Nicely said as usual. The control of what is seen as worthy teaching has been developing for a while, since about 2000 when John Howard described what was acceptable in reporting. I keep hoping that the hierarchy will realise that teaching is first and foremost an interpersonal context, a dialogue between teacher and student, not a cold application of 'science' in a classroom of robots. One of my favourite quotes about teaching was 'and the tutor smoked at us till we understood', obviously from a different time but highlighting the value of dialogue.
Great to hear your thoughts Mark! I was wondering whether you might be able to elaborate more on the meaning of that quote? I think I get what it's saying but can't be sure!
With such a desire in policy for great sounding initiatives, rather than those that might make a valuable impact, it seems unlikely that we will see a change. This is partly my desire to research more from an "on the ground" perspective. Policy is another beast altogether as far as I'm aware.
As I write, I wonder if teacher non-compliance could be a way of beginning dialogue with policy-makers...Another post for another time.
Hi Tom, In my experience, teachers 'non comply' all the time. They tend to do what they think is right, not strictly what they are told, unless they are explicitly checked on. In general this non-compliance is fine except that it also means avoiding new ideas and changing ideology and that can be a problem with teachers who stick to what I regard as dysfunctional ideologies, such as over-controlling behaviours. In my Science department with up to 20 teachers, I didn't control what they did but I controlled the environment in which they worked to 'nudge' them towards my preferred ideology, then I spent a lot of time debriefing them about their classroom observations, again to explicitly ask them to reexamine their ideologies.
WRT the quote, it came from an old English literary piece of Oscar Wilde vintage. I've long lost the original piece but the quote stuck. It actually means that the students and tutor sat together, maybe over a meal, maybe while the tutor smoked (but not necessarily) and discussed issues, a light hearted, friendly, relaxed, mutual intent to understand an issue, rather than a didactic approach. The 'smoking at' implied a gentle nudge towards understanding derived as much by the student's own thinking as the tutors words.
Love this. That theoretical physicist and philosopher seems like a smart guy! Being willing to ask the questions and then listen, 'the softening up, the opening of the mind, and looking at all the opinions', that's the hard part particularly when "my" opinion is different to "yours". This includes opinions that are informed. I know I can find that hard at times anyway.
Thank you as always for the encouragement Jason! David Bohm is quite an impressive character, I would suggest reading On Dialogue if you can find the time. Hard to wrap one's head around in parts, but a really valuable read.
It can be so difficult! But there is a sense that if we cannot dialogue, we are not even allowing the possibility for understanding, responsibility, empathy, morality or transformation to happen. Really important in a world that simply wants all the answers, desires guaranteed outputs and pushes for continual "growth".
Nicely said as usual. The control of what is seen as worthy teaching has been developing for a while, since about 2000 when John Howard described what was acceptable in reporting. I keep hoping that the hierarchy will realise that teaching is first and foremost an interpersonal context, a dialogue between teacher and student, not a cold application of 'science' in a classroom of robots. One of my favourite quotes about teaching was 'and the tutor smoked at us till we understood', obviously from a different time but highlighting the value of dialogue.
Great to hear your thoughts Mark! I was wondering whether you might be able to elaborate more on the meaning of that quote? I think I get what it's saying but can't be sure!
With such a desire in policy for great sounding initiatives, rather than those that might make a valuable impact, it seems unlikely that we will see a change. This is partly my desire to research more from an "on the ground" perspective. Policy is another beast altogether as far as I'm aware.
As I write, I wonder if teacher non-compliance could be a way of beginning dialogue with policy-makers...Another post for another time.
Hi Tom, In my experience, teachers 'non comply' all the time. They tend to do what they think is right, not strictly what they are told, unless they are explicitly checked on. In general this non-compliance is fine except that it also means avoiding new ideas and changing ideology and that can be a problem with teachers who stick to what I regard as dysfunctional ideologies, such as over-controlling behaviours. In my Science department with up to 20 teachers, I didn't control what they did but I controlled the environment in which they worked to 'nudge' them towards my preferred ideology, then I spent a lot of time debriefing them about their classroom observations, again to explicitly ask them to reexamine their ideologies.
WRT the quote, it came from an old English literary piece of Oscar Wilde vintage. I've long lost the original piece but the quote stuck. It actually means that the students and tutor sat together, maybe over a meal, maybe while the tutor smoked (but not necessarily) and discussed issues, a light hearted, friendly, relaxed, mutual intent to understand an issue, rather than a didactic approach. The 'smoking at' implied a gentle nudge towards understanding derived as much by the student's own thinking as the tutors words.
Love this. That theoretical physicist and philosopher seems like a smart guy! Being willing to ask the questions and then listen, 'the softening up, the opening of the mind, and looking at all the opinions', that's the hard part particularly when "my" opinion is different to "yours". This includes opinions that are informed. I know I can find that hard at times anyway.
Love reading these posts.
Thank you as always for the encouragement Jason! David Bohm is quite an impressive character, I would suggest reading On Dialogue if you can find the time. Hard to wrap one's head around in parts, but a really valuable read.
It can be so difficult! But there is a sense that if we cannot dialogue, we are not even allowing the possibility for understanding, responsibility, empathy, morality or transformation to happen. Really important in a world that simply wants all the answers, desires guaranteed outputs and pushes for continual "growth".
Thanks for the continual support!