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Letter of
Professional Interest (click here for a pdf version of this page)
Letter of Interest
“He is a master. I
think all professor should be able to teach as him. That way students would not
have to spend hours reading off of lectures.”
“I can honestly say I
had never seen a professor who cared more for his students and how they do, as
well as what they learn.”
“Thank
you, thank you, thank you! Mr. V, thank you for putting up with all of us this
summer!! I feel much more prepared for the MCAT. And I loved the
demonstrations! Thanks for putting all the time + effort!”
“Professor V, You
designed this class so that those who put in the effort would succeed, so I
gave it my all and sure enough. I want to say thank you
for creating such a conducive learning environment for me to succeed. I hadn't
taken a physics class since my freshman year in high school, so I was very
nervous going into your class. I did not expect this course to become my
favorite science course so far at BU. Physics is a hard subject, but you
explained everything well and made sure we, as a class, had the tools necessary
to succeed with enough hard work on our end.”
These are quotes from
many “thank you” notes and nice words said about me by my former students (this
link GoMars.xyz/evvv.html provides more examples, including the latest).
I believe, such a
feedback is one of the greatest rewards any teacher can have.
Three times since my university graduation, I had to
re-start my professional career from a square one. This feedback is one of the
proudest achievements of my professional life.
Dear Colleagues,
I hope your view of
an educator is similar to mine, i.e. at the core of an educator is a person who is good at teaching, one who can think
outside a box, who can create non-obvious solutions to non-traditional
problems.
A good teacher is a teacher who can
teach not only memorizing and repeating various – even very complicated –
patterns (that is essentially no different from training animals doing tricks –
BTW: that is what all current AI-systems do); but also beyond; i.e. a good teacher is a teacher who, in addition to solid
knowledge and skills, can teach how to
think creatively and critically – which is the essence of Human
intelligence. Currently the filed has no common definition of Intelligence,
that is why I have developed my own. Intelligence
is an ability to create a solution to a
problem which have never been
solved before (by the host of Intelligence; Cognisity.How/2017/12/AIdef.html). My definition
not just grasps the quintessence of intelligence, but is also operational, i.e.
measurable. For me, the ultimate goal of teaching is helping students to
advance their intelligent abilities, i.e. helping them become truly human (and
I teach this to my students, no matter what specific subject I teach at the
time; using my own technique: Cognisity.How/2018/02/Algorithm.html; Cognisity.How/2018/02/thinkphy.html).
“I have a very particular set of skills, which I have
acquired over a long career”. My
student evaluations are the result of my extensive and successful professional
experience in the field of education.
I have no doubt, I will be a good fit as a member of
your professional team.
What
may make me stand out of other potential candidates is the breath of my
professional experience.
I have a deep
knowledge of the main subject I teach (M.S. in Theoretical Physics), as well as
augmented subjects (math, logic, problem solving, human psychology, methods for
teaching); I am an expert in teaching methodology and teacher preparation (PhD
in Education); I have a deep knowledge of Human Intelligence; I have an
extensive and successful tutoring, teaching and research experience; I believe,
all this makes me a teach-smith (so
to speak; GoMars.xyz/teachsmith.html).
I have a successful experience in designing and teaching
courses for middle school, high school, college and university students,
pre-service and in- service teachers. I have a clear vision of the structure of
an effective on-site or online science course (the latter should be more than a
standard combination of “talking heads”, hyperlinked texts, screen simulations,
and chat rooms).
A
joke “those who cannot do – teach; those who cannot teach – teach teachers” is
definitely not about me.
I
could have become a physicist. To prove it to myself, in 2010 (not ever doing
physics before that) I read some papers on high temperature super conductivity,
and then wrote mine own, which was published in a peer reviewed specialized
magazine (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921453410006179).
I
love working with teachers, but not because I cannot teach students – on the
contrary, my student feedback tells me that I am a good teacher.
I
love working with teachers because I am good at teaching, and I have
professional experience I would love to share. A large portion of my experience
in the field of teacher professional development was summarized as a chapter in
a book (Cognisity.How/2016/10/facilitating.html). There is, though, the seed of truth in the joke. It
is just a fact that when someone is good
at doing something, it does not necessarily mean that the one can also clearly
explain what the one does, and why the one is good at it, because
“explaining” is also a teachable skill.
My professional goal is very simple – I
want to maximize my professional output.
In
addition to teaching physics, I also taught algebra, geometry, trigonometry,
problem solving, logic. This experience helped me acquire an integrative view
on various difficulties students may have and effective approaches to guide
students through those difficulties.
