Teachers that love
to learn are often the best instructors. They create an excitement in the
process of guiding and relaying information. Through preparation of materials,
research and discovery, the act of teaching is the act of learning. This may be ascribed to the fact that
the teacher must prepare and know his/her subject well, and in the sharing of
that information he/she becomes more knowledgeable. This is the theory and idea
behind the method of teaching that embraces the role of the instructor as a
facilitator rather than the teacher dispensing information to passive
receivers. The goal of the facilitative instructor is to engage students and
stir them with a desire to search out information and share it with others; to
become excited in the task at hand.
While lectures may have a place in learning, teachers need to set-up
their classrooms, either on-line or on the ground to include methods which open
new avenues of exploration and learning.
One method to move
the learning more into the hands of the students involves small group
activities. Although this may not work as well online, success has been
achieved in traditional classroom settings. Malcolm Knowles experimented with this technique and used
“units of inquiry,” to stimulate interest from the students. He set up the syllabus to identify the
objectives of the course and the corresponding units of inquiry. Students chose an area of interest to
tackle. The teacher provided resources and then let the students dig-in and put
together a group presentation of what they learned. The instructor managed the
process of learning; the students learned how to lead. In the process, the
instructor saw they had become more energized in their learning (Knowles, 2005).
Seminars are
considered to be small group activities, where students learn to lead and take
part actively in discussion, according to Bach, Haynes & Smith (Bach, 2007). These can be as large as 25
students and require a space or classroom for meeting. However, this may not
facilitate learning and teachers may need to assist students in forming smaller
groups. Teachers need to
facilitate a good learning experience for students by assigning reading before
they meet, which will encourage group discussions (Bach, 2007). Seminars and small groups are not only confined to
the traditional college campus. Instructors can relay information to the group,
either through email or message boards. It is even possible to form groups in
an online course, using synchronous video and text (Rabe-Hemp, 2009). Online conference platforms that are used in
business for meetings are an option for higher education to encourage group
discussion (Mujtaba, 2004). Smaller groups are more likely to
include everyone’s input, whereas the large groups of 25 may leave students
hanging back and not participating.
One of the
disadvantages of group activities is the lack of availability to get everyone
together. When this happens, the
few students that take the lead end up doing all the work and resenting those
that did not join in. The students left out, have missed a learning opportunity.
This is a drawback in traditional classrooms as well as online. However,
students may be able to coordinate time in virtual space better than a brick
and mortar space. Students meet using a cell phone or laptop. This online discussion can happen “live”
in sync with other students or can be asynchronous, accessing discussion boards
and message boards where fellow students have left information to share (Bach, 2007). Teachers may find advantages to the online asynchronous
seminars. Students are less likely to sit back quietly and let another member
of the group present ideas and do all the work. Bach reports that this type of
seminar “promotes independent thinking.” (Bach,
2007). But even then, the
teacher must take an active part in the discussion and set a feeling of equality
between educator and learner (Tyler, 2011).
It can become an area of sharing thoughts and bringing previous knowledge to a
forum where students feel comfortable contributing. National University uses a program called Class Live Pro
Chat rooms, where students and teachers are involved in a synchronous
environment (Tyler, 2011).
Often students
will benefit from the help of a tutor. On the ground classrooms require the
same coordinating that is needed in setting up seminars or group activities.
Instructors facilitate learning by providing access to outside help in a
face-to-face setting. This is especially true in higher education where class sizes
for freshman students can reach in the hundreds. Students can feel lost and
give up when they do not understand. Instructors do not have the capability to
reach every student. In an online environment, tutoring can be accessed at any
time. Teachers can provide sources where students find help online. This is
where experience in evaluating good sources is important in helping students
learn to solve problems. The Internet has become a repository of good
information and bad. Links to well-done videos that explain difficult concepts
will save the student time. Even though learning to research is an important
student skill, directing learners to the better sources will save their time
and prevent discouragement or wrong information. Bach recommends that teachers “organize the curriculum so
that it reflects problem-based scenarios and is not driven by subject and
discipline-based knowledge categories.” (Bach,
2007) Teachers provide the place to go. Students do not become
discouraged, but instead begin to solve the problems.
One of the dreaded
endpoints of any higher education course is the grade at the end of the
term. It may be argued that grades
are the incentives to just getting the work done, memorizing and even cheating
to get the end-goal of a good grade. This is aggravated by the fact that
colleges are highly competitive, requiring prospective students to spend $1000
in test preparations just in order to get accepted. This spills over into the
classroom, as grade point averages determine which students advance to more
prestigious careers or higher education.
Teachers are aware of competent students who do not test well (Bach, 2007). Alternate ways of “testing” the
grasp of knowledge have always included essays, papers, presentations, and
attendance in traditional classroom settings. Though, some institutions of
higher education have resorted to multiple-choice exams, administered at
mid-term and final. This may ease
the grading for instructors and make their life easier for them, but the
success and excitement of learning may be lost. Methods of grading in the
virtual classroom are being developed and used by National University, where
“students are currently assessed for their performance and subject matter
mastery … from threaded discussions, Class Live Pro chat rooms, midterm and
final examinations, and individual research papers or projects.” (Tyler, 2011). When teachers broaden the field
of testing knowledge to include more than one medium, students that are weak in
one area are still able to excel in others. The instructor then becomes more of
a facilitator than dispenser of information, reaching students with various
learning capabilities, and instilling the excitement of learning.
Many times
teachers are bound to standards that are set by state and federal governments.
This often puts restraints on testing methods and curriculum. One university, Hillsdale College recently
dropped its credential teacher program, concluding, “that it would be wasteful to dedicate precious resources to
an accreditation process that lacked both value and credibility.” (Coupland, 2012). Instead, they chose to
continue an education program to prepare students to become teachers in
settings and schools that did not require accreditation. They “recognized that teacher certification
is not the same as teacher education … the professors in the Education
Department embraced this new freedom and began to think about what teacher
education could be without the ideological straightjacket (i.e., “standards”)
from the state.” (Coupland, 2012). With government very much in control of
most of the schools, many universities will not embrace this. But the apparent
need to refocus on what makes a good teacher an excellent facilitator of
learning is worthy of change. The
private education system may begin to look better than the public system, if
trained teachers with a vision for facilitating learning use their creativity
to foster the excitement of finding new knowledge.
Probably the most
important element of a good instructor is passion, which reaches into all areas
of teaching; “extraordinary
teachers have great passion for their work; they know what to teach, how to
teach, and how to improve.”(Mujtaba, 2004).
Students may instinctively know if
a teacher is bored with his job and only there to collect a paycheck and secure
a pension. Enthusiasm for a
subject is catching, and good instructors get their students excited to
learn. “Effective facilitators of
learning use innovative strategies to achieve the stated outcomes and they tend
to involve students in the learning process.”(Mujtaba,
2004). There is not much an
outside source can do if the teacher has stopped learning. The quest for
knowledge should be at the very core of not only the student, but the
instructor as well. “Mahatma Gandhi once said that you should ’Learn as if you
will live forever, live as if you will die tomorrow.’" (Mujtaba, 2004).
References
Bach, S. H. (2007). Online learning
and teaching higher education. New York: Open University Press.
Knowles, M. H. (2005). The adult
learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource
development. San Diego: Elsevier.
