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Saturday, October 11, 2008
On Teaching
At this point of time, I believe very strongly in the generalisation that people who aspire to be an MOE teachers don't make good teachers at all.
I believe that the only people who can teach a subject effectively are the people who have a very deep understanding of the subject at hand. And in order to have a deep understanding of it, you have to have a certain amount of interest in it. The more interest you have means that you become more driven to attain a deeper understanding.
As such, the best teachers come from the set of people who are strongly interested and have a deep understanding. And such people, I believe, come mostly from people who decide to pursue an academic career in the subject, who are passionate enough to want to be a student of it their whole lives.
I highlighted "from the set of people" because just I've encountered some profs who aren't good teachers too. Sometimes they just can't be bothered about teaching, sometimes they just don't have much linguistic flair.
I don't think that I'm an effective educator. Not yet at least. I lack experience, and perhaps am too green where my understanding is concerned as well. But I try my best. My students might not be as interested as I am, but I at least try to show that them physics or math is more than what their teachers in school tell them.
I believe in teaching the subject to a student, not teaching the student a subject.
Sorry NIE people, but I think (for those who do become educators) there's a very high chance that you'll probably become the jaded old man or lady sitting at the corner of the staff room(or HOD room if you're a more "effective" educator) (TK people, think Lim Ah Ber).____________________________________________________________________________________