Three times since my university
graduation, I had to re-start my professional career from a square one (GoMars.xyz/vv.htm).
When I
was receiving my MS diploma in theoretical physics, I thought I would be
becoming a physicist. However, when the Russian economy collapsed, in order to
feed my family, I turned to tutoring, and later to teaching middle and high
school students, and then college and university students, and then teachers.
At the time, schools were some of few places where the government sometimes
paid some money. Soon I realized that students liked my teaching, and I liked
teaching students, and I started my second career – as an educator.
I
joined a team of innovative teachers, administrators, researchers, and
consultants. As the result, in addition to teaching, I also entered the field
of teacher professional development, and educational consulting, and got my PhD
in Education (specialization in andragogy, concentration in teacher
professional development). However, I did not like the changes in the political
atmosphere. In 2001 a miracle happened – I won a Green Card.
When I
moved in the U.S. I started my third career from a square one (my first job was
a janitor at a supermarket). Since no one knew me, and I knew no one, and I
spoke just very basic English, the journey to reestablishing myself as an
educator was not quick and easy. But today I teach, I write, I research.
I am proud of my current achievements, but I am
looking forward to make the next step in my professional journey (hopefully,
the last one).
I have been involved in many collaborative projects which
had led to development of new curricula, new course content, efficient tools
for managing teaching activities and learning experiences, facilitating teacher
professional development, running professional development workshops for
teachers and administrators.
I
started my teaching career as a tutor. Tutoring may be very helpful for gaining
a deep understanding of numerous reasons for different students to have various
difficulties with getting a good understating of math and physics.
Some
tutors would help a student to do the homework, and then a student would come
back with a new homework, and then again, and again. For me it felt like
cheating. I wanted to teach my students how to do their homework on their own.
My goal was to help a student to reach that level of understanding so he or she
would not need me anymore. It may have looked counterproductive – money-wise.
But in reality, it worked for me very well, because parents of my students told
about me to other parents, and I had plenty of clients.
Tutoring
helped me to initiate the development of my teaching toolbox tailored to
students with different background. People usually are eager to talk about
gifted students, and how to help talented students to realize their potential.
Struggling students do not often attract the same attention as gifted ones.
Tutoring is like having a clinical practice. All good students are good due to
mostly the same reason (a good background), but when a student struggles there
might be numerous possible causes for that.
Teaching and
tutoring physics, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, problem solving, logic
helped me acquire an integrative view on various difficulties students may have
and effective approaches to guide students through those difficulties. My Doctoral work was focused on the
approach for igniting and supporting teacher’s sustainable desire to grow
professionally, and on methods for helping teachers with their continues
professional development (teaching teachers about teaching requires deep and
wide understanding of learning, teaching, and of the teaching subject).
In Russia I was a member of “Moscow – Perm
Socratic group” – a collaboration of educators dedicated to promoting the Socratic
Method of teaching (Cognisity.How/2018/02/Socrates.html).
I have a long and successful experience in
teaching various mathematics and physics courses, course for pre-service and
in-service teachers and school administrators. I have been teaching Mathematics
and Physics to almost all possible categories of students (i.e. to middle- and
high- school students, 2-year and 4-year college students, university students,
to students with learning difficulties, and to school teachers). I also have
been teaching various curses for in-service teachers (in parallel with teaching
math and physics).
For a number of years, I had been working at
a regional institution for teacher professional development, providing various
courses and training to teachers and school administrators. Individually and as
a member of a team I was consulting and auditing individual teachers, schools,
and school districts regarding educational policies, teaching technologies,
learning outcomes, and quality of education in general. Alone and with my
colleagues, I was traveling to towns and villages of the Perm Region to meet
with teachers and administrators and helping them with adjusting teaching and
administrative strategies and techniques in order to achieve better learning
outcomes of their students; including preparing strategic plans for systemic
development of a school, a district and a regional education system.
My administrative experience involves running
a department of computerization at Perm Institute for Continues Teacher
Education, working as an assistant to the President of Faculty Assembly, and
later running the Center for Development of the School System of City of Perm,
which was an analytical branch of the City Department of Education (my last
position before moving to the U.S.).
I was hired by the Perm State (a.k.a. Region, a.k.a. Oblast')
department of Education as a consultant to help draft the “Program of the
Development of the State Educational System for the five-year period. This was
one of the highest levels of the recognition of me as a professional educator
and a consultant.
After I moved in the U.S. and re-entered the
field of education, I have been teaching Boston University PY105/106 Elementary
Physics courses, as well as College Mathematics, Physics and Problem solving at
ITT Technical Institute (Norwood, MA), Wentworth Institute of Technology,
Bridgewater State University, BU High School Academy.
