Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach

JOIN THE CONVERSATION—DEFINING GOOD TEACHING

Questions to Consider:

1. How do you define teaching? Explain your definition.


2. The Air Corps manual lists four responsibilities for teachers: content knowledge, ability
   to place yourself in the position of the learner, an understanding of standards or ex-
   pected performance outcomes, and skill as an instructor. Do you agree with this list?
   How might you alter the list or the explanations? Explain.


3. How would you rate these responsibilities in order of importance? Why?


4. According to the manual, teachers have three key “professional traits”: subject mas-
   tery, executive ability, and skill in teaching. Do you agree with this list? How might you
   alter the list or the explanations? Explain.


5. How would you rate these traits in order of importance? Why?
   6.Select a teacher (from the past or present) whom you really respect. What makes him
   or her a good teacher? What “professional traits” does he or she exhibit? How?

Some of the preservice teachers and teachers who helped with this book had vocational
training in high school, in the military, or in industry. Many felt that vocational training,
when done well, prepared them for later learning and for becoming teachers. After reading
the Air Corps manual, two of them asked to share their experiences with new teachers.

I Was Not a Great Studentby Christian Caponi

I was not a great student in high school or later in my college career. Teachers mostly lec-
tured and it was difficult for me to learn that way. In my mid-20s, I went to work for the tele-
phone company as a technician after I earned my bachelor’s degree. The initial 3-week train-
ing was run pretty much the same way as high school: lecture and read. We read books and
watched videos about how dial tones worked. We received very little “hands-on” training
and when we did, we used state-of-the-art equipment under “ideal” conditions.
During my training I was led to believe that working for the telephone company would be
easy and enjoyable. I would get to work outdoors with my hands and sometimes even be
able to flex my brain muscles. When I was sent into the field to work on actual telephones, I
was in complete “shell shock.” The new equipment we had practiced on in training did not
exist in the field and conditions were never as “neat” as they had taught us. It quickly be-
came apparent that my training was inappropriate and did not prepare me for the real job.
The company’s management and the union that represents employees decided on a joint
venture to retrain all of the technicians. They called our new training “cable college.” It was 5
days of intensive “hands-on” training led by 25-year veterans. In cable college we used realis-
tic equipment that prepared us to face scenarios that might actually occur on the job. In
those 5 days I learned far more than I had from “hands-on” training in the original 3 weeks of
videos and manuals.
When I started my teacher education program, I fell back into my old pattern of being a
passive student waiting for instructors to lecture on what to do. This approach to learning
did not work for me again. When I went out to student teach I did not really know what I was
doing and had almost disastrous results. Fortunately, my field supervisor and cooperating
teachers were veteran teachers who worked with me as I realized how to teach. Student
teaching became my “cable college” and I finally realized what teaching and learning are all

40 CHAPTER 2