April 9, 2019, by atylp

Teaching, you know what that is….right?

The Joys of Philosophy

I made it to my 09:00 lecture yesterday!

And that still wasn’t the biggest shock of the day. Once again, I learned that nothing is straightforward when it comes philosophy!

The lecture topic appeared simple: ‘What is ‘Teaching’?‘.

Oh, how naive.

To give a taste of Notts philosophy, I thought I’d share the lecture with you!

So, what is teaching then?

Easy! Teaching occurs when a student is provided with information and learns from it, right?

No, that would be too straightforward . Imagine the following….

Emma is a driving instructor. She’s explained and demonstrated to Bob how to drive. She’s done everything possible to teach Bob. But Bob simply hasn’t learned.

Even though Bob hasn’t learned, it seems that Emma has taught him, doesn’t it?

If so, learning doesn’t have to occur for teaching to occur….

Intention

Okay fine, Bob didn’t learn. But Emma was teaching because she intended to bring about learning. So intention is required for teaching!?

Hmm, again no. Imagine the following…..

An actor arrives at a school. He thinks he’s on set, reading lines for a movie. However, he’s accidentally in a real classroom. He delivers the script, and the children learn.

The actor didn’t intend to bring about learning. But, it seems he taught the children something, right?

  Therefore, intention isn’t required for teaching!

Is there an answer?

Tallant & Fisher to the rescue!

Nottingham philosophers, Tallant & Fisher, provided a definition of teaching that accommodates both of the above scenarios.

According to them, teaching occurs simply when a student judges that they’ve been taught!  (Provided that the student is in a reasonable position to make a judgement e.g. sober)

Does this seem accurate to you?

Let me know in the comments!

 

Find out more:

1) Fisher&Tallant Paper – http:tallantfisherteachingpaper.co.uk/nottingham

2) Notts philosophy page – http:nottinghamphilosophy.co.uk/nottsuniforum

3) @nottstwitterphilosophy123/@nottshumanitiestwitter321

 

 

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