During the years of my teaching practice I
have developed numerous math and physics middle-, and high- school and college
curricula, syllabi and lesson plans; problem sets, worksheets and hands-on
activities. I have an experience in developing websites and using such ones as
webct, moodle, blackboard, webassign, masteringphysics, wileyplus; creating new
demonstrations, filming movies and posting them online, using Java applets and
audience responds systems (eInstruction, Turning Technologies); developing
laboratory experiments and writing manuals. I have been and am using different teaching
strategies, including different media to motivate students to learn and to help
students to master a subject.
My years of personal tutoring and teaching
provided me with invaluable insights on how people learn and how to help them
to master a subject and to become more efficient learner (my teaching
philosophy is summarized at Cognisity.How/2017/11/method.html). I have been sharing this experience with many
students, teachers, and colleagues. I have strong communication skills, deep
understanding of pedagogy, wide teaching experience, and competent in using a
variety of educational software products. I firmly believe in a scientific
approach to teaching and to research on teaching. A teacher should be able to
state specific goals, list the assumptions, formulate the criteria of a
success, and establish measuring tools and procedures, and a researcher should
be able to do the same as well. I am also convinced that contemporary
technologies allow bringing teaching to a new level.
My personal teaching
experience always has been entangled with my research and consulting practices,
and this entanglement represents the most helpful asset I have and use when
working with students, colleagues, teachers, and administrators, because I
usually know what students, colleagues, teachers and administrators may want or
need, what obstacles they may encounter and need to overcome, and how to help
them to do that.
I am a team player,
the goals of my team always set limits and directions for my personal
professional goals. Throughout all my professional life as an educator I have
always had good relationships with my students and colleagues. I always respect
all my students and they know it, and they respect me back even if they do not
have the grade they would like to have for the course.
I am confident that
my teaching, research, and administrative experience will allow me to become a
successful member of your team.
Sincerely, Dr. Valentin Voroshilov (Cognisity.How/2018/02/Iam.html)
Below is:
1. My resume, which offers the full description of my
professional experience
(or follow to: http://teachology.xyz/mathhealth/rezume.htm).
2. My general teaching statement (my teaching
philosophy; or follow to
this link: https://teachologyforall.blogspot.com/2017/11/philosophy.html).
3. What is so special about
physics?
Dr. Valentin
Voroshilov
Physics Department;
Boston University
Physics Department;
Bridgewater State University
valbu@bu.edu GoMars.xyz/vv.htm
Education:
PhD in Education: “Methods for Motivating Teachers
Towards Continuous Professional Development”
Moscow Academic Institute for Innovations in
Education; Moscow, Russia, 2000
M.S. in Theoretical Physics: “Homogeneous
Relaxation in Weakly Non-ideal Bose Gas”
Areas of expertise:
A) administrative practices related to
running a unit of an administrative structure, such as a department, or an institution,
including but not limited to:
1.
strategic and tactical planning
2. observing,
guiding, coordinating, evaluating the performance of employees
3. analyzing
individual reports, preparing and presenting cumulative
4. managing
everyday workflow
B) consulting on developing teaching
practices at different levels (individual teachers, teams of teachers, schools,
school districts)
C) auditing teaching practices of
individual teachers, teams of teachers, schools, school districts
D) public relations – representing the
team of developers to different groups of prospective clients (teachers,
administrations of different levels)
E) analytical practices:
1.
developing and employing various analytical tools – surveys, interviews, tests
2.
conducting analysis and presenting reports
F) developing and teaching various courses
for pre-service and in-service teachers, including but not limited to:
1.
philosophy of education
2. role
of teaching in human practices
3.
curriculum development and lesson plan preparation
4.
assessing learning outcomes of students
5.
classroom management with and without differentiation
6. how to
become an effective teacher (the role of self-reflection in professional
development)
G) developing and teaching various Math
and Physics courses for undergraduate students (non-physics majors, including
pre-service and in-service teachers):
1.
preparing a syllabus (structuring the course, building up learning paths)
2.
writing/composing lecture notes and problem sets
3.
developing problem solving strategies and guiding techniques
4.
lecturing, guiding, tutoring students (including teachers in service)
5.
developing, testing, performing physics demonstrations and laboratory
experiments
6.
video and audio capturing, editing, posting, streaming
H) teaching creative courses as such
“Lateral thinking”, “Problem solving strategies”
I) as a faculty member of a research
university: facilitating, monitoring, consulting faculty on developing
curriculum, preparing lectures, incorporating various teaching activities into
a course, analyzing the learning outcomes of students.
