Today I attended an all-day workshop to teach me how to teach. Teaching is a lot like counseling--you meet students at their level, you provide structure in the first meeting but remain flexible, but there seems to be a fundamental difference.
As a therapist, I consider myself empowerment-focused. I try to neutralize the inherent power deferential between myself and the client. I enter their world, and we collaborate to find solutions. Minimizing the power difference helps clients find their own answers.
In the world of teaching, power is different, perhaps because my job is to help people master concepts, perhaps because I will evaluate them on how well they do it. I think also keep hearing that for undergraduate classes, a great deal of structure and boundaries are needed. It is important to establish myself as a professional right off the bat, thereby increasing rather than decreasing the power deferential. (For grad students it is different.)
But I'll probably still sneak some empowerment-focused activities into my undergrad teaching, teaching how to fish and so forth. This is my first semester as the primary instructor.
I'm excited about wearing this new hat. I think it will look good on me.
No comments:
Post a Comment