Defining Teaching and Learning

Throughout the program we have been encouraged to define and redefine teaching and learning. We wrote our first definition in the summer time and were asked to return to it again in our final portfolios. Here is what I came up with:

Returning to the definition of teaching I created this past summer, I still believe teaching is multilayered and must establish different objectives based on the context and population one is teaching. Teachers at any moment may serve as friends, parental figures, counselors, and student/community advocates. Depending on the context and need, teaching can include the provision of psychological, emotional and spiritual support. Inherent to this process is learning for both parties. I have learned through experience that both student and teacher can be changed as a result of the relationship. Moreover, neither role is static as roles may be switched in some instances. 

 Nell Noddings asserts that “Teachers model caring when they steadfastly encourage responsible self-affirmation in their students. Such teachers are, of course, concerned with their students' academic achievement, but, more importantly, they are interested in the development of fully moral persons.”(10)Beyond developing academics, I am interested in cultivating critical thinkers, who possess empathy and a strong sense of self.

 Teaching should derive from a place of love and a genuine concern for the betterment of the individual and society as a whole.  This does not just mean concern for those who are excelling but concern for those who seem to go unnoticed; and concern for those who may be written off as lazy and disinterested. For me teaching and learning is the vehicle by which we can transform our society.