J) using and consulting on using online
teaching instruments (blackboard, webassign, mastering physics, etc.) and
personal response systems
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Boston
University, Boston, MA; Physics Department: 03/2007 - present time
Lecture
Enhancement Coordinator (Physics Department Demonstration Facility Director)
Responsibilities: Cooperating with the
faculty on using existing and developing new physics demonstrations and helping
faculty with implementing contemporary teaching research-based techniques into
the teaching practice.
Boston
University, Boston, MA; Physics Department: 09/2007 - present time
Lecturer
(PY105/PY106 courses):
Responsibilities: Curriculum development;
developing and editing lecture notes, homework assignments, laboratory manuals,
exams; lecturing, overseeing work of teaching fellows and learning assistants.
Bridgewater
State University, MA; 2010 - present time
Visiting
Lecturer: Algebra Based Physics.
Wentworth
Institute of Technology, MA; 2008 - 2012
Adjunct
Lecturer: Algebra Based Physics.
Boston
University, Boston, MA; Physics Department: 08/2012 – 08/2013
PDGK12
program/ Program Manager:
Responsibilities: Organizing and guiding
teaching fellows – participants in GK12 project – on the use of physics
demonstrations in Boston schools.
Boston
University, Boston, MA; Physics Department: 08/2012 – 08/2013
BU
ERC Lecturer:
Responsibilities: Curriculum development for
and leading workshops “Physics - Demystified” for BU students.
BU
Academy, MA; 2009 - 2012
Substitute
Lecturer: Elementary Physics
ITT
Technical Institute, Norwood,
MA; 06/2004 – 2011
Adjunct
Physics Instructor:
Responsibilities: Teaching Physics, College
Math I and II, Problem Solving
Boston
University, Boston, MA; Physics Department and School of Education: 09/2006 – 06/2007
Adjunct
Instructor
Responsibilities: Teaching Physics to
in-service high school teachers
Boston
University, Boston, MA; Physics Department: 09/2004 – 03/2007
Lab
Tech Coordinator
Responsibilities: Coordinating a preparation
and carrying out of undergraduate teaching labs; managing the equipment;
developing new teaching labs; consulting TFs
Boys
and Girls Club of Boston, Roxbury Clubhouse, Boston, MA; 07/2004 – 11/2004
Teacher’s
Assistant, Math and Science tutor:
Responsibilities: Tutoring in Math and
Science to Club Members
Wentworth
Institute of Technology, Boston MA: 01/2004 – 05/2004
Physics
Laboratory Instructor: Department of Applied Mathematics and
Sciences.
Responsibilities: Guiding students
through a variety of Physics I and Physics II laboratory work
Tutor: Academic Resource
Center. 01/2004 – 05/2004
Responsibilities: Tutoring students in
Mathematics (Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus) and Physics
Center
for Development of City School System, Perm, Russia: 2000 – 2002,
Interim
Director: managing teams of
professionals of an institution responsible for development of analytical
documents and policy recommendation for the department of education of the City
of Perm.
Institute
for Continuous Education, Perm, Russia: 1997 - 2000
Associate
Professor: Department
of Teachers’ Skill Development. (1995 -1997 as a part time employee)
Responsibilities:
Taught
a wide spectrum of courses to school teachers and principals of the city of
Perm and Perm region
Examined
teachers’ curricula, Evaluated of the quality of teaching in physics and
mathematics
Courses
developed and taught included:
Methods
for Problem Solving in Mathematics and Physics
Modeling
of Mental Processes of Students while Problem Solving
Methods
for Preparing Educational Tests
Planning
Effective Teaching Activities
Director: Department of
computerization and information technologies.
Perm
State Technical University, Perm, Russia: 1988 - 1997
Assistant
Professor: Physics
Department.
