Teaching is both a craft and science.
It's a process of crafting and refining a product with one's heart. Teaching takes a lot of time and efforts, but it may not lead to a satisfying outcome, which resembles the process of crafting. What teaching differs from crafting is that the object of teaching is a living one, whereas that of crafting is not. In addition to teaching, teachers also need to deal with students' responds. In this way, teaching is more difficult than making a drawing.
However, teaching is more than a craft. Being a good teacher requires professional knowledge about the subject. For example, one has to possess both linguistic and communicative competences which qualified as an English teacher. The precise knowledge about langauge makes teaching as a science.
posted by Jennifer @ 3/05/2006 09:44:00 PM
1 Comments:
Hi, Jennifer,
I also think that teaching is a combination of a craft and a science. And you are quite right that it is human soul and heart we are dealing with. This makes our work full of challenges. Besides being professional, a teacher needs to be considerate, sensitive and wise enough to give proper instructions about life to our learners. It's a reciprocal learning process. We grow in the process as our students do.
In her blog, Iris suggests that teaching is performing art. That reminds me of a poem I read years go, I would like to share it with you here:
Every Class is a Stage (author unknown)
Every class is a stage,
And the teachers and learners merely players.
They have their failures and their successes.
And the teacher in her time plays many parts
In a lesson of many stages:
At first, the ice-breaker
Breaking down the barriers between teacher and learner
Then the presenter of target language, with clarity.
And care to capture the attention of students
Who crawl unwillingly to school.
And then the friend,
Smiling and supportive, with encouraging words
Making learners’ syntax grow.
Then the tester,
Full of forms and index numbers, armed with marks,
Grading and ranking, quick in discrimination,
Seeking the carrot—extrinsic motivation,
But bursting the bubble, learner transformation.
And the judge,
Sitting at home with piles of papers,
With eyes sever and endless cups of coffee,
Full of corrections in red and underlinings.
And so she plays her parts.
The sixth stage shifts into the classroom manager,
Master-mistress of time and space,
Facilitator of classroom interaction,
And monitor of learners’ progress.
A model of language and correctness,
Using her voice to keep up the pace and keep down the noise.
Last role of all,
that ends a good teacher’s history:
the magician of transformation,
teaching with artistry,
with music, sculpture, painting
And with poetry.
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