教育名著《The Elements of Teaching》读后感
几周前开始阅读《教学的元素》The Elements of Teaching这本书,里面提到了关于教学的十个元素,因为是英文原版,还是不太好读,长难句也不少。磕磕绊绊地读完了,感触颇深。特此分享。
1. 为什么作者说很多老师忘了教学是门艺术活?
Because many teachers are trained in the sciences
and techniques of education, and professional teachers know how to apply the
methods and psychology they have learned. But there is a challenge: they must
improvise as best they can.
老师们学习过教育的科学与技巧,知道怎么把学到的方法运用于实践。但是教学中还有很大的挑战来源于,教学即兴的部分。也许大家太过于重视已知技巧和规律的运用,会忽略教学艺术的方面。
这是作者的观点,连理论都还没有长期实践的我,可能连教学的门都还没真的踏进,离“忘记教学是门艺术活”都还远着呢。
2. 10项教学的元素:learning, authority, ethics, order, imagination, compassion, patience,
tenacity, character, and pleasure.
“What ground, medium, color, form, and implements
are to the visual arts, so certain constituents— learning, authority, ethics,
order, imagination, compassion, patience, tenacity, character, and pleasure—are
to teaching. Just as all artists learn, know, select, and employ varieties of
each of the constituent elements of their craft in creating their distinct
works, so teachers use the components of their own art to teach in ways as
distinctive as each teacher is unique. For this reason, teaching has always defied
strict and agreed-upon definition.”
这些元素之于教师,就如同背景、介质、形式、颜色、用具之于艺术家,教师用这些去创作自己的作品,不同的老师会选择不同的组合,这也让每一个老师都是独一无二的。感觉就像没有两幅完全一样的艺术作品一样,优秀的教学也是很难复制粘贴的。让我想到我们可以去模仿优秀的老师,但最终还是要做有创造力的老师呀。
3. 教学和科学、艺术之间的共同点分别是什么?
“So while we cannot predict the outcome of teaching
from its ingredients, we can isolate these ingredients, much as we can those of
any art, in order to examine and understand them.”
如同艺术中元素可以拿出来分析,我们教学中的这些元素也可以独立出来进行分析。与之前提过的那样,教学和艺术都是创造性的。
“While teaching shares some of the attributes of
science—its necessary components can be identified, some of its good results
can be repeated, discoveries about it can be built upon—it is intrinsically an
imaginative synthesis.”
教学与科学的相同之处大概就在,一些必要的元素都是可以确定的,有一些好的结果是可以重复的,以及可以在此基础上继续探索。而和科学不同的是,科学可能有一些可预测的结果,而教学往往是不可预测的。
4. 教师和艺术家有什么不同?
According to the writer, different from artists,
teachers rarely think about what they are and what they know of themselves.
Artists will think about the ingredients while teachers will not consider the
elements that make up their daily work. Teachers spend little time discuss that
with their colleagues.
我觉得这个地方,作者想表达的教师们可能不会像艺术家经常反思“我是谁”这样的问题,教师们可能不会对自己日常工作的很多组成成分进行思考,老师也不会花费太多时间和同事讨论这些。但我觉得这个东西也是因人而异吧,感觉了解到的那些优秀的不断进步的老师也是在不断思考自身价值,不断沟通交流的。
5. 教师为什么必须是道德的?
“Teachers are ethical not only because the
trusteeship role of instruction requires it; teachers are ethical so that their
students can learn how to be ethical, too. Teachers exhibit pleasure in the
classroom not only to enhance learning but also to exhibit to their students
the delight that comes with acquiring and using knowledge.”
因为老师和学生的关系中有着来自学生的信任,而当老师是道德的时候,学生会学着怎样遵守道德。大概就是言传身教的魅力吧。如果老师在课堂上创造出愉悦,这种愉悦的气氛不仅能促进学习,而且能让学生感受到获取知识、运用知识的乐趣。
6. 为什么说教学比学习难度更大?