Responsibilities:
Teaching
a wide spectrum of courses to undergraduate students
Training
students in Math to prepare them to study Physics
Developing
physics and math curricula
Developing
educational aids for students
Courses
developed and taught included:
Mechanics;
Thermodynamics; Electrostatics; Magnetism;
Optics; Atomic and Nuclear Physics
Fundamentals
of Quantum Mechanics; Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, Calculus
Methodological
development included:
Curricula
in Physics for Undergraduate Students; Midterm and Final Physics Exams;
Collection
and compilation of Physics Problems and solutions for Undergraduate Students
Perm
State University, Perm,
Russia: 1985 - 1988
Hardware
Engineer: Department
of Computerized Calculations:
Responsibilities: All kinds of a technical
support
Middle
and High Schools, the
City of Perm, Russia: 1991 – 2001
Teacher/Tutor:
Teaching
a wide spectrum of courses to students
Developing
curricula and midterm/final tests for courses taught
Training
students to Math/Physics competitions
Developing
and testing learning tools for students with learning disabilities
Courses
developed and taught included:
Algebra; Geometry; Trigonometry;
Fundamentals of Probability Theory; Physics
Methodological
development included:
High
School Curriculum in Physics with Elements of University-level Physics
Math
Curriculum for High School Students in Physics Classes
Introductory
Lectures on Basic Quantum Phenomena for High School Students
Midterm
and final physics exams
SELECTED
CONFERENCES AND PUBLICATIONS
Becoming a STEM teacher: a crash course for people
entering the profession // amazon.com
What
does “thinking as a physicist” mean? // 2011
The
fundamental laws of “Teach-Ology” // 2016
Project-oriented form of teacher professional
development / Presentation at 2016 PhysTech
conference:
Professional Designing as One of Key competencies of a
Modern Teacher / 2016
Materials from a one-day workshop with Prof. Novak for
teachers: “Educational
concept mapping”:
A
general algorithm for creating a solution to a physics problem // 2012
What
is the mission of education? // 2018
How much
of “cyber” in “cyberthinking”? // 2018
An actual level of difficulty of test problems and
its subjective perception by students // 2009
AAPT Winter Meeting, Chicago, Feb. 15 (2009).
Making the Transition from Introductory to
Upper-Level Courses // 2009 AAPT Winter Meeting, Chicago, Feb.
15 (2009).
On a Definition of Work // The
Physics Teacher, Val. 46, May 2008, p. 260.
Energy from nothing? // Physics Teacher, Vol. 45, No. L1, p. L1, July 2007.
On Putting Physics First // “Interactions”, March/April 2007, p. 6 -7;
Physics First or Physics in Parallel? // 2007 AAPT Summer Meeting, Aug. 1 (2007)
The Comparison Between Russian High School And
American College Curricula // 2007 AAPT
Winter Meeting, January 2007.
Constructing Learning Aids for Teaching
Algebra-based Physics / Poster, AAPT summer meeting, 2006
Learning aides for students taking physics. (a
broader version of Phys. Educ. 50 (2015)
694-698, http://stacks.iop.org/0031-9120/50/694)
A Map of Operationally Connected Categories as an instrument
for classifying physics problems. // (Mar.
2015)
Critical reading of
“Making sense of confusion” by Eric Mazur et al.
// (Mar. 2015)
“To test or not to test?” This is NOT the
right question. // edutopya.org (Mar. 2015)
On electron pairing in a periodic potential
// Physica C: Supercunductivity, V
470, # 21, November (2010), pp. 1962 – 1963 // http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physc.2010.08.007.
Classification of Educational
Self-Determination of Students // in the journal “School Principal”, Moscow,
Russia, 2001.
Universal Algorithm for Solving School
Problems in Physics // in the book "Problems in Applied Mathematics and
Mechanics". - Perm, Russia, 1998. - p. 57.
On the Necessity of Modeling by a Teacher of
His/Her Own Pedagogical Activity // in the book “Development of Scientific
Intercommunications in Eurasia”. - Berezniki, Russia, 1997. - p. 172.
Application of Operationally-Interconnect
Categories for Diagnosing the Level of Students' Understanding of Physics
// in the book “Artificial Intelligence in Education”, part 1. - Kazan, Russia,
1996. - p. 56.
Quantitative Measures of the Learning
Difficulty of Physics Problems // in the book “Problems of Education,
Scientific and Technical Development and Economy of Ural Region”.- Berezniki,
Russia, 1996. - p. 85.
REFERENCES
(please, email for the
references)
In this short
essay, I will try to summarize my view on what is teaching, what is learning,
and why learning
physics is so important to everyone.
(a copy is available
at: Cognisity.How/2017/11/method.html)
What is teaching?
Below is the quote
from Google search on: “what is teaching” (the top answer):
The second meaning
of “teaching” is transparent: “teaching is a synonym for philosophy”. But the
first description does not really say much what teaching is. “Teaching is what
a teacher does”.
Everyone wants to
be healthy and successful and no one wants to be ill and poor. The only
difference is how we want to achieve our success. There are people who use
other people as a tool for climbing the social ladder. I would not recommend
people like that going into teaching. Children feel when they are being used
and always find the way to escape – one way or another. Anyone who wants to be
a teacher (or an educator of some sort), should do it to help children to
succeed in their life, and they will return the success.
