The Yin/Yang of Learning/Teaching

2011-04-12

I've observed that many people including students and educators believe that education consists of a teacher giving a student knowledge. Teachers are expected to exclusively teach, and students are expected to exclusively learn.

A lot of my science and math education consisted of memorizing rules and facts given to me by my teachers. My students often come to me with similar experiences. They memorize rules given to them by their teachers, but don't know where the rules come from, why they work, and when or how to apply them correctly. They rarely have the opportunity to explore or question the knowledge they are expected to memorize. Instead they are supposed to believe rules and facts on faith. This is very limiting, and exceedingly dangerous.

I started working as a teaching assistant early on in college, and I struggled with it. Teaching exposed all of the many weaknesses in my understanding. I was forced to realize that I didn't know much, even at the end of 5 years of university education. But through teaching, I was pushed to expand, deepen, and correct my knowledge. Since graduating, I've continued to teach and tutor. It's great to see students learn materials, and I always learn something myself. In preparation for teaching, I literally teach myself. With certainty, I can say that I've learned at least as much physics and math from teaching as I have as a student. But the learning I've done outside of school is different. I've replaced knowledge-as-a-given-thing with knowledge-as-understanding and knowledge-as-a-way-of-thinking.

I've learned a lot by watching other teachers and students do things, but I've also learned a lot by having to explore ideas on my own or with others, and by having to communicate and present ideas to others. Neither teaching nor learning are purely social or individual processes, but rather a union of social and individual exploration. Teachers and peers can show a student many useful processes and perspectives, but the individual student must ultimately work through a problem his or her self and create their own understanding an perspective. The individual must also practice communicating ideas and perspectives to others. In short, teaching and learning are the same thing. They are not separate.

In college I was fortunate enough to have a number of non-science teachers who encouraged me and my peers to explore, develop, share, and discuss ideas for ourselves and together. I recall a strange realization towards the end of one course in college that my teacher, Dr. Julie Moody-Freeman, had not actual "taught" me anything, but rather had indirectly facilitated an exploratory learning process. This experience was foreign to me against the rest of my education.

An acquaintance, "Dr. Tae", has proposed that we work to build a culture of mutual teaching and learning, not just in the classroom, but in all aspects of our lives. Recently, I've found this same beautiful suggestion in a 1965 essay by Che Guevara entitled "Socialism and Man in Cuba".