The Stage is No Place for a Teacher

On my first few years as a Mathematics teacher at university, I was obsessed with being able to constantly keep track of the syllabus, strictly adhering to the assigned schedule. Oftentimes, I would speed through chunks of information, insensitive to the bewildered faces of my students. I cared more about how much I taught than how well my students learned.

Then, I attended a small teaching seminar for new faculty members which featured a discussion on teaching and learning principles. I remember complaining a lot. Apparently, we were supposed to teach in creative ways because pure lectures meant that students accomplished very minimal learning.

“Teach your students how to learn, not what to learn,” said the resource speaker.

This statement really struck me and while I was resistant at first, I decided I would try to unlearn my sage-on-the-stage attitude, and instead work on being a guide-on-the-side.

My biggest challenge has been making sure that I would not be short-changing the students. I had to come up with lesson plans that would allow me to use creative learning strategies and not just stick with lecture 95% of the time. It was really difficult because the topics that I could cover in an hour-long ‘creative lesson’ could have been covered in a fifteen minute lecture.

On the first few years of my unlearning process, I struggled with keeping up with the schedule. There were times when I would abandon my original plans and stick to good ol’ barely effective lecture. But as the years passed (I’ve been teaching for seven years now since that seminar.), I have really tried my best to work on better lesson plans, relying on fewer lecture hours and coming up with more effective teaching strategies.

The resource speaker’s words have been my guiding principle. Rather than focusing on what to teach my students, I paid attention instead on how to make them learn independent of our contact hours. I provided students with more opportunities to manage their educational experience and create their own knowledge while I provide them with just enough guidance to scaffold their learning.

While I can’t say that I’ve succeeded immensely in my goals, I believe I have made small steps towards the right direction.

Today, I make sure that in the three contact hours that I have with my students each week, lecture would not dominate more than half of this time. I consciously try to get off the ‘stage’ and, instead, cheer them on from the side lines as they tackle their learning tasks. My students know I have their backs, but they’d almost always rather do it themselves. I see them struggle and even fumble from time to time, but I always have that sense of fulfilment when I see them persisting with the task at hand, correcting themselves, and creating their own learning.