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The Ethics and Order of Teaching

Sun, 7 Feb 2010 09:06:53 -0800

Perhaps one simple sentence captures the whole idea of ethics in my personal philosophy, “In teaching, ethics means putting the satisfaction of the needs and good of students before those of anyone else” (Banner, The Elements of Teaching). This all-encompassing sentence equips a teacher to adequately provide all of a student’s needs. A selfish teacher is likely to struggle with ethical teaching since the core requirement in most ethical beliefs is selflessness. Although the very idea of “morals” or “ethics” more recently has taken a beating by those who consider it subjective and an enemy of our freedom of rights and action, it would be rare to find anyone who would oppose a teacher’s goal of “putting the satisfaction of the needs and good of students before anyone else”.
This call to action first requires a teacher to be a protector. The satisfaction of a student’s own needs surely requires them to be free of physical, social, and emotional harm. A teacher should constantly be aware of his or her student’s welfare and the provokers of that welfare, which is often (yet over-looked) the teacher himself or herself. However, the line of a personal relationship with a student as a protector should not be blurred with an intimate relationship with the student. A teacher must distinguish themselves strictly as a guardian and must be humble enough to realize the impairment an intimate relationship could cause to the student’s own good.
Another key point to ethical teaching is being able to teach, or rather, exemplify ethics. Unethical students often reflect an unethical influence in their life. In many situations, a teacher may spend more waking hours throughout a school year with a student than his or her own parents. In such cases, a teacher should be sensitive to their influence on the student’s moral conduct. A classroom should be a place of justice, fair treatment, social equality, respect, and integrity.
As a Teacher-on-call, I have come across many revelations concerning the importance of order in a classroom. First of these main idea is that discipline is part of order. Though some consider the negative connotations of the word “discipline”, it is not simply rule making and punishment. Discipline is something that should be both imposed on a teacher and by a teacher. It requires careful scheduling, conduct expectations, clear instructions, and a system of penalties as well as rewards. Discipline in this sense, is only established with the use of authority, which as discussed in previous entry, can be skewed with power. Authority replaced by power likely causes discipline to be replaced with abuse. Though physical abuse is long considered taboo in the education system, emotional and verbal abuse can be reflective of a teacher who ineffectively disciplines a student.
Another fundamental idea of order is that students should welcome discipline. Like the displeasure of a board game without rules, so should a student’s displeasure be with a classroom without rules. Like anything being taught, students often need to hear the relevance of discipline to their own lives. The idea of discipline and its invitation is, of course, only enduring if the teacher maintains his or her standards.
Standards are one of the first things to be set by a teacher and should not alter throughout a school year. These standards should always be slightly beyond student’s capacities but not too far that is causes discouragement. The “carrot on a stick” technique helps student’s constantly strive, keeping their focus, all awhile creating order and discipline in the classroom.

Power vs. Authority & Infectious Learning

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 09:16:07 -0800

First off, let us be clear, power and authority are not the same. Authority is awarded and legitimate in its influence on students. It is dependent upon the students for its existence and demands a moral component for its distinction. As a teacher, authority’s acceptance by students is often based on a superiority of knowledge, experience and overall status. Authority’s foundation is in the seriousness they convey accomplished as easily through humor as it is through discipline. Power, on the other hand, is not awarded by students, it is demanded by the enforcer. Though power is also based on superiority, it is not a well-accepted superiority by both parties. Rather than a superiority of knowledge and experience, power’s foundation is often a superiority of stature, size, age, or exertion of force to command a student’s actions. Power is often sustained by fear, while authority is sustained by respect.
Although authority is not a given, teachers must seek to gain it. It is not something that can plant its root halfway through a class; it is often early in the teacher/student relationship when its foundation is made. Teacher’s must create a distinction early with students and should not be lead to expect that authority can be gained by befriending a student. A teacher must remain unbiased and display equal attentiveness to all students. Distinction between students can be accomplished as purposely as dress attire, desk placement, or vocalization or it can be attain by means that seem natural, such as a teacher’s insight in a topic or life experiences, though this natural insight demands a mastery of the given subject.
In order to sustain authority, a teacher should avoid flaunting it or insisting upon it. In fact, declaring your authority among student ironically strips it from you, replacing it with power. Genuine authority is often unspoken of, it is the sense of power that drives a teacher to verbally acknowledge themselves as authorities. Teachers should avoid the appearance of dictatorship in their class and should encourage students to participate in the functioning of the class and create their own environment under your close watch and guidelines. This is what creates a learning environment.
Recently, the phrase “infectious learning” has captivated my teaching paradigm. I considered the implications that infectious learning has on us as teachers. I believe it to mean that we never stop being students. We will hear over and over again that we are to be role models for students because they are always watching us. A sobering thought for teacher is “do I model a thirst for knowledge and what it means to be studious?”
A teacher’s thirst for knowledge in a subject is often more captivating that the subject itself. What are we telling students when our shelves are free of textbooks or when we only become enthusiastic when the subject of sports comes up in conversation? We are saying that the information we have learned and that they are learning is dull and not captivating, and to be certain, boredom is every bit as infectious as enthusiasm. However, it is not just enthusiasm that drives learning.
Learning is only accomplished when the teacher knows what they are teaching. This statement seems pretty obvious yet often overlooked by educators who fail to learn the material beyond what they are lecturing on. For example, a teacher may fulfill curriculum requirements by teaching the Ideal Gas Law is pv=nRT but fails to heighten the learning process if they do not know its implications on everyday events. Mastering a subject means you are able to reveal its relevance to students. Often, students have no interest in learning unless they understand its relevance to them. After all, what good is knowing how to tell time unless you know its relevance to recess break.

