A New Role for the Teacher
Posted in Adult Education on 29. Apr, 2010
If telling is not teaching and listening is not learning, how does a teacher teach?
By giving your student learning tasks. A learning task is an open question put to the learners who have all the resources they need to respond, inviting their reflective response.
As your learners work on learning tasks, in small groups of 4 or less, the teacher’s role is to sit still, keep quiet and pay attention. The learning place is sacred. Men and women need to feel their autonomy; they need to struggle with the new content and skills long enough. We are not helpers. When invited, we offer a response to the questions asked, and then we leave.
This is a new role indeed!
Excerpts from Taking Learning To Task by Jane Vella.
