I have been in teaching profession since 1988, when I started my teaching career as an instructor in a Medical School as Physiology Instructor. I was mostly a behaviorist using chalk and board, and then slowly upgraded to using overhead projector and powerpoints.
"I know, I will never strike the right balance between being credible and authentic because no such perfect balance exists.......I know I will never connect with everyone's preferred learning styles 100 percent of the time because the diversity of my students' personalities, experiences, racial and cultural traditions, and perceptual filters (as well as my own personality, racial identity, learning style, cultural formation, and professional training) make that impossible."
It has been my challenge all the time in my 20 years of teaching where I have taught almost 1000 budding doctors. But it is a sense of relief for me the first time that someone is talking about it in his book (Brookfield, S. D. 2006). We had a variety of students who came under various reservation quotas. Their level of interest and motivation to become a doctor was diverse above all their diverse personality traits and cultural background. I always thought that I was such a failure for those students who joined the medical school against their own wish but their parents pushed them to this "noble" profession. It was not a small class and my schedules were jam packed that I could spare much one-on-one time to counsel such students or pay extra attention in my spare time.
Another truth was that "I could never judge correctly when I should intervene to help a struggler student and when I should leave him/her to find him/her own way through the learning challenge."
I had to go one day at a time and keep patience. Though the instructor is always at a powerful position and can chose to take non-emotional decisions in evaluations and care less about how much the students are motivated to complete their course; especially in a class of 50-75 students when there is a pressure to complete the curriculum in required time frame. But here comes a humanistic approach which also varies instructor to instructor depending on the personality how deeply one cares for the students. I always felt that my role is not only about how well I can lecture in the class, if my voice is audible or not , whether I can my points clear enough about the content validity and reliability of the subject knowledge, but on the flip side of the coin of perfection, I am a motivator and I am responsible to see the students engagement also and to see how well my students are learning especially in a profession where they will be dealing with human lives after their graduation. I have always felt the pleasure as well as pressure of ethical and moral responsibilities towards each and every student I have taught. I still remember calling and waking up some of my students on the exam days when they did not show up 15 minutes before the exam starts which was the reporting time.
I often took peer support in the class, pairing such students with the buddies who could be good motivators for them. I also took support from my colleagues and tried switching my lectures with 50% of my class time into small group discussions and giving my tough students to the more experienced teachers of our department. Sometimes those students could correlate with them better. Our ultimate goal as a teacher is student centric that at the end of the semester, we wish to see our students succeed.
"I know, I will never strike the right balance between being credible and authentic because no such perfect balance exists.......I know I will never connect with everyone's preferred learning styles 100 percent of the time because the diversity of my students' personalities, experiences, racial and cultural traditions, and perceptual filters (as well as my own personality, racial identity, learning style, cultural formation, and professional training) make that impossible."
It has been my challenge all the time in my 20 years of teaching where I have taught almost 1000 budding doctors. But it is a sense of relief for me the first time that someone is talking about it in his book (Brookfield, S. D. 2006). We had a variety of students who came under various reservation quotas. Their level of interest and motivation to become a doctor was diverse above all their diverse personality traits and cultural background. I always thought that I was such a failure for those students who joined the medical school against their own wish but their parents pushed them to this "noble" profession. It was not a small class and my schedules were jam packed that I could spare much one-on-one time to counsel such students or pay extra attention in my spare time.
Another truth was that "I could never judge correctly when I should intervene to help a struggler student and when I should leave him/her to find him/her own way through the learning challenge."
I had to go one day at a time and keep patience. Though the instructor is always at a powerful position and can chose to take non-emotional decisions in evaluations and care less about how much the students are motivated to complete their course; especially in a class of 50-75 students when there is a pressure to complete the curriculum in required time frame. But here comes a humanistic approach which also varies instructor to instructor depending on the personality how deeply one cares for the students. I always felt that my role is not only about how well I can lecture in the class, if my voice is audible or not , whether I can my points clear enough about the content validity and reliability of the subject knowledge, but on the flip side of the coin of perfection, I am a motivator and I am responsible to see the students engagement also and to see how well my students are learning especially in a profession where they will be dealing with human lives after their graduation. I have always felt the pleasure as well as pressure of ethical and moral responsibilities towards each and every student I have taught. I still remember calling and waking up some of my students on the exam days when they did not show up 15 minutes before the exam starts which was the reporting time.
I often took peer support in the class, pairing such students with the buddies who could be good motivators for them. I also took support from my colleagues and tried switching my lectures with 50% of my class time into small group discussions and giving my tough students to the more experienced teachers of our department. Sometimes those students could correlate with them better. Our ultimate goal as a teacher is student centric that at the end of the semester, we wish to see our students succeed.
I absolutely agree with this truth, "It seems to me that classrooms can be thought of as arenas of confusion where teachers are struggling gladiators of ambiguity. Just when we think we have anticipated every eventuality, something unexpected happens that elicits new responses and causes us to question our assumptions of good practice. Yet admitting to feeling unsure, realizing that our actions sometimes contradict our words, or acknowledging that we are not in control of every event is anathema to many of us."
References:
Brookfield, S. D. 2006:The Skillful Teacher on Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom. Jossey-Bass: A Wiley Imprint (2nd Edition) P: 9-10
