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one
thing that i take from nietzsche’s aphorisim is that one cannot teach
effectively without possessing a facility to identify with students in
a crucial way. to succeed as a teacher, one must be able to look at,
think about, understand, feel, live, and breathe the subject matter
under investigation in much the same way that one’s students do. this
view is, in a sense, extraordinary. for it implies that, as one
acquires a specialized knowledge and becomes more expert in a field,
teaching becomes harder rather than easier. to take all things
seriously only in relation to one’s students also commands a respect
for students; such respect must run deep enough to recognize and then
cultivate in students the idea that they are ultimately responsible for
their own education. when i think about the teachers who influenced me
the most, i realize that they all shared a common thread. what my best
teachers seemed to do -- whether in the classroom or the laboratory,
whether on-line, in the office, on the telephone, or in the hallways --
was to excite me about the subject-matter in a way that facilitated my
own understanding of it. by translating their own passion for their
field, they helped me grasp its import and relevance, they lent clarity
to my own analysis, and they challenged me to think about the subject
in as many different ways as possible, including ways other than the
received view.
i teach
issues at the intersection of law, ethics, and technology. during more
than 15 years of university teaching, i have offered classes ranging
from seminars of thirty students to lectures with enrolments of nearly
eight hundred. i have employed a number of different teaching devices: i have used lecture notes, blackboards, overhead transparencies, powerpoint, music, video, computer conferencing, and even magic tricks
to enhance my presentation style and delivery. i have also developed
materials that allow students to study in a mediated learning
environment from a distance. each of these tools has its own virtues
and each requires a certain mastery in order to be used effectively. more importantly, each serves a very particular function and therefore
has only a limited range of successful application. consequently, i
have found it necessary to think very carefully about why i have chosen
to use a particular device and how it will come across in the relevant
learning environment.
along
the way, i have discovered a number of useful pedagogical tactics. humour is one; i try to employ it wherever i can. another is the pause. i use it when nobody seems able to answer a difficult question. rather
than providing an answer myself, i simply wait. no matter how long it
takes. students quickly learn that there is nothing wrong with pausing
to think through a problem -- whether one is arguing in court or
sitting in front of a computer writing philosophical prose. there are
other ways that i use the pause. sometimes, when a class is overwhelmed
with the complexity of an issue, rather than spoon-feeding a solution,
as many teachers are tempted to do, i stop immediately. we take a
couple of minutes to relax (usually, i play music). then we go after
the problem again. a third way that i pause is by changing from the
lecture format into small discussion groups. whether the subject is
law, philosophy, or technology, the issues always lend themselves to a
dialogue. the small group discussion format provides an added dimension
to the more typical classroom dialogue by allowing and encouraging
students to participate in a manner that is more inclusive and,
perhaps, less intimidating than the larger setting. by testing their
ideas in this more comfortable environment, students get to know
themselves better as they get to know each other. once the groups have
fully contemplated the issue, we usually re-group and hear highlights
from the smaller group discussions. tactics such as these, though
sometimes difficult to implement in larger classes, are important and
worthwhile. when students see that a professor respects them enough to
try innovative teaching methods that include talking with them, rather
than merely talking at them, students begin to take seriously not only
their professors but, more importantly, their studies.
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