel my class is a "safe" place to share feelings and experiences. It is truly amazing what is shared.
It also keeps the student's interest during a long class lecture time.
Tom,
Being a mentor to students is an important part of being an educator. The more respect you can earn from the students while showing them respect the greater the rapport is going to be throughout the course.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I frequently encourage students to relate experiences on the subject matter and quite often find that it does ,as you said, result in great discussions and sharing of knowledge.Many times I have learned new things about my area of expertise or as a class we have researched new ideas and concepts.
I also believe it is necessary to show respect to the students for their life experiences. I try to behave as mentor and not an authoritarian.
I have found that the students learn a great deal from each other. I often ask a student to relate an experience of theirs to the class. This often brings a lively discussion to the class as well as a good learning experience.
Michael,
You make a very good point for instructors to remember about how to interact with students. Many of our students have had extensive life experiences so the more we can capitalize on them the more engaged these students will be. As a result we will not get into an adversarial situation.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
