So, how influential is a good teacher?
In the book Road to Goals, the author William Damon emphasizes that adults outside the family play a key role in children's growth. One of the most important roles is the teacher.
As the old saying goes, "One day as a teacher, one will always be a father."
Thus, teachers may play a decisive role in a student's life. But good teachers are hard to find.
It is very lucky for students to meet a prescient elder and give them an understanding that even their parents can't care about or even object to.
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From primary school to high school, every time parents choose a school, they will consider two factors: one is the learning atmosphere of the school, and the other is the faculty of the school. For many people, a good teacher is more important than a good school.
In yesterday's reading, we mentioned that liberal arts education will make students gain more. However, liberal arts education has two premises, one is humanistic-centered, and the other is small class teaching led by dedicated professors.
Teaching cannot be quantified or automated, and excellent teachers are a necessity for quality education.
Education is never simple. It does not exist to solve substantive problems, nor does it exist to instill a lot of knowledge. "Education" means "inspiration" in Latin.
The essence of a teacher's work is to stimulate and awaken the latent energy of every student in a sleeping state. Otherwise, how can teachers be said to be engineers of the human soul?
We have repeatedly stressed that students should cultivate their thinking ability in universities. However, thinking is not meditation, it needs the guidance of a "guide", and a good teacher is that "guide".
Take writing a paper as an example. Writing a thesis requires students to know how to analyze other people's opinions and explain their own. First of all, you should receive relevant education, and then start writing papers with clear views.
In this process, you need the teacher to discuss your logic ambiguity, structural errors, lack of proof, opportunities to refute arguments, and predictability of opposing views one by one.
The teacher may ask further questions and suggest you explore from a new angle. This "small but refined" teaching mode can make students really learn something.
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Lecturing is already a backward teaching method. Because a real teacher is teaching students, not attending classes.
When I was in college, there was a dear teacher on campus. How popular is he?
In his class, students always fill the whole amphitheatre; At the graduation ceremony, when his video was released, we couldn't hear what he said clearly.
We don't have to take long notes in his class. He likes to lead us to explore and discuss problems.
He will ask new questions, prompting us to further explain our vague answers.
He will help shy students find inner confidence; He accepts and encourages students, but at the same time guides and challenges them.
He challenges students' abilities and pays attention to their personal development. His course is not simple, and it is not so easy to score, but he is an excellent professor in our hearts.
However, such good teachers are rare in universities.
In today's universities, the opportunity of one-on-one interaction between students and teachers is too scarce, let alone a deep ideological collision with teachers.
Just like the feedback given to me by a student at Brown University, the value provided by current university tutors is generally superficial. They just tell you how to choose courses.
What causes university professors to be so careless about teaching? The problem lies in academic research.
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Now the main job of university professors is not to teach, but to do academic research. This phenomenon is inseparable from the overall design of colleges and universities.
In order to be famous, schools need academic research to show their strength. So the overall design of colleges and universities is not based on teaching. The more prestigious the school, the more its design deviates from teaching.
In this case, the professor can only be recognized if he makes progress in research. Even in top universities, professors who attach importance to teaching will not only be despised, but also be suspected of doing academic research, because every minute spent on teaching means sacrificing academic research time.
Gradually, the circle of professors has formed a "hidden rule"-either publish a paper or be out.
Therefore, professors have to allocate time to colleagues, doctoral students, attend on-site meetings or professional organizations, and contribute to academic journals. He has no time to take care of undergraduates who can't contribute to his academic research.
Of course, this does not mean that academic research is not worthwhile, but there is no doubt that paying too much attention to research will affect the quality of classroom teaching.
What we need to pay attention to is that excellent scholars are not equal to excellent teachers.
Excellent scholars specialize in a certain field. They have a detailed division of labor, are good at using technical terms, and are quite deaf to things outside the window.
In class, if you still keep the academic style, the information received by students will be boring.
But a good teacher should be able to bring life into the classroom and draw inferences from others to help students release their thoughts.
As critic Leslie Fuld said, "Teachers are also non-domain experts. He is not teaching a course, but sharing his life. He can turn decay into magic. Teaching is an art. "
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If a university is loyal to its educational mission, then the investment in the teaching staff cannot be taken lightly.
The most thorough way to solve the problem of teaching quality is to respect teaching and give it a higher status.
First of all, schools should have the will to change, and secondly, they should have sufficient funds. Only when the two go hand in hand can we reverse the long-standing development model of attaching importance to academic research.
What schools need to do is to treat teachers' teaching and academic research equally, so that teachers can spend more teaching time and less research time and have the time and energy to lead students.
Through exploration and discussion, let students get familiar with thinking skills gradually, instead of spending time copying courseware and taking notes.
Teaching is not instilling confidence, nor is it an entertainment program; Teaching is interaction and encouragement. And this kind of experience can only happen in the environment of small class discussion under the teacher's deliberate guidance.
Blindly choosing shortcuts will cause the consequences now. After all, the seeds sown will bear fruit.