On Patience & Character

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 08:56:57 -0800

Patience is the foundation on which most other fundamental teaching elements are built. A teacher who exhausts every technique of teaching and fails has, at the very least, patience. However, a teacher without patience is like a house built on sand, if shaken hard enough, they will collapse. Patience is often the source of which most other virtues are derived. Without patience, learning is difficult. In the book Elements of Teacher, James Banner attains, “learning means being open to the knowledge of others, especially of one’s own student”. An impatient teacher does not consider the previous knowledge of their student; they are simply focusing on what the student must eventually know and what the teacher knows. It is for this reason an impatient teacher finds it difficult to swerve off the track of a course outline. They know where they have to get and get frustrated and confused when someone does not keep pace.
Like learning, authority is also reliant on patience. While authority is partly gained by a teacher’s knowledge and character, it is only fully possible when students give their respect in return. An impatient teacher rarely gains respect with students. Power, however, being a coercive force ties in well with an impatient teacher whose demand is not being met.
Most would not argue that learning requires order, which seems simple but what does order require? Perhaps one of the fundamentals of order would be the implied tranquility in the classroom. Impatient teachers create hostile environments and inhibit their student’s ability to learn. This is why patience is often the last resort for teachers because when frustrations rise, it is all you have. Without patience, you fail not only to teach students the morning lesson, but now you may suffer from an unpleasant learning environment in the afternoon and perhaps the rest of the week.
Patience often stems from compassion. Compassion requires a teacher to take on a student perspective, thus making their demands bearable. A teacher who is able to see through the eyes of a student is slow to grow impatient with them. Compassion also moves teachers to acknowledge a student’s struggle. If a teacher is aware of the struggles facing their students, they do not grow frustrated. In fact, assessing student’s struggles strengthens teaching techniques and sharpens your skills as a teacher.
What does patience look like then? It does not rush through material that the teacher finds “easy”. From the gifted student to the struggling student, it looks through many perspectives. It helps give rise to patience in return, by exemplifying itself. And often, patience is a decision, be it a nagging reminder, for every teacher before beginning a lesson. While patience invites decision-making and may included simple rules, character is not so black and white.
Character is a virtue that cannot be taught to a teacher. No one can teach or even create your character. Character is the result of so many factors that it cannot even be replicated. Every teacher is different and that’s okay. What is not okay is to create a character that is not you. Teachers must be authentic. Why is authenticity important? Unauthentic teachers are not consistent. We are all subject to react in a classroom. Reactions are natural, however, combined with a fake character, they create inconsistency, which is easily seen by the students.
Teachers must avoid adapting another teacher’s character and instead create a distinct, unique individual. With that said, a teacher should also welcome character change. Like every other teaching virtue and technique, character will grow, evolve and mature over time. Above all else, a teacher must learn to adapt, and thus strengthen all elements of teaching.

