"You say you're a 'realist,' this professor fired back. "I say you are
not! Is it realistic that you don't lecture or give tests? What do you do to
give them a grade? You're an out-of-touch romantic if you believe that
students will learn anything without lectures, tests, and grades. Where's
their motivation otherwise?" After a few more less than nice sentences came
the defensive attack, "And don't tell me how to teach! I don't even need your
advice! I've been in the classroom for twenty-five years. I know how to
teach...."
I answered, "In the light of the latest research on learning, it is
realism to ask if there is a mismatch on our campuses between what professors
do and that the recent brain-based science of learning knows they should do.
It is realism to ask whether there is a basic contradiction on our campuses;
that is, too many professors are forward-looking when it comes to their
discipline, are backward-looking when it comes to teaching. It is realism to
question the long-held supposition of the 'if-then,' 'carrot-and-stick'
contingent reward and extrinsic motivating force of tests and grades. It is
realism to ask whether Taylorism and Skinnerism are outmoded. It is realism to
ask whether tests and grades motivate students to learn or only motivate them
to get grades. It is realism to ask if learning is synonomous with scores,
grades, and GPAs. It is realism to ask, as Carl Rogers did a long time ago,
whether we really can motivate or even teach others, or whether we merely
facilitate their own motivation and learning. It is realism to ask whether we
academic are in the 'people business' as well as the 'information transmission
business.' It is realism to ask if we professors should be nurturers or
weeders. It is realism to ask if there is more to a higher education than
professional credentialing. It is realism to figure out how to apply the
finding of Carol Dweck's 'mindset,' Carl Rogers' 'student-centered learning'
and 'unconditional positive regard,' Richard Boyatzis' 'resonant leadership,'
Haim Ginott's 'congruent communication,' Peter Senge's 'personal vision,'
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's 'flow.' Robert Brooks' and Sam Goldstein's
'resilience,' Teresa Amabile's 'progress principle,' Clayton Christensen's
'disruptive change' and 'sustaining change,' Ed Deci's 'intrinsic motivation,'
Daniel Goldeman's 'emotional intelligence' and 'social intelligence,' Leo
Buscaglia,'s 'love,' Howard Gardner's 'multiple intelligence,' Martin
Seligman's 'authentic happiness,' and I can go on and on and on.
It is realism to have a strong perception that you can significantly
influence but not control what happens in someone else's life. It is realism
to understand, as Haim Ginott said, you have the power to create the climate in
the classroom, to be a pathological or therapeutic influence. It is realism,
then, to exercise "Tender Loving Care" in order to create a "Therapeutic
Learning Classroom." It is realism to know that aloneness, loneliness, and
strangeness are education hazards. It is realism to know that supportive,
encouraging, empathetic, kindly, friendly, believing, hopeful, and loving
connection can provide educational nourishment. It is realism to know that a
sense of purpose can increase the potential for success. It is realism to know
that autonomy and ownership can increase achievement. It is realism to know
that serious fun and meaningful enjoyment are the antithesis of debililtating
boredom, not work." It is realism to struggle with using all this new-found
knowledge.
It is realism to acknowledge that learning is a process of unlearning
for both professor and student. It is realism to have a strong perception that
you can control what happens in your life. It is realism to assume
responsibility rather than assign blame. It is realism, as Kristen Neff said,
to possess "self-compassion." It is realism to exercise a strong sense of
self-control rather than surrender it to others and/or to some entity called
"the system." It is realism for us to replace our own negative or stagnant
"fixed mindset" with a positive, dynamic "growth mindset," and show students
the way to do the same. It is realism to have a true, reflected upon,
articulated purpose. It is realism to follow a sincere and honest path rather
than faking it. It is realism to have a true passion.
"As for telling you how to teach, I plead not guilty. I even plead not
guilty to giving advice. All I'm doing is relating what the hard sciences are
discovering lately about learning, what the ramifications might be for our
current approach to teaching as well as our teaching methods, how that
knowledge has changed what I feel and think and do, and how I apply those
findings."
"Let me ask you. Why are so many of us academics, who thunderously
tout objectivity, so doggone defensively subjective? Why are so many of us
seemingly afraid of venturing into new ideas? We should be more frightened by
the hold old ones have on us! Why do we continue to breed sacred cows instead
of slaughtering them? Why does the loud mooing of these herds drown out the
latest neuroscientific discoveries about learning with mistaken habits, myths,
beliefs, excuses, tradition, and ignorance? Why is it that the emphasis on
education as a "people business" has been condemned as "soft" and "peoplely"
when while it is people oriented, it has never been soft. And, why is it that
when the supposed "soft, peoplely stuff," is hardened by the hard scientific
evidence in response to the call for "hard evidence," it is still not enough?
Why are the results of such studies cast aside with a host of rationalizing and
defending and excusing and rejecting "I've been teaching for X number of years"
or "In my humble opinion," or "I believe" or "It has been my experience?" Or,
worst of all, there is that student sacrificing excuse, "I don't have tenure."
"Applying Clayton Christenten's concept of "sustaining change" to
academia, the only facts about teaching and learning most academics accept as
true are those they already subjectively recognize and accept, which are
emotionally satisfying and self-serving, which seem to validate what they are
already doing, and which they perceive as comfortable and safe; other facts,
when cited to contradict their private truths, feel the full brunt of sarcastic
condemnation as "touchy feelly" or "dreamy" or "feel good" or "peoplely" or
"fluff" or "non-professional" or "subjective" or whatever. Again, it seems so
contradictory that so many of us proclaim ourselves to be "objective" while
subjectively disregarding objective scientific findings. Whatever the reason,
all they are doing is reflecting their academic "it's always been done this
way" or "this is the way I've been taught and look at me" outlook. Most people
just don’t want to or can't tear down what they help build and in which they
live. Yet, the inability to renovate creates a resistance to change and
stifles creativity, experimentation, innovation, and adaption--and excitement.
That's why my ex-governor, Zell Miller, a history professor, astutely observed
that it's easier to change the course of history than a history course."
"I'll continue this discussion if you wish, maybe with a focus on
Clayton Christensen's concept of 'disruptive change' and 'sustaining change.'
But, right now I'm off for two weeks of rotten spoiling of my two California
grandmunchkins."
Let me wish you and your's a deeply sincere merry, happy, and all that
stuff."
Make it a good day
-Louis-
Louis Schmier
http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org
Department of History http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\
/\
(O) 229-333-5947 /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__ / \ /
\
(C) 229-630-0821 / \/ \_ \/ / \/ /\/ / \
/\ \
//\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\/
\_/__\ \
/\"If you want to climb
mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole
hills" - / \_
---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected].
To unsubscribe click here:
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=14940
or send a blank email to
leave-14940-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