Teaching is an
important human practice. Many people think that teaching is simply telling
students “do as I say”. This very approach is built in our DNA. Our parents
used this approach when teaching us. Animals use this approach when teaching
cubs, pups, baby birds (they rather use the “do as I do” version, which is also
very popular among humans).
If teaching was
indeed merely “do as I do” or “do as I say” practice, then of course everyone
could do it! Teaching would not be much different from training animals (“a
stick and a carrot” would do the trick).
Clearly, teaching
is something more complicated than just “do as I say”. Not everyone can become
a good teacher. Everyone can cook at home, or drive a car. But not everyone can
become a successful chef or a racecar driver. And when we say this out loud, it
does not sound controversial – because it’s obvious! Yes, we know that some
people are a better fit for some practices than others, and some people are not
a good fit for some practices. In particular, some people are just not fit to
be teachers (which is not their fault), and one of the goals of every teacher
preparation program should be identifying those people and helping them to find
another professional path.
So, what is
teaching, or, what does it mean to be a teacher?
I think that the
answer to this question forms a fundamental basis for the whole professional
philosophy of a teacher and for the practice built on that philosophy. One of
the first indicators of a true teacher is that he or she has a certain answer
to this question. I also believe that there is no single correct answer to this
question. I believe that every teacher should search for and find his or her
own answer (although the answers might sound very similarly).
In this essay, I
want to share my answer to the question “what is teaching?”.
To me, teaching is guiding students through a
specifically designed set of learning experiences (a.k.a. student activities)
to help them to develop or advance desired skills and knowledge – this is my
formal definition of teaching (hence, a teacher is a person who teaches in
accordance with this definition; this link leads to short statements about
teaching which I call “Laws of TeachOlogy”; http://www.teachology.xyz/6LT.html).
A teacher might
not be the one who designs the whole set of student activities, but should have
a deep understanding of the reasons for the activities and measures of the
success or failure of the activities.
We all
know the old saying that one can bring a horse to water but one cannot make it
drink. Well, a teacher cannot make a student learn unless that student wants to
learn. Unfortunately, too often students start to learn only to avoid some kind
of punishment. This kind of teaching might happen when a teacher does not care
much about students, but just functioning to avoid being fired
(mimicking/faking teaching). On another hand, a teacher might be very forceful
on students (“It is for your own good”) to become being praised. I believe, no matter what a teacher does, students
should not have any psychological damage (like, “feeling stupid”).
Teachers
- like doctors – should take “a Hippocratic Oath” of a Teacher and promise
“never do harm to anyone”, because there is always something more important in
teaching than merely transmitting knowledge or training skills. A true teacher
knows the limits.
Ideally,
parents should be the first true teachers. The best gift a parent can
give to a child is good habits and love for learning. The same is true for a
teacher. Look at infants and little children – they always try things and
want to learn something new! Now look at school graduates – so many of them do
not want to learn anything new anymore (or cannot learn anything new, which is
even worse). If children have lost their curiosity and desire to learn, that
only means they did not have a true teacher in their life.
A true teacher is
not the one who just loves teaching (“do as I say”), but the one who also loves
learning. The art of teaching is based on love for education, and passion for
sharing this love (and also on the science of learning).
Every
student has his or her own learning style. Every classroom is different from
another. Teaching constantly presents challenges: students do not act the way a
teacher expects, parents or officials put pressure on a teacher. If a person
cannot withstand challenges, that person should not go into the business of
education in any form; she/he is not going to be a good teacher, or
administrator or a researcher in the field.
No one
is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes (the difference is what we do after we made
it). Mistakes are an inherent part of our life. Mistakes are inevitable and
unavoidable. Especially when people learn something new. A teacher should
understand that students will be making mistakes. Learning is based on
continually overcoming mistakes and learning from them. If a student did not
learn something, which he or she was supposed to learn, chances are that it was
because a teacher made a mistake. A true teacher never stops learning (mostly
because no matter how good we are there is always a room for improvement: new
students are different from the former ones, world changes, a new year is never
the same as the previous one). And a true teacher is always open about mistakes
he or she has done, even (especially!) if it happens in front of a class.
To
summarize, what does make a teacher to be The Teacher (or a Teach-Smith, so to
speak: http://www.gomars.xyz/teachsmith.html)?
