Learning From Each Other
The debate over the best method to impart knowledge has been perennial – whether it needs to be a monologue, an interaction, experiential or theoretical.
Coming to a grad school in the United States and having experienced a grad school in India helps me realize that learning from each other is possibly the most impactful form of imparting education to adults. The underscore here is on the word ‘adult’, where the imparter of knowledge works with an assumption that the seeker of knowledge is a mature individual who has a personal goal to fulfill when she enrolls for the course.
This assumption is inhering to the primary approach to teaching where the text-books and theory don’t serve as crutches to fill the time in the class. The teacher’s main role then remains to encourage every student to share some piece of experience which they believe is related to the topic at hand. The gravity, depth and relevance of experience is immaterial, the essence of the approach is that whatever the student chooses to share, it is heard with respect and is discussed further to relate it to the topic at hand.
The benefits of this approach are umpteen. Most prominently, the respectful hearing helps the student come out of what Peter Senge writes in his book ‘The Fifth Discipline’ – our instinctive belief in our powerlessness and unworthiness. He states that most individuals hold a belief that we are unable to bring into being all things we care about (powerlessness) and we do not deserve what we truly desire (unworthiness). The simple act of sharing their experiences and understanding them better, unconsciously helps the students in overcoming these beliefs.
The second big advantage is that others learn the difficult art of ‘listening’. Myriad times one misses those little nuggets of knowledge because of the feeling of ‘been there and done that’. The ‘listening’ that the student does in the class, helps her reinforce the existing knowledge and enhance it some more.
The beauty of the approach of the teacher espousing the role of the facilitator and the students sharing and listening is that the complete process helps a true learner in ways beyond the knowledge of the text.
The debate over the best method to impart knowledge has been perennial – whether it needs to be a monologue, an interaction, experiential or theoretical.
Coming to a grad school in the United States and having experienced a grad school in India helps me realize that learning from each other is possibly the most impactful form of imparting education to adults. The underscore here is on the word ‘adult’, where the imparter of knowledge works with an assumption that the seeker of knowledge is a mature individual who has a personal goal to fulfill when she enrolls for the course.
This assumption is inhering to the primary approach to teaching where the text-books and theory don’t serve as crutches to fill the time in the class. The teacher’s main role then remains to encourage every student to share some piece of experience which they believe is related to the topic at hand. The gravity, depth and relevance of experience is immaterial, the essence of the approach is that whatever the student chooses to share, it is heard with respect and is discussed further to relate it to the topic at hand.
The benefits of this approach are umpteen. Most prominently, the respectful hearing helps the student come out of what Peter Senge writes in his book ‘The Fifth Discipline’ – our instinctive belief in our powerlessness and unworthiness. He states that most individuals hold a belief that we are unable to bring into being all things we care about (powerlessness) and we do not deserve what we truly desire (unworthiness). The simple act of sharing their experiences and understanding them better, unconsciously helps the students in overcoming these beliefs.
The second big advantage is that others learn the difficult art of ‘listening’. Myriad times one misses those little nuggets of knowledge because of the feeling of ‘been there and done that’. The ‘listening’ that the student does in the class, helps her reinforce the existing knowledge and enhance it some more.
The beauty of the approach of the teacher espousing the role of the facilitator and the students sharing and listening is that the complete process helps a true learner in ways beyond the knowledge of the text.
posted by Garima at 11:25 AM
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