NIFL-AALPD:670
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From: Catherine B. King (cb.king at verizon.net)
Subject:[NIFL-AALPD:670] Re: Qualities of a good facilitator?
Date: Thu Sep 25 2003 - 13:53:00 EDT
Eileen, Jackie, et al:
Your point is well-taken about things not going as planned and being able to adapt on the spot to gain what is commonly called "a teaching moment." My teachers (in K-12) have told me many stories about NOT being able to take up this call because of the administrative, scheduling, and time pressures in their classes.
Virtually all teachers know what a "teaching moment" means; and we also know when we have failed to develop it. One of my teachers recently told her administrator that, with all the directions and pressures in the classroom, she has no time to develop teaching moments. The administrator knew what this teacher meant, and answered quite seriously: "We don't have time for those any more." I hear this kind of thing more and more.
Of course, teaching is not a factory affair; nor should we aspire to this scenario with children or adults. If we do, we will deserve what we get.
At the risk of sounding pedantic, I offer the following piece from my own classes. Though it is not theoretical, there is good philosophical theory behind it. It relates teaching to medicine and bridge-building:
Just like any other profession, like medicine or bridge-building, a professional teacher knows the theories, and then takes up their understanding of the vast field of applications to develop their wisdom.
Teaching is not different from many other professions in this respect. Knowing the current technology and science behind building bridges is essential; and we all continue to look for better ways to do medicine and to build bridges' and to relate this knowledge to our professionals in the field. Medicine is the same, and many other fields.
And like teaching, there are no two places in the world that are exactly the same to build a bridge--no two spans, no weather, soil and water conditions, etc., and all have to be taken into consideration in EACH TIME AND PLACE before the theory and technology can be applied.
Hence, without a science of applications, bridge-building or medicine, etc., would become a bird without a branch, as it were, and a nightmare to all concerned. And without the on-the-spot wisdom developed through applications, bridges would fall and patients would die.
A science of applications is built around asking the right questions-- on the spot. In principle, it cannot know ahead of time what the conditions are. Teaching is the same here. But it is also different from building bridges because with medicine or bridges, once you get the specified diagnosis, or the data of the span the soil and water conditions, etc., these conditions can be expected to stay the same.
In teaching, some things DO stay the same, and we need to know all we can about those things. However, where with medicine and bridges we are rightly trying to increase the predictability to the en-th degree, much in teaching is completely unpredictable--and should be. Teaching is not medicine for physics; and humans are not bridges; and unlike earthly places and times, our conditions change on a daily basis--and should change. Also, we can set up the conditions for and even predict teaching moments, but we cannot predict what those will consist of. There is the tried and true, but then there are the "surprises." We might say that a good teacher is not surprised by surprises.
This unpredictability makes teaching an altogether different field where all theory, technology, and applications have their own sets of realities that are unique to the field and influence all three areas of the profession. The fundamental difference, of course, is that learning is a dialogue and a concern of human consciousness.
And the differences make teaching a risky business, and a highly honed dialogal art as well as a science where science, applications and art must come together in the teacher in dialogue with the student and where both the teacher and the student are changed by it. And without the teaching moment, the whole thing is defunct.
Administrative puppeteering won't do. It takes the seriousness out of the whole project--and both k-12 and adult students know it and lose their interest quickly. The one on the scene is the one who has to have the authority and the wisdom.
If the above is true, then the job of the administrative order is to (1) understand the structure of the thing and (2) set up the conditions for the teaching-learning moment to happen, including ongoing professional development;and (3) back off and leave the classroom alone as much as possible.
This is all to support Eileen's note: "Some of the most powerful learning happens when things do not go as planned. Sometimes the mark of a good facilitator is not that she counters the unexpected, but that she helps people take advantage of the learning opportunities offered by surprises."
The teaching moment is not a romantic notion. Rather, it's an essential part of education.
Regards,
Catherine King
Adjunct Instructor
Department of Education
National University
San Diego, CA
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