I really liked “It is true that sometimes we teach unconsciously by just influencing students by who we are. But to become that person who can teach students unconsciously, the person needs to be trained.” I think whether we like it or not, just by standing in front of a class or facilitating, some students may look up to the instructor as a role model. I think educators need to recognize that they themselves have to demonstrate good character and professional ethics. This may require “training” and a good amount of self-reflection. Great post!

So the food analogies continue! And I like them. I would say that sometimes education could be an acquired taste. Students may not respond well to something an instructor does at first, but slowly over time, they may change their minds. We probably have all had courses that we disliked while taking it, but then in retrospect, thanked ourselves for going through with it because we learned something. And I’ll take you up on your cooking offer =).

Hi Sara, thank you for sharing! I enjoyed reading your takeaways from this course, and it’s good to see you being so optimistic about bring innovation to the classroom. I’m still trying to figure out how I can implement some of the techniques for teaching engineering classes; perhaps traditional methods aren’t so bad…it’s really up to us to determine what might work best. This week’s readings, along with Miguel Andre’s and Ethan’s posts, also got me thinking about student character development. It seems we have some more work to do in fostering not only critical and creative thinking but also empathy and emotional intelligence. Part of it is what you mentioned about being able to gracefully agree/disagree. Again, great post!

I’ll have to look more closely about the statistic that engineering students have the lowest levels of empathy. It’s definitely alarming, but I am not surprised either. For a profession that has to deal with many different stakeholders, and where communication is so important, one would think empathy holds a higher place in education. Instead, anything remotely bordering on “feelings” is not discussed. (See Ethan’s post on GE complaining to RPI about the quality of “human beings” graduating from engineering.) I think there is a need for engineering education to emphasize communication, and not only “engineering communication.”

Really nice pictures! I think you hit the mark in that learning takes place over the course of one’s entire life, and perhaps learning how to learn should be the goal of teachers in helping students. The paintings you’ve shown could not have been possible without the artist making the effort to self-explore and to venture into different styles. We as students also need to explore – whether it’s taking courses in other disciplines or trying something different. Even if the results don’t turn out great, it’s important for instructors to not penalize the effort and rather reward the process.