Teachers and Students

One of the things I have been thinking about, as I've been pondering the tectonic shifts in education we’re living through and imagining a role for myself promoting self-directed Lifelong Learning, has been the role of the "teacher" in this new world. I think it makes sense to unpack all the things teachers did in the previous educational model and think about whether they still seem necessary, useful, relevant. Some of them can be taken on by motivated, self-directed learners. But what are the roles that might legitimately still call for a "teacher"?

The future educational model most of us who are discussing the topic seem to be imagining is one in which learners are not really "students", in the sense that they are not pursuing grades or accumulating credits toward a degree. We imagine them as having different goals for learning, which might include increasing their ability to do a particular type of work, improving their general understanding so they can better contextualize the issues of today, honing their thinking and communication skills, and learning more about topics that actually interest them. They're not going to need a teacher or professor to tell them what's going to be on the test or to be the gatekeeper of a passing grade. Are there other things an expert guide might provide, though, that would be valuable?

Typically, people approaching a new topic that interests them don't really know the contours of the knowledge they're seeking. An instructor could help them avoid following paths that others had already found to be dead ends. It's also very difficult, sometimes, to distinguish between truth and plausible fiction. A well-presented crank theory in a YouTube video with high production values (or coming from someone with the gravitas and "authority" we've come to expect of experts) can make it hard to sort out what's real. Even more complicated are the situations where we don't really know what the truth is, but there are passionate advocates for contradictory interpretations. An instructor who doesn't have a "dog in the race" might be useful, helping people sort through the arguments and evidence.

And of course, there is still a place for expertise. People who have devoted years or decades or a lifetime to a particular topic will have a lot of valuable information and insight to share with someone who has just arrived. Some of the experts will need to learn to communicate with people more effectively, since the learners will be approaching them voluntarily rather than entering a lecture-hall and sitting down to be talked at. The fact that classroom seating typically filled from back to front always struck me as sad, and as an indication that most of the students didn't really want to be there. So I've been thinking a lot about how to make my content interesting and my presentation easy to engage with. This involves three related but slightly different things: picking the "right" things to talk about, creating content that is interesting, and delivering it in media that are accessible and convenient.

In addition to imparting information to learners, instructors can also help learners train themselves in skills such as critical thinking, discussion, research and note-making, and writing. These have typically been elements of college courses, but they've often been held off to the side and treated as somewhat unrelated to the content being presented. I think there are ways to bring the material I cover in the course into the skills training, which I think will enhance both people's learning of the skills but also the interest of the content.

Finally, I think a very important contribution instructors can make to add value for learners is to model what it's like to be a Lifelong Learner. I think the best teachers are folks who remain interested in their content, which means people who are still pursuing their topics. This is what once made research universities so cool: you might get a chance to be taught by someone who was actually expanding the knowledge in their field by continuing to do research and writing. This doesn't always happen today, unfortunately. Often at the biggest R1s, faculty retreat into their research and leave the teaching to grad student TAs or non-tenure-track adjuncts and lecturers. And at the smallest, the requirement to publish can just be a chore that faculty reluctantly do because they have to. I think learners are much better off when their instructors are actually excited enough about the topics they are presenting that they're continuing to learn about them too.

I guess I'm reimagining the "teacher/student" relationship for the new self-directed era as more of an advanced learner/beginning learner type of thing. I'll continue thinking about the value I can add as an advanced learner of history, research, note-making, and writing. And about the best ways of making my content available for other learners who want to pursue these interests too.