Patience, love of
learning, understanding and accepting personal limits, genuinely caring for
students (they intuitively feel if for the teacher they are just pawns in
his/her game for personal success), constant professional development – including,
but not limited to – having deeper knowledge of the content of the subject he
or she teaches, deeper understanding of the fundamentals of the knowledge
development within a specific science (each school subject is a projection or a
simplification of a certain science), deeper understanding of the fundamentals
of the knowledge development in general, understating of human behavior in
general and behavior of a child, understanding of the fundamentals of human
learning and teaching. From a procedural point of view, the simplest model of
teaching is
“teaching = motivating + demonstrating + instructing + explaining
+ assessing”, hence a teacher should have personal qualities, knowledge and
skills which will allow to be able to motivate, demonstrate, instruct, explain,
and assess (within the limits placed by “do no harm” rule).
A true
teacher is not always the one whose professional description says so. A teacher
is a person about whom other people say that they have learned something
important from that person.
There
is one controversy I would also like to address. Many people (including policy
makers, parents, business representatives) think that to be a good teacher one
just needs to know the content. But, that is not true. The content knowledge is
one of many components of a good teacher, and not the most important one.
Firstly, I have met people who had excellent content knowledge but were
terrible teachers. I had professors who were at the top of the achievement list
in academia, but who could not teach at all (they were very interesting
storytellers, though). Clearly, they knew how to do difficult science and they
did it. But they could not explain what they did, and why. Secondly, content
knowledge is just a result of a certain amount of effort. Any reasonable person
who spends a reasonable amount of time can obtain content knowledge in the
amount sufficient to teaching at a reasonable level. Personal qualities like
willingness to learn till the first day of the retirement (at least), patience,
etc. are also very important for becoming a true teacher. A teacher is - first
- a person, and - second - a knowledge storage, a skill presenter, a guide, a
trainer.
What is learning?
A
dictionary tells that learning is:
* the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience,
study, or by being taught.
* knowledge acquired through experience,
study, or being taught.
For a
teacher, this definition may be a starting point for reaching a deeper
understanding of how people learn.
The
first fundamental notion is that learning is a basic need, like food, or
oxygen. There is a “slight” difference, though. With no food or oxygen, a
person ceases the biological existence (a.k.a. dies).
Without
learning a person ceases the social existence (the reason for all dictators to
micromanage education - they are scared of free thinking which comes with true
education). Learning - as a process and as a result - is solely responsible for
the prosperity of a society (even if the prosperity still is very uneven).
Secondly,
learning is a process; it has phases, it has stages (that is why a college does
not accept middle school graduates). Learning stages might differ in length and
difficulty, depend on many parameters (subjective like age, race, brain
development of a student; contextual – what science is this subject about;
social – culture, traditions, economics), but they are as objective as stages
in the seasons we observe every year. The existence of these stages results in
the existence of the specific patterns of learning, which must be reflected in
the specific patterns of teaching.
We
cannot jump from a spring right into a winter; similarly, we cannot jump into
learning quadratic equations right after learning the addition within a hundred
(the normal process of giving a birth requires 9 months and should go through
well-established phases - from an embryo to a baby: the process of “giving a
birth” to an educated person– from having no knowledge and skills to having
them - also has specific stages). If despite our best efforts a student did not
learn how to solve a quadratic equation, it means that his/her learning path
had missed in the past some of the important stages (assuming that students’
learnability is adequate).
Thirdly,
learning is a result, it is an achievement. There are many achievements in our
life, which – kind of - just happen; learning how to walk, learning how to
talk.
Achievements
like that happen usually in a natural way, they do not normally require special
prolonged management, do not have to be controlled, assessed, regularly
measured, at least if everything happens as expected.
However,
reading and writing, adding and subtracting, solving equations, etc. are
skills; and to learn those skills a special and longitudinal effort is
required, and hence, these skills have to be assessed. What needs to be
assessed, how, when and by whom, however, are some of the most controversial
questions of the contemporary research on education.
True learning
never happens by just watching and listening (i.e. by merely attending
lectures), it happens by doing. One can observe every cycling tour; interview
every famous racer, that will definitely help the one to understand the theory
of biking, but to learn how to ride a bicycle one has to ride a bicycle.
One can watch for
hours other people swimming, but if one wants to learn how to swim, the one has
to get yourself into water and start trying. In the latter case, it would help
having around someone who could explain what one does wrong and how to correct
it (a friend screaming “you can do it, you can do it” would not be much of a
help).
Active
lectures help to boost motivation, develop vocabulary, give a perception that
things are not as hard as they seem. Reading (and watching, and listening) also
helps to form a vocabulary, to strengthen some relationships between the
current knowledge and the upcoming one, to ignite curiosity, to boost
imagination, to reinforce self-discipline, to advance mental capacities.
