Biophysics and the Need of a Great Teacher
Two years ago, I was a college student, studying Phonoaudiology here in Brazil. I had classes the whole week, morning and afternoon, and I was exhausted most of the time. I can make an extensive list of distinct experiences and teachers that I lived and met, but I would like to point to only one class that showed me the necessity of a great teacher: Biophysics.
As the name suggests, Biophysics shows the uses of physics in the biological, medical areas (physics in biology) and, in the case of my major, how physics is related to hearing and speaking. For a student that loves Math and Acoustic (physic of sound if you are wondering) like me, the subject seems like a piece of cake. But, instead of enjoying every single second of the class, I found myself trying my best to stay awake.
The class just started, and I was feeling stuck, turning my head around looking for anything to pay attention to, except the class. When I tried to focus on what the teacher was saying, the sentences start to muffle and my attention is gone again. My head would start bouncing around and, some minutes later, when the boredom had already taken me, I was either sleeping or looking for a reason to leave the class.
No matter how excited I was to learn that content in the day, it would only take 30 minutes of my teacher’s monologue and I was counting the minutes to the break.
All of us had been in a class like that, where a morbid feeling surrounds us and everyone’s faces are screaming: BORED!
I may not have learned everything I could of Biophysics back there, but as I studied the article “Is the Great American Teacher Dead?” this week, I noticed one thing I learned with that experience: No matter how good the subject is, how useful or even interesting the content may be, without a great teacher, the class will not be more than a massive and tedious pile of wasted hours.
But, how to be a great teacher? Well, this is what Brother Ivers has been trying to answer in this article. In this post, I will present some of them and my personal thoughts and feelings about them.
What am I teaching for? - Having a Purpose
One of the main aspects that a great teacher need is to focus on meaning. A class must be useful for students in society, have meaning outside the class, and shape the way we, as students, see the world. Quoting David E. Purpel:
“The profession must begin with the perspective of hunger, war, poverty, or starvation as its starting point, rather than from the perspective of problems of textbook selection, teacher certification requirements, or discipline policies. If there is no serious connection between education and hunger, injustice, alienation, poverty, and war, then we are wasting our time, deluding each other, and breaking faith”.
But, having a meaning by itself is not enough, the teacher needs to portrait it too. The teacher needs to act upon this purpose, this mission. How to show this? Be excited, show that you enjoy the class, truly enjoy it. Present the class in interesting ways, but always show why this is important.
If a class has a meaning, and the teacher shows it, students will stop asking “What am I learning this for?”, they will know it.
Learning how to think: Paradigms, Culture, and Self-Examination
One thing that I always heard back in school time, is that I should know. I should know how to proofread my work. That I should know how to outline my essays. I should know how to organize my study time.
A great teacher doesn’t say “you should know”. A great teacher teaches how to organize, how to study, and even more important, they teach you how to think.
But not like they are manipulating your mind. A great teacher teaches us how to deal with life paradigms.
How the teacher does it? This teacher presents to a student different paradigms, questions them, and guides us in our process to be free of common-senses. What all of that mean? That, based on our own culture and reality, the teacher introduces different and even opposite ones, to question and change the prejudice and mistaken opinions we have. A great teacher helps us to break free from our prejudices.
Delivery - a secret to skip the boredom
If a teacher wants his or her class to not be boring, he/she must focus on how the class is given. If the class is a long and monotonous monologue, everyone will be bored, even the teacher.
John J. Ivers in the article compares the teacher with an actor coming to the stage. If the actor does not show emotion and intensity, doesn’t move around or inflect his voice, the whole audience will die in boredom. The same happens with the teacher if the class lacks emotion, dynamism, and intensity.
Another point to give an interest and attractive class is to do it in parts. The problem with monologue classes is that they are one massive big piece. Our attention tends to fade around 10 minutes while focusing on something. If we are in a 1-hour class, that means we absorb just ⅙ of it.
The secret to avoid it? Reboot the attention every 10 minutes, with stories, examples, games, or visual stimulus. And review, a lot.
Wrapping up
Back in my Biophysics class, I didn’t know the impact a great teacher could have on my learning of the subject, and I still don’t know. Maybe I would be able to view the world differently, open my eyes to the wonders that education presents, and feeling different from how I came to the class; or maybe I would just be able to stay awake and inside the class, entertained by the lesson.
I may not know what could have happened, but we don’t need to be trapped by the possibilities. We can change the way we teach, and give the new generations the change we didn’t receive.
By this article and the reflection, I felt the urge to change, to deliver meaningful classes, to teach with passion, love, enthusiasm, to let my heart waltz in the beauty of knowledge. To teach with heart, mind, and soul. And I hope you have felt that too.
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