Teachers need to pass on the positive traits of
human to others. Teachers need to devote themselves into teaching, knowing the
effects teacher have or ought to have on students. Learning requires effort,
but teaching requires more for the moral and human responsibility it takes.
因为教师需要向学生展示人类积极向上的品质,同时教师需要了解自身、投入与教学,他们需要知道自己对学生会有怎样的影响,或者对学生应该有怎样的影响。学习需要付出,而教学由于需要担起道德和人性的责任而更加辛苦。
7. 如果教师停止学习,会造成什么后果?
“The most ambitious students quickly spot the
teacher without command of a subject or the one who has no genuine thirst for
knowledge; they mark that teacher as lacking in authority, as someone whose
ignorance of a subject poses a threat to their own well-being by preventing
them from learning all they might be taught.”
学生是能够感受到哪些教师只是把教书当作工作,哪些是把教书当作学习的使命感。有抱负的学生能非常快的发现那些老师不具备学科知识,或者并不渴望知识。这样的教师在他们眼里缺乏权威,这些教师在学科上的无知会影响学生学习他们应该学习的知识。
“Thus for a teacher to stop learning is to destroy
one of the principal means a teacher has to bridge the gap between ignorance
and knowledge and between despair and hope. What is more, to stop learning
suggests to students that a teacher is bored with the subject; and, alas,
boredom is every bit as infectious as enthusiasm.”
如果一个教师停止了学习,那也就意味着教师来连接无知与知识、绝望与希望的作用被毁灭。而且教师停止学习也在向学生暗示老师对这个学科感到了厌倦,这种感到无聊的情绪像对学科的热情一样有传染力。
当我们停止了学习,学生一定是会发现的,而正如下一章authority所讲到的,权威的来源也是学习。
8. 教师保持学习的方式有哪些?
“Keeping current with a body of knowledge does not,
however, necessitate only solitary reading and study; it can be accomplished
with colleagues in study groups, in formal programs of continuing professional
education, and by attendance at meetings of scholars and fellow professionals.
What matters is not the means of staying abreast of knowledge but the actual
pursuit of that knowledge.”
保持学习并不只是独自阅读和学习,还可以与同事成立学习小组一起学习,参与正规的职业教育培训,参加学术会议。真正重要的并不是方式,而是去实际的学习行为。
9. 教学中最危险的事情之一是什么?
“Detecting ignorance while
inadvertently overlooking understanding is one of the great hazards of all
teaching.”
这里我的理解是,教学中最危险的事情是总去寻找学生缺乏的知识点而过度轻视了他们已知的知识的价值。所以作者说我们要鼓励学生彼此分享自己所掌握的,老师们也更好地关注于学生掌握了的而不只是他们没掌握的。
10. 会学习的老师如何回应学生关于“学习意义”的问题?
“Because acquiring this knowledge is difficult.
Because you will feel triumphant when it no longer confuses you. Because you
will enjoy what you can do with it. Because in learning it you may discover new
perspectives on life, new ways of thinking. Because its possession will make
you more alive than its alternative, which is ignorance.”
作者先举例了通常大家会想到的回答,“因为学校课程要求”“因为你可以在考试中表现更好”“因为你之后学经济学的时候会需要它”。而会学习的老师会告诉学生,因为习得知识是困难的,因为它不在困扰你的时候你会获得成就感,因为你会享受你所能做到的这些,因为学习会让你发现关于生活的新观点、思考的新方式。因为与它的替代品无知相比,拥有知识会让你的生命更鲜活,
学习的意义,从来就不止是一个知识点,一场考试呀。对我来说,学习语言不仅仅是语法、词汇这些,语言背后是不同的思维方式,是不同的文化,是更大的世界。作为语言学习者,在学习之后发现自己能读懂听懂更多东西的时候,真的是令人无比开心的。想把这种学习的快乐,传递给学生。教育真的是一个伟大而具有挑战和创造性的事情。教育也真的是这个世界上独一无二的一项工作。教师们真的是任重而道远,但这个工作一定是有意义的。
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