Martin,
kudos on the note below - the only material difference, i think, between
who teaches and who learns is about location - who gets to stand (or
perch) at the front of the room
and who needs permission to speak from where they are, and so on.
to teach, to make "tacit understandings explicit" as you note,
requires learning about the people who listen to you,
learning to listen to their responses, learning to give due consideration
to alternate understandings
and new possibilities,
and the teachers who are no longer learning and usually no longer teaching
either.
methoughts
diane
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu writes:
>Eric states:
>"learning is not the same thing as teaching"
>
>At one level this is obvious. There are differential power and reward
>issues in terms of the overall division of labour and community mebership
>within the activity of formal learning and teaching institutions. My
>motivations for teaching are different to my motivations for learning (or
>in light of Bill's recent posting my researching). However you do not have
>to push the envelope too far to see the commmonalities are far stronger
>than differences. As I have noted previously we do not have words which
>distinguish between teaching and learning in Welsh; it all comes from
>context.
>
>What do I do when I teach? I make my tacit understandings explicit. I
>mediate these "understandings" to make them available to others. I examine
>the response from others to see if I am making sense and modify my
>mediation (and in so doing my tacit understandings) in the light of the
>dialogue with others.
>
>What do I expect my learners to do in their formal learning setting? Much
>the same.
>
>The mediation may include conversation, contrived but authentic (or
>inauthentic) activity, use of a tool to achieve some object. Even my
>principle roles as a teacher in the activity system are often those of
>the learner: initiator, guide, designer, author, steerer, soundboard,
>mirror. And, in most cases, the teacher and learner are the same species.
>
>Martin
>
"I want you to put the crayon back in my brain."
Homer Simpson
diane celia hodges
university of british columbia, centre for the study of curriculum and
instruction
vancouver, bc
mailing address: 46 broadview avenue, montreal, qc, H9R 3Z2
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