Imagination and Compassion

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:48:47 -0800

Imagination has a surprisingly effective role in education. While a knowledgeable teacher has much to teach you, an imaginative teacher has much for you to remember. Imagination anticipates the needs and reactions of students and introduces astonishment and stimulation and so, it is often spontaneous. Imagination has a way of playing with knowledge and is capable to making even the dullest lessons interesting. An imaginative teacher is able to illuminate material and stimulate interest in their students before they even reach the material in a lesson. Imagination paves the way for creativity and creativity in lessons create memories. However, imagination is not something in the teacher’s manual, nor can it be found in a textbook. In fact, imagination is probably never part of a lesson plan and so it is a difficult skill to develop as a teacher. Many are born with the ability to light a spark in even the most mundane material while others may loose their students to boredom when lecturing on relevant, interesting material. Does this mean we disregard imagination from our teaching tool kit? While it may be difficult to create creativity (for that task alone involves creativity), we are able to become aware of how dull are teaching habits have made the classroom. Thus, self-evaluation of teaching habits is always a key tool to develop as a teacher.
Another fundamental tool for a teacher is compassion. Compassion is often an instinctive trait of ethics. As educators, there is nothing more satisfying than a classroom full of ethical students. Such a classroom would display respect, care and compassion for one another. Again, a teacher is the best model for students to learn from. Showing compassion for students breeds compassion among students. Compassion is also very related to discipline and authority. For a student, a teacher who disciplines without compassion is not an authority, they are simply a power. Discipline requires compassion, without it a teacher is no more than an enforcer who appears to have no regard to the student’s well being.
Perhaps the first and most fundamental principle of compassion is the acknowledgement of students as individuals. Most teachers can’t help but to get to know their class as a whole, what they are good at, what they struggle with, their likes and dislikes. However, many teachers fail to know individual students in the same way. A very practical way to do this is to quickly learn each student’s name; after all, they know yours. A teacher should also be encouraged to identify how each student differs. This can be accomplished through surveys or simply walking around talking to students before the bell rings for class.
Of course, just knowing who your students are is just a first step for a compassionate teacher. After getting to know your students, a teacher should try to place themselves in the student’s shoes. Empathy for a student’s struggle both in and out of the classroom makes your job as a teacher much more manageable. Knowing how your students learn or what areas they struggle with help reevaluate your techniques and material as a teacher and forces you to alter and improve your habits.
Realizing student’s struggles to correct your teaching is one thing, but acknowledging them as though you understand, underlines what it means to be compassionate. Telling students trigonometry is a hard subject and that you also struggled with math makes you relatable and empathetic. “A student does not care how much you know until they know how much you care”.

Joy and Perfection

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 08:38:37 -0700

Pleasure in teaching and learning is crucial, especially with younger students. Joy and pleasure is the quickest, most direct way to the mind. It is a form of intellectual play, enjoyed by those who have mastered a subject, as well as those are in the process of learning it. As a teacher, we must grow to understand that the majority of students seek, above all else, pleasure. Children’s attention is in the pursuit of fun, while a teacher’s fun is in the pursuit of student’s attention. Therefore, a student will strive to have fun and with any hope, he/she will acquire knowledge along the way. A teacher, on the other hand, will strive to convey knowledge and will, along that journey as well as the outcome, experience pleasure. It is there where knowledge most efficiently takes place.
There is no doubt that a teacher will share the pleasures of funny jokes, social circles and togetherness with the students but overall, that is not where a teacher should seek pleasure. Ultimately, pleasure arises in the teacher’s knowledge that their students have actually learned information from them. Seeing your students grow and accomplish tasks they struggled with previously is the enjoyment and essence of teaching. This observation may be difficult to see along the way but when reflecting on a student’s growth, a teacher won’t have to look much further than beginning of the year assignments to see the ways in which the student has matured.
In his book, The Elements of Teaching, James Banner creates a near perfect teacher by including all the elements he believes a good teacher should have. Of course, how do you compose a checklist for the “ideal teacher” if every teacher is different in the age, school and course they teach? Luckily the elements Banner introduces are not technical elements or the “how-to” s of teaching. Banner’s elements are strictly in character. Much of that character is something teacher’s are born with or accumulate along the way; however, many of the elements are against our natural inclination. The characteristics that Banner lists are not the fundamentals that should be learnt by a teacher, but instead are the fundamentals that should be kept in check by a teacher. These are the traits that we know about yet occasionally fail to see how they relate to our students or how we even reflect them. Teachers must consistently evaluate whether authority, ethics, order etc. are priorities in your teaching and if so, how are they being reflected in your classroom.
I would argue that this “perfect teacher” that Banner paints is unattainable, unrealistic to achieve. As to which, many close colleagues would reply “exactly”. These characteristics are what we strive for with each day, with each student, with each class, knowing that the next day may not entail the same circumstances. And though we may never attain full control of order, compassion, imagination etc., we continue to seek it, knowing that we are growing in our perfection of teaching.