Gosh, this question about the importance of theories is a difficult one. I know what I should answer, and I know what I want to answer.
What I should answer: Theories are very important in teaching.
What I want to answer: Theories can be interesting (occasionally), but it's trial and error that really works.
I have to confess I have read a great deal about theories and very little has actually stayed with me. I get interested when the writer does a case study. I want to know what the students are doing and what teachers are doing to help them. But when some theorist drones on and on about models with names I can't pronounce, it's game over for me. I'm just not that type of person who is going to encounter some sort of problem in class, and then think back to some theory that will magically solve everything. I just don't have those theories in my head, and in reality, I don't want them there. I don't want to become some teacher robot who spews forth the ideas of someone else. I like to plan my lessons using interesting topics or unusual methods. I want to attract attention from my students. When they're attentive, they learn. I think that's more important than following a theory.
Having said this, being asked about theory (in a job interview, for example) terrifies me. Those names and examples just aren't in my brain. I suppose I will answer that I prefer to rely on what I know works for me as a teacher and what works for the students I have had in the past, my own personal theories I guess you could say. And I'll just have to hope there's another free spirit (preferably an old hippie with a hemp necklace) sitting across the desk from me.
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5 comments:
I agree with a lot of your comments. It is one thing to say that you employ an expressive or Aristotarian theory of teaching, but it is another to know what kind of teaching methods should be employed in the classroom and how kids respond. It seems like it is more important to understand your students and their reception of the material rather than repeating esoteric words. Also, I have to admit.. I, too, am deathly afraid of that interview. Not only do I not really have a pedagogy, but I tend to be non-linear in my thinking. I think this will be bad news because I'm not good at articulating (much less actually thinking out) the massive processes that theories seem to expound.
I'm with Matt! Sign me up for the anti-theorist movement! I think a lot about teaching is trial and error (at least is has been for me) and sitting away in some room and talking about how things work is a lot different than getting your hands dirty.
Landon,
You say some really interesting things here. I have to admit, when I walk into a classroom as well, theory is one of the last things that enters my mind. However, even if you do not think that you know all the 'fancy' names of theories and theorists, I'm sure you would find that you practice, and yes even think along those lines, many times. I find myself doing this after class quite a bit more than during or before class. And while I think theory does often seem to be a bit dense and impractical for many activities, outside of that job interview, it often leads to social change, if slow. You might be surprised for example about how many theories of Aristotle's still inform our ethical system, even more than popular religion.
Word on the trial and error. I think it's way more important to develop your own style than abide by some theory.
Do they really ask about theories in interviews? I would be wrecked if they did. I retain nothing. Perpetual writerly distraction, or psychological laziness? You decide...
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