However,
skills are only formed by doing.
For
example, if the only exercise students had been doing for 12 years is squats,
they will not be good at push-ups and pull-ups. If we want students to develop
a certain skill, we have to give them an opportunity to practice that skill
(ideally – as long as they need to master it).
Our
brain is acting in a way similar to how our regular muscles act. Memorization
is a mental activity very much different from creating new images, searching
for new meanings, describing new phenomena, or developing new approach to
solving a problem (during different mental activities a brain does a different
work). Hence, if for 12 years in a school students only have been memorizing
facts, it is not reasonable to expect from the graduates an ability to think
critically, or to be creative.
Thinking
critically is a specific mental activity, which requires comprehensive
methodology, meticulous planning, detailed procedures, and designated time
(much more time than just memorizing and retrieving facts).
Our brain is a
powerful pattern recognition machine. As soon as it recognizes the task, it
retrieves from the memory the sequence of the actions, which has to be
performed to succeed. Of course, we assume that that particular brain is
capable of storing and retrieving the information and governing the actions
required for fulfilling the task (otherwise we have to discuss a case of
learning disabilities). If a brain does not recognize the task, we have two
options: (a) the task is the same but due to some features it is camouflaged as
a different one; (b) the task is different and is really new for the brain and
the brain does not have the solution (at least in full) in its storage.
Every teacher has
to teach students to two different practices: (a) how to perform specific tasks
(the set of those tasks should be specified by a curriculum); (b) how to create
a solution to a problem which has not been solved in the past (by that person);
the latter practice, in turn, requires a practice in making a conclusion
regarding the familiarity of the given assignment - is it the same as one from
the past (a task) or different (a problem)? Development of that skill also
requires specific practice.
Teaching
thinking critically (a.k.a. creatively) means teaching how to create solutions,
invent actions/procedures which have not been presented/trained before.
In general, the
answer to the question “what is learning?” depends on the interpretation of who
is asking this question. For example, one can believe that learning is …
1.
memorizing
facts and excelling in performing certain task (actions).
Or
2.
obtaining
knowledge and developing skills which will allow to create (a.k.a. “construct”
– for those who loves constructivism, as I do) solutions to problems which have
never been solved by the person in the past.
Or
3.
from
a procedural point of view, the simplest model of learning is
Learning = goal making + memorizing + reiterating/practicing
+ thinking/analyzing + self-assessing (reflecting on the actions done
during the problem-solving process).
My personal definition
of learning is a combination of all the three above.
I believe that
teaching how to think critically, teaching how to create solutions to new
problems is the most important goal and the most difficult task of the
contemporary education. If a person cannot solve any new (for that person)
problem, it is hard to expect this person would generate some knowledge (or
product, or business) new to the society. However, if a person can solve
problems which he or she has not solved in the past, there is at least a chance
that that person would give us something absolutely new and unexpected (good or
bad – that is a different conversation). We should keep in mind, though, that
critical thinking cannot be learned without a solid foundation in facts and
skills.
What is so special about Physics?
It has become a
common place to say that American schools need to attract more students into
STEM related fields (https://teachologyforall.blogspot.com/2017/02/nostudents.html).
I believe that physics
represents a door into STEM education (https://teachologyforall.blogspot.com/2017/01/door.html). If students get confidence
in physics class, they will feel confident in any science. Physics is one of
the oldest and most developed sciences, hence it has a very clear logic and a
straightforward learning methodology. Also, nowadays physics or physics based
approaches can be found far beyond physics itself, for example, in medicine, in
business and finance, even in sport (more at: https://teachologyforall.blogspot.com/2016/12/onphysics.html).
What changes does education reform need?
Education needs its own “Manhattan Project”,
or “Apollo Program”, which would reexamine the well-established paradigms, and
would guide a broad search for new connections and correlations; which would
combine newly presented advances in artificial intelligence with neuroscience
to study and analyze multi-layered universe of individual, group, and
institutional learning and teaching; which would bring in education newly
developed technologies, including AI, virtual reality, augmented reality, top
level robotics.
This type of a program can be initiated via
institutionalizing a collaboration between various professional and scientific
groups by establishing a specific institution –an Institute for Learning and
Teaching (the name is tentative, of course).
Within this Institute, professionals from
various universities, intuitions, and companies would be able to join their
effort and expertise.
https://teachologyforall.blogspot.com/2017/11/pilt.html
Sincerely,
Dr. Valentin Voroshilov
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