May 2, 2019, by apylt
Are your teachers teaching you well? You can decide…
TEACHING.
It’s a simple word, and after all these years at school you think you know what it is right?
Wrong!
I’ve just finished an interesting lecture questioning what teaching is, and I’m going to give you a taste of what philosophy at Nottingham is like…
1. What is teaching?
You might think if a student learns something in a classroom that they’ve been taught. Imagine Isabell, a guitar teacher, has tried to teach Adam to play to the best of her ability. Despite this, he hasn’t learnt to play, so teaching hasn’t taken place if he hasn’t learnt anything.
We can rule out learning as a factor in teaching.
Instead, you might think teaching has happened if the intention of the teacher is there. If Isabell really wanted to teach Adam, then she’d be teaching him right?
Not always, teaching can take place without intention. Isabell may have been practicing and Adam could have learnt something from watching her.
We can rule out intention as a factor in teaching.
2. So what does count as teaching?
Philosophers Fisher and Tallant have an answer!
Teaching has taken place when the student themselves judges they’ve been taught. It’s up to you! Judgement-depdendent teaching is based on the student’s evaluation of what’s taking place in front of them.
There is one catch: the student needs to be in ideal conditions to judge, such as an academic environment or fully focused. So if you’re falling asleep in your 9am lecture, you’re not in the right conditions to judge your lecturer!
Let me know your thoughts on teaching and if you’re going to be judging your lecturers when you get here: @PhilosophyAtNotts (twitter)
To find out more visit:
www.philosophyatnotts.co.uk for philosophy at The University of Nottingham
www.teachingbyfishertallant.com for more on this topic
GIFs sourced from Facebook.com
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