Jon, thanks for sharing those successful methodologies. I really like the idea of having succinct yet interactive slides, supported by comprehensive textbooks.

Personally, I would rather to be an active listener during the courses which are of my fields of interest.
This is not the same case for many other courses which I’m somehow forced to take, though 😉

Exactly! I believe what really matters is to make students asking questions and helping them out to answer those, rather than just giving them the answers in the beginning.

Thank you for your post and for pointing out that our teachers need to be paid more. I do think that providing higher compensation for teachers in a generally great thing (and needs to be done), but I also want to point out that I don’t necessarily think it is a cure all. I think most people will tell you (reading the comments I feel like this is the case) that the best teachers are the ones that teach because they care about their students and love educating. They are willing to go above and beyond to make sure their students learn and are generally willing to sacrifice for that goal (their time, energy, effort). Yes, increasing teachers’ pay likely makes this sacrifice feel more appreciated (and maybe encourages others to go the extra mile), but in my opinion it takes a special person to do the things needed to be a special teacher.

Increasing salaries may attract ‘smarter’ people, but do ‘smarter’ people make ‘better’ teachers? Are people who are only interested in teaching because of increased pay the type of people who will sacrifice and be motivated to go above and beyond for someone else’s education? I can’t say for sure that they will be. (Granted, it also might motivate current teachers to try harder – which would be a benefit)

Yet again… I think teachers should be paid more. Full stop. But I also don’t think having people primarily motivated by money is a great foundation for becoming educators and strictly increasing salaries doesn’t, imo, foster the mindset needed to be a great teacher.

Regarding the idea about being smarter = better teachers … I don’t always think that is the case, especially at the K-12 range. In fact, I feel one of the most underrated aspects of teaching is understanding why someone doesn’t understand (the so called muddy points) and I feel that the smartest among us struggle to see why ‘you’ don’t see things like ‘I’ see them. It’s hard to explain how to solve an ‘easy’ equation (or question) when you can’t or don’t understand why someone doesn’t think it’s ‘easy’.

Maybe this begs the question… can we all be great teachers? Is being a great teacher something you can teach?

Dear Dr. Nelson,
I appreciate your comment and thank you for your suggestion.
I really miss, what you said, “really reading.” As of now, I am trying to follow your suggestion and seeking to connect what I read to my previous knowledge so that I try to raise my own reading in the class. In that way, I can “sometimes” catch work-life balance in my Ph.D. life.

To avoid the depression factor I’d recommend Eugène Ionesco.

Hi Sara,

Thanks for reading and commenting!
I am “trying” on that too in the class that I am teaching this semester. After we watched Dr. Micheal Wesch’s TED-talks for our class, I started showing this video in my class in order to have a discussion about “real learning” and their learning process. I asked my students to write a prompt for me about these “big questions” (Who am I, Why am I here, Am I going to make it?), while being aware of how difficult is to answer them. Yet, most of them made really valuable self-reflection on them, some of them appreciated that I provided this opportunity to them, some of them came to my office to talk about their anxieties for their futures. I am glad that I could apply what I learned from this class to my own class and I have been able to build some connection with them. In the same vein, in my yesterday “international relations theory” class, instead of asking “what are your takeaways from the previous class” and forcing them to memorize main tenets of theories, in order to make them aware of “different perspectives,” I assigned them to different groups, each of them represents different theory, and asked them to apply their specific theory to a topic that I provided. Then, we had an incredibly lively discussion as they could respond to other groups’ argumentations while they unconsciously internalized theories in this kind of simulation. Yet, this is not enough for sure, I am thinking to provide something to improve their “own mindful” learning process in terms of “being present” and “alertness to distinctions.” Honestly, this is also my own struggle. I hope I can take something from our today’s class.

Thank you for the comment Mattew. I agree with you.memorizing and actually understanding the subject matter is two different things. memorizing equations won’t give the proper understanding of the subject matter.

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Thank you for the comment, Angelica. True, It has become a habit for most of us jut to look it up whenever we need and whatever we need. and yes it will be super frustrating if we don’t have internet. I guess that’s why we need to get used to both the internet and books. Because the internet is efficient but books also do the job.

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Pallavi, many thanks for your comment! I hear your neo-liberal critique in academic, where any knowledge is subject to measure in term of quantity, which leads us to compare our productivity according to how many conferences we are “able” to go, how many journals we are able to write. You are absolutely right in saying that how this shapes our perceptions and lives in which we feel ‘insecure’ and even sometimes ‘inferior.’ Thanks for your thoughts!