Questions about what, why, and how I teach are constant preoccupations of mine. I want to attempt to make my thoughts about these questions more explicit, in part due to recent conversations I’ve been having with others (online and off), and in part because one of the most important things teachers can do in a public forum is to make their pedagogical philosophy and practice explicit. ¹

To help me think about these questions, I’ve created a little thought experiment:

I’m sitting in a hut somewhere (because I like huts, and nature). I’ve been given the freedom to teach whatever I believe is important and feel qualified to teach, I’m allowed to pursue whatever methods I choose, and I’ve been given access to whatever materials I need (my hut is wired). A bunch of students show up who have committed themselves to me and this hut for nine months (the time it takes to grow a person). They are eager to learn whatever I choose to teach (this is a thought-experiment, OK … I can dream). Of the things I feel qualified to teach,² what do I choose to teach them? Why do I choose those things and not others? How would I go about it?

Obviously, I’m starting from the beginning. I’m not even allowing myself the crutch of disciplinary categories (like “English” or “science” or “history”). I realize this does not equate to my actual teaching conditions, but I think I need to clarify my responses to these questions before modifying them with the final question: given the requirements and conditions of my current teaching situation, how would I modify my answers?

This last question is just as important as the others, but it comes after the others, just as the question “how” comes after “what and why.”³ First, my teaching conditions might change, which would require a revision of whatever accommodations I make given those conditions. Second, my basic philosophy about what is important to teach and how the teaching of those things should occur should not change so easily, and certainly not at the whim of the conditions in which I happen to find myself. Third, if I don’t start this experiment from outside my current educational situation, there’s no hope that I’ll arrive at an answer that isn’t limited by its setting, in which case I might as well skip this whole exercise and just open my county-approved curriculum guide to find the answer.

So this is the problem/thought experiment I pose myself. I’ll be offering my answers in upcoming posts. What are your answers? (You don’t have to be a “teacher” to play this game …)

Images:

1. “The Caretaker’s Hut and Funeral Rock” by Vincent Ma (on Flickr)
2. “Cabin porch in a summer rainstorm” by Bitterroot (on Flickr)

1. Even if this practice isn’t more important than wrestling with educational policies (i.e., NCLB, et al), it is at least a more specific and helpful approach to these problems. [back]
2. There are, of course, many things I believe students should know, but about which I feel unqualified to teach. I’m not taking on curriculum design as a whole, or school reform, or the entire educational system in this thought experiment, just my own philosophy and practice. [back]
3. It’s important that the “what and why” come before the “how” because we cannot think successfully about the best way to teach a thing until we have a clear idea of what it is we’re trying to teach. Similarly, we can’t design an effective test until we know what it is we’re trying to test. Only then can we create a test that is appropriate to its subject. At that point, we can happily teach to the test! [back]

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