Breaking the Teaching Barrier: Moving from Professing to Teaching

by Heather Theijsmeijer

 

To profess, is to acknowledge something publicly. In reality, anyone can profess, and as professors, it is often tolerated because of one’s credibility. But teaching – to bring understanding through experience – requires more than simply lecturing publicly. As it turns out, the difference between professing and teaching is closely linked with the difference between student learning and student understanding. We can bridge the gap between learning and understanding by becoming better teachers, and understanding the student learning process.

 

Any student, while learning science, passes through three stages: Assimilation, Disequilibrium and Accommodation. As they are presented with new information, science students of all ages first compare it with previously-learned – and sometimes incorrect – knowledge on the subject (assimilation), wrestle with whether the new idea is indeed correct and how it is superior to their previous knowledge (disequilibrium) and finally accept the new knowledge as the correct theory (accommodation).

 

Some students make this transition quickly and smoothly, while many others need more time to explain away inconsistencies between their ideas and reality, as well as connect what they are learning to their current values.

 

It is in recognizing this process that we realize the transition between professing and teaching must be made in order to benefit the greatest number of students. It is also important to recognize the difference between learning, and actually understanding. Almost anyone can learn by rote memorization, however to answer questions such as “what do you think will happen next” or “justify/predict why this happened the way it did” requires a fuller understanding.

 

The mainstay of professing is the lecture. Most would agree that lecturing is perhaps the most common form of teaching that occurs in a post-secondary setting, and there are good reasons for that. Lecturing is very effective at communicating a large amount of material to a large number of people. It is also an excellent way to introduce a topic, and relate the facts and details of a more complex concept or idea.

 

However, if you tend to lecture, you may have noticed that students often become passive learners, waiting for the information to come to them instead of actively reasoning their way through the material. Also, during a lecture, learning moves at the speaker’s pace, and not at the pace of those who are actually doing the learning. Using the above terminology, if a lecturer moves particularly quickly, students do not have the time to assimilate – they are instead forced to accommodate information without questioning or comparing to what they already know. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, lecturing cannot address higher-level thinking skills, a critical part of truly understanding.

 

So what’s to be done? Transitioning from professing to teaching is actually quite easy, and breaking down the “front podium barrier” is the first step. Students who see their instructors as humans who appreciate the learning process, demonstrate passion for their teaching subject and demonstrate commitment to their students are more likely to take an active role in learning. This may include having the confidence to ask questions, helping with demonstrations and going above and beyond curriculum expectations.

 

The front podium barrier that is automatically created while lecturing can be broken down simply by making eye contact, greeting your students (both in and out of the classroom), asking for student participation and including variety in your lessons. There have been many ideas presented on the CASCAed website regarding student involvement and teaching activities (for example, see 7 Habits for Highly Effective Astronomy Teachers).

 

Addressing the higher levels of knowledge (concepts, generalizations and applications) in class engages the students and forces them to take charge of their own learning. One way to do this is to teach using a top-down approach: present a unit centered around a big idea, question, concept or generalization. In addressing this larger concept (which will hopefully get the students thinking), the usual vocabulary, basic facts and details all get covered. In answering the question at the end of the unit, students should be able to use their new knowledge just as well as if they had they memorized it all from the professor’s notes. The difference in the end result here, is that they didn’t just learn the material, they also worked toward understanding it.

 

In summary, switching our viewpoint from professing to teaching encourages us to teach to the whole student, addressing many learning styles and levels of knowledge along the way. This allows us to encourage students to make sense of science using their current ideas, make their ideas explicit by making predictions or stating concepts in their own words, justify their ideas and connect subject matter to experiences. All of which help to bring understanding through experience – the proper role of a teacher.