"The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself."
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton (author of the oft quoted and parodied "It was a dark and stormy night....")
Assuming some degree of agreement, what are some steps to attaining this?
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Some steps in attaining this ideal would be to offer choices to your students instead of assigning something that must be completed. Another way would be to be open to suggestions, flexible when something else would work better, and to show a willingness to listen, even if the suggestions offered are not taken. It is always easier to relate to someone who is inspiring and polite, than to someone who is vehement and set in their ways. If your infect your students with a will to accomplish the goals set, without constant harping, then that is an important part of becoming an excellent teacher. I like this quote since it requires thought on my teaching style and since it made me think of ways I could improve.
I agree with Mollia, in that, by giving choices to your students you are not being dogmatic. The students will feel more empowered in their own education. I also think that one major step that you can take to attain this goal is to be enthusiastic about your subject matter. If the students feel like their teacher is really into the subject, then they might think that it is something worth doing. If a teacher isn't enthusiastic then the students might figure, why bother?.
Choices provide empowerment. Also, place based lessons make teaching real world for students. Finding ways to incorporate the community in the classroom and the classroom into the community can be strong selling points for learning.
Our reading in Burke suggests that education is not given, picked up, or found by students; rather, it is “constructed.” The student builds the knowledge—not the teacher. Ideally, teachers would introduce students to material in a manner that convinces them to independently engage themselves. The teacher would be out of the way. Students could use the teacher as a mentor who helps them in focused arenas. An inspirational teacher excites students with the desire to learn.
The dogmatic teacher bores. We've all had them, and their memories are often conjured in the School of Ed when discussing “bad teaching”: those teachers who've used the same lesson plans for the last 30 years. These teachers recite their own knowledge, which itself, after so long, atrophies to the bare bulleted points and catch phrases the teachers dose. They seemingly exist only to recite the same lists, facts, and figures year-to-year until long after the lesson's currency has died. Two solutions: keep it interesting and current.
A substitute teacher walked to the front of my mentor's room today, and within a minute of her talking, the student (theatrically) and I (silently) wanted to revolt. The class is a 10th grade English class for low-achieving students, many of whom are holding onto school with only a fingernail. They're smart and active, but they can be very rude and uncooperative. The substitute began, “Shakespeare...was one...of the most...influential...writers...of his time” in the driest, lowest, most boring tone possible. Of his time? Of our time! Of all time! One student laughed; another said, “Oh, my God!” in as dry of a voice as hers. Shakespeare has never seemed so dead to me as just then. Within seconds, it was painfully obvious that there was nothing in the lessons of interest, and the clicking of cell phone buttons could be heard.
Although I've only been in high school for a couple weeks and am a novice, it didn't take long to realize that every moment of that Classics class would have to be engaging. Instead of parading students through Statford-on-Avon to Shakespeare's grave, the teacher should unearth him, slap him to wake him up, and leave him to have a conversation with the students.
My thoughts are pretty abstract; I don't offer many solutions. I am also being unduly hard on a substitute, but such approaches to teacher ought to be sought out and destroyed. Lesson plans should not preserved in formaldehyde. They should target the students of 2008 and 2009 and 2010. Recitation by a teacher will, at best, lead only to regurgitation by students.
The same lesson that succeeds for one class may fail for another. There are so many variables in teaching that it boggles the mind. However, there is no substitute for preparedness and planning, not to mention the ability to be flexible and teach in the moment. Old lessons that become stale need to be removed or at least "refreshed" on a regular basis. Much of the "selling" of a lesson, though, is in the delivery.
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