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发信人: haven (避风港), 信区: AdvancedEdu
标 题: How to be a good TA(2)
发信站: BBS 水木清华站 (Tue May 12 21:45:12 1998)
1 The big picture: Some different ways to think about
teaching and learning
Welcome to Working At Teaching. Whether you are a first-time TA
trying to figure out how to teach, or a more experienced TA trying
to improve your teaching, you're likely to be devoting a great deal of
attention to classroom dynamics, fairness in grading, and other
mechanics of teaching. This section of our handbook, however, will
help you approach your role as a teacher from a more theoretical
perspective. Before beginning a consideration of the "nuts and bolts"
of teaching, it may be useful to take a moment to reflect on how
your students learn, what role you as a teacher play in that process,
what sorts of goals can guide the techniques you choose in your
teaching, and so on.
This section presents several models that characterize the process of
teaching and learning. If you've already taught, you've probably used
some of these teaching styles, whether or not you were aware of it.
If you haven't yet taught, you'll probably do so instinctively. The
point of this section is to help you be more aware of the choices you
make as a teacher. By taking the time to uncover some of the
assumptions at work in different teaching methods, you may find you
have more options available to you than you expected. You may
discover ways to facilitate a learning environment that never
occurred to you. This is an opportunity to consider various possible
relationships between you, your students, and the material presented
in your class.
What follows are selective examples of attitudes towards pedagogy.
They are not the only ones, but they are probably the most familiar.
They may represent a useful background against which to
understand your own attitudes. They may also be useful in
underscoring the historical specificity of different attitudes towards
pedagogy.
1.1 The Socratic method: Learning as remembering
The Socratic Method regards students as already knowing what
they only appear to learn. The art of teaching largely involves asking
your students the "right" questions-questions that will make them
realize that they already possess the answer. Socrates assumed that
his students had a common stock of ideas already within them. The
function of the teacher according to his model, therefore, is to help
the student tap into those ideas.
Discussion of a novel in an English section may rely, consciously or
unconsciously, on the idea of learning as remembering. Students
may have read it, but not synthesized or fully understood it. The role
of a teacher in such a setting can thus be to ask questions and foster
discussion that will engage students with the issues of the book, and
help them grasp the ideas the reading has already stimulated in them.
While the Socratic Method has been criticized for its assumption of
the existence of universal truths, it can encourage a sense of
self-discovery in your students.
1.2 John Locke: The student as a blank slate
According to Enlightenment philosopher John Locke, students are
tabulae rasae-"blank slates" to be filled with facts and skills. This
model minimizes autonomous and independent initiative on the part
of students, who are expected to conform to the material rather than
to adopt a role in shaping it. The greater responsibility of learning
lies in the hands of teachers who must convey facts in an accessible
manner. This model may describe the atmosphere in introductory
classes in many disciplines. Both lecturers and TAs may present the
basic categories, assumptions and facts of the field as
non-negotiable. The facts are made to appear absolute, regardless
of how students finally succeed at comprehending them.
The Lockean Model can been criticized for what seems like a
contestable assumption-that there are certain facts out there to be
discovered or learned, and that these facts speak for themselves.
However, the Lockean model does provide an efficient way to
communicate information that is new to students, ultimately giving
students a common starting point for discussion and analysis.
1.3 John Dewey: The "facts" are in the interpretation
In the early part of this century, John Dewey theorized that there is
no such thing as a bare "fact." A fact can only be what it is by virtue
of the interpretive framework that informs it. On this more
interactive, or social, model of teaching, it is students who ultimately
teach one another different interpretive strategies in the face of the
same material. Your students come to understand material both in
light of personal experience (and the insights that come from it) and
in light of the experience and insights of their peers. The role of a
teacher, therefore, is to facilitate positive social interaction between
them. This model may initially appear better suited to the humanities,
where the material may seem more readily subject to continual
reinterpretation than, say, the sciences. However, it is now
well-accepted that scientific hypotheses are no more than the
commonly accepted interpretation of observable data as defined by
a the community of scientists. Therefore, scientific data is also
subject to interpretation and evaluation according to how it fits into a
social context. For instance, if students cannot always produce the
same data that lead to the commonly held scientific view, then they
must suggest alternative explanations to account for the variations in
their own lab results. They may learn equally from the successes and
difficulties encountered by their peers.
While the Deweyan model has been criticized for its relativism, it
nevertheless encourages students to think critically and to consider a
variety of viewpoints.
1.4 The Reproduction model: Society as a function of
education
Dewey also stressed the distinction between "education as a
function of society" and "society as a function of education,"
recommending the latter as the better model for pedagogy.
According to the Reproduction model, education is understood as a
crucial link in the establishment and preservation of society's
structures and values. You as a teacher and Yale as an educational
institution are thus understood, on this model, as vehicles for
transmitting a body of codified knowledge and values that society
wishes to perpetuate. At the same time, the Reproduction model
advocates a heightened awareness and flexibility on the part of
teachers in dealing with their positions of power and authority. It
urges teachers to constantly negotiate their authority, even to
relinquish it when possible. The model then ironically suggests that
this relinquishing of authority may itself play into a reproduction of a
value system in the classroom.
The concerns of the Reproduction model have appeared in recent
debates between those who favor a traditional Western canon and
those who advocate a more multicultural redefinition of the
university's mission. While what we do as TAs is not always directly
a part of these debates, a flexibility toward your discipline's canon,
and a reflective awareness that its underlying assumptions are, or
may seem to some to be, arbitrary, may help students who feel
alienated from the traditional canon to engage more personally and
critically with the material.
While it may be criticized as being dismissive of traditional
institutions, the Reproduction model has the merit of forcing us to
consider the essential role that education plays in structuring the
world we live in, and to reconsider how we as teachers influence the
sort of social change that may be possible or even conceivable.
1.5 Where does this leave you?
You may not be in a situation to decide which of these models you
find most appropriate. You may find yourself at various points in
your teaching career adopting one or another of these approaches,
or some combination of them, as the material you teach shifts, as
your students change and as you mature into your role as a teacher.
No one model will always be right, but the ability to take a few
steps back every so often and consider things from a theoretical
perspective may be helpful.
You will certainly find as a teacher that students learn
differently-some learn best by one method, some by another. They
also approach courses and material with various educational goals in
mind. Therefore, Working At Teaching recommends that you
experiment with a variety of teaching styles and methods over the
course of your teaching career. Teaching assistantships provide a
fine opportunity to experiment and even to take risks in the
classroom that may enhance learning.
Pedagogy continues to be a lively locus of controversy and
discussion, both at a practical level and at a theoretical one.
Working At Teaching is committed to fostering both pedagogical
pluralism and a spirit of theoretical awareness. Regardless of the
approaches you choose to embrace, it is worth remembering that,
as a TA working at Yale, you cannot help but be part of an
ever-shifting landscape of ideas and attitudes about your role as a
teacher.
--
世情推物理，人生贵适意，想人间造物搬兴废。吉藏凶，凶藏吉。
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