Tuesdays with Jane: Week #13

 

(Tuesdays with Jane is a virtual learning series for those wishing to read or re-read Jane's books and immediately apply their new learning to their workplace. In preparation for this task, read Chapter 12 of Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach.)

Assuming New Roles for Dialogue:  Embracing the Death of the Professor

I remember being deeply intimidated by these two short workshops done at Maryknoll’s School of Theology in upstate New York. These men and women were top flight professors. When I heard that Richard Schaull from Princeton was coming, my knees buckled. Dr. Schaull had been invited by Paulo Freire to write the foreword to Freire’s classic Pedagogy of the Oppressed!

This short chapter captures some of the hard work done by these professors to change their deeply engrained practices and their perception of their role. 

Some great lines from Chapter Twelve:

  • “Modeling an approach to learning means being true to it in all circumstances.” p180
  • “We teach the way we have been taught.” p181
  • “[The professors] all remarked on the obvious need in this approach for preparation time, not only for researching content but also for designing learning tasks.” p186
  • “[The professors] do not have to die when the student ‘names the death of the professor.’  They have to do something more difficult. They have to live and learn.” p185-6
  • “…participation does not exclude personal responsibility.” p188

A LEARNING TASK

What one thing did you see these professors do in this chapter that you can do, and perhaps do today in your designing and teaching?

Why do you think I agreed to such a short (three day) workshop with the professors?

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