Post 482: The Courage To Teach Chapter 3

 

 Post 482: The Courage To Teach Chapter 3

We are currently in the third week of my Professional Development online class, and we are discussing the paradoxes of teaching in Parker J. Palmer's book, The Courage To Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life.

Palmer wants us to connect our head and our heart together rather than think of our head and heart as two separate entities. We need to learn to love our students whether they fail or succeed. I believe when Palmer focuses on the heart and head connection, he wants us to think about caring for our students no matter if the students cooperate and learn well (dance well) or if students are stubborn, refuse to learn, do very little work, show little effort (refuse to dance well). He wants us not to feel angry when our students do not dance well with us. I like when he says that our students are not there to fulfill our ego 'our desire to have every student follow in our footsteps and learn what we teach them'.  I took from this chapter overall that you love your students whether they fail or succeed. Palmer also mentions that when we get angry, we don't let it show.  Trust me, even if you hide your anger, students know. Being angry creates a divide between you and your students--and students become afraid to ask you questions which goes back to the previous chapter of creating ways to reduce student fear by being welcoming and approachable--no matter what. You have to have enough of your own self identity and the Courage To Teach no matter how much the student learns, or not learns.

There are a lot of paradoxes in teaching. One day, you can feel like you are a great teacher when your students understand your lesson, and get good grades. Then, on the next day, when you either teach a new lesson or another class, and your class fails to understand the lesson or fails the assignment, you can feel like a lousy teacher, and you begin to question why you got into teaching. Palmer describes the highs and lows of teaching along with how that impacts our inner life. We are joyful when all goes well in the classroom, then angry when students refuse to learn, or do not put in the effort to learn. 

Palmer explores the ying and yang of teaching. The six paradoxes Palmer introduces in his book that contribute to pedagogical design (Palmer, 1997, 76) are the following : "1. The space should be bounded and open. 2. The space should be hospitable and charged.  3. The space should invite the voice of the individual and the voice of the group. 4. The space should honor the little stories of the student, and the big stories of the discipline and tradition. 5. The space should support the solitude and surround it with the resources of the community. 6. The space should welcome both silence and speech.

In #1, The space should be bounded and open.  Students should be free to say what they want about the topic (open) but bound by the topic at hand.

In #2, The space should be hospitable and charged. Students should be made to feel welcome, yet the teaching question at hand should challenge the student intellect.

In #3, The space should invite the voice of the individual, and the voice of the group. In other words, student voice should be preserved as much as possible while still being able to amplify the voice of the group. When we do peer review, we give students suggestions to improve papers, but we do it politely.

In #4, The space should honor the 'little' stories of the students, and the big stories of the discipline. When I grade student papers, I should not cross out their stories and have them rewrite it, instead, I give them gentle suggestions on essay structure first, to preserve their story, then grade for grammar later so as not to overwhelm the little stories of the student with the big stories of the discipline.

In #5, The space should support the solitude and surround it with resources of community. Students should be free to reflect on the topic and get help by going to writing center and tutoring center to get help for their work.

In #6, The space should welcome both silence and speech--This is the one the boss wants us to work on--In other words, when we give students questions to answer, we should give students sufficient time to answer the question, and not just jump the gun when we get uncomfortable with the silence by answering the question ourselves, thus killing the teaching moment and stifling student development and confidence. 

For me, the last paradox #6 talks about respecting the student silence, that the student could still be thinking about the answer to your teacher question, and not jump into the fray and answer your own question because you feel uncomfortable with the student's silence.  I admit I do this sometimes during my lectures. When I lecture, I make an effort to include the student by asking from time to time comprehension check questions, or a 'What is wrong with this sentence?' question. Then, just as I figure they don't know the answer as I grow uncomfortable with the silence, then both students would jump in, answer the question at the same time. Therefore, I understand what Palmer is getting at in respecting that silence and giving students time to answer the question.