HOW TO AVOID GETTING KILLED BY A STATUE: SOME LESSONS ON TEACHING AND LYING FROM NIETZSCHE'S THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA

Think ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (60) ◽  
pp. 79-90
Author(s):  
Stuart Dalton

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra Nietzsche explores the nature of teaching and learning and concludes that a teacher can do more harm than good in a student's life if she allows her students to become her ‘disciples’. A disciple assigns too much authority to a teacher and thus loses the ability to think independently; this is what Zarathustra means when he warns his students, ‘Beware that you are not killed by a statue!’ In this article I argue that Zarathustra's solution to this problem is to undermine his own authority by performing several different variations of the Liar's Paradox in parts 2 and 3 of Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Kathryn Strom ◽  
Jason Margolis ◽  
Nihat Polat

Background/Context Despite noted difficulties with defining and assessing teacher dispositions, U.S. state education departments and national accreditation agencies have included dispositions in mandates and standards both for determining teacher quality and for assessing the quality of the teacher preparation programs that certify them. Thus, there remains a significant impetus to specify dispositions to assess, identify what “good” dispositions look like in practice, and determine the best way to measure them. Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we aim to problematize the construct of “teacher dispositions” through a critical synthesis of literature and a discussion of a rhizomatic perspective to generate a (re)conceptualization that is more closely aligned with the immensely complex nature of teaching and learning. Second, we draw on samples of university-generated teacher disposition assessment tools to provide concrete examples that “put to work” this complex perspective on dispositions. Research Design To apply ideas introduced in our rhizomatic framework focused on multiple, dynamic assemblages, we conducted a qualitative textual analysis of a sample of 16 widely available assessment tools used by university-based teacher preparation programs to measure teachers’ professional dispositions. Findings and Conclusions Overall, the vast majority of disposition criteria included in the tools reviewed were temporal and relational, seeking to assess the interactions of the teacher candidate amidst a variety of potential circumstances as well as material and discursive factors. This reveals a paradox, however, since, despite their more contextual phrasing, these criteria ultimately seek to assess an individual and are high-stakes only for that teacher. Yet, we suggest that the results of this review may be an indication that the field is moving toward a more multifaceted vision of teaching that can better take into account the dynamic, situated, and relational nature of teaching activity. We also suggest the language accounting for some of the complexity of teaching in the disposition assessment tools we reviewed may be an entry point into a more dynamic, vital materialist vision of the profession.


Author(s):  
Elisa Saraiva

This chapter describes an empirical study using multimodal narratives for research into students' development of epistemic practices in the classroom. Multimodal narratives can give access to classroom events, preserving their complex and holistic nature. Through content analysis, they allow a good comprehension of the multimodal nature of teaching and learning practices. The results of this work highlight the importance of multimodal narratives as a research instrument. Their importance is based on the richness of elements they contain that allow the identification, categorization, and characterization of teacher mediation actions that promote, scaffold, and enlarge students' epistemic practice development. This chapter seeks to describe both their multiple potentialities as an instrument and their limitations when researching the development of students' epistemic practices in the physical sciences classroom.


Author(s):  
Terry Kidd

The introduction of technology into classrooms during the 1980s was heralded by many as the dawn of a new era in American education. Proponents argued that technology had the potential to fundamentally transform the nature of teaching and learning. However, over time, this dream became a nightmarish reality. Likewise, educators concerned about the chronic underachievement of urban learners often fell prey to the allure of technology as a tool for reversing the historical influences of poverty, discrimination, inequity, chronic underachievement, and lack of opportunity. However, twenty-five years after the introduction of the computer into the classroom, many of the expectations associated with technology in education remain unrealized. This chapter hopes to discuss some of the issues and trends associated with technology adoption and usage at urban schools.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 112-136
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Bond ◽  
◽  
Geoff Woolcott ◽  
Christos Markopoulos ◽  
◽  
...  

Formative assessment is a crucial aspect of teaching and learning in the classroom, but there is evidence that there has been a lack of effective implementation of formative assessment in practice. In response, this article outlines the design and development of a formative assessment framework that can be implemented as a consistent whole-school approach to embedding practice that is owned and developed by teachers. The approach outlined in the framework, therefore, is designed to integrate formative assessment practices within a school system context, providing advice and support to school leaders and teachers. The framework in practice should act to enable teachers and students to develop new understandings and perspectives about each other and the nature of teaching and learning, as well as ways to implement new practices of teaching and learning supported by reflective modes of active participation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Sinnema ◽  
Frauke Meyer ◽  
Graeme Aitken

Given widespread acceptance of the role of teaching in improving student outcomes, it is not surprising that policy makers have turned to teaching standards as a lever for educational improvement. There are, however, long-standing critiques of standards that suggest they are reductionist and promote a dualism between theory and practice. Our purpose here is to propose a model of Teaching for Better Learning ( TBL) that responds to those critiques and that captures the complexity of teaching rather than focusing on discrete elements. Our model foregrounds the salience of teachers’ own situations and the active nature of teachers’ practice in a way that integrates practice with relevant theory. We outline how the TBL model can be used to derive inquiry-oriented teaching standards, an alternative approach that challenges widely accepted conventions for the design of standards and, we argue, might better support the improvement of teaching and learning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Alison Kay Reedy ◽  
María Lucía Guerrero Farías

This paper presents a systematic review of the extent and nature of teaching and learning research in higher education in Colombia over the past two decades and shines light on a body of literature from the South that has been relatively invisible on the global stage. The study found that the volume of SOTL taking place in higher education in Colombia is greater than indicated by previous research, but is taking place unevenly across the higher education landscape. This paper explores the challenges faced by Colombian scholars in engaging in and publishing teaching and learning research. The findings show that while teaching and learning research is happening in higher education in Colombia there are major issues in identifying and locating that research due to a lack of consistent terminology to describe SOTL. The findings also show that the nature of research emerging from Colombia is highly aligned with the global North in terms of methods, methodologies and themes. This paper concludes with recommendations on how to make Colombian learning and teaching research more visible and to reflect to a greater extent the diversity and richness in teaching and learning that takes places in Colombia.   How to cite this article:  REEDY, Alison Kay; GUERRERO FARÍAS; María Lucía. Teaching and learning research in higher education in Colombia: a literature review. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 3, n. 2, p. 10-30, Sept. 2019. Available at: https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=113&path%5B%5D=44  This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/


Gesnerus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-148
Author(s):  
Melissa Van Drie ◽  
Anna Harris

For centuries, those training doctors have been faced with the challenges of standardising subjective experiences and constructing “the universal body” in learning situations. Various technologies have been introduced to address these challenges, with varying degrees of success. In this article we focus on the stethoscope, specifically the electrical and digital stethoscope models. Historical and social studies of medicine have already underlined the sociomateriality of learning in medicine. In this article we underscore the per formative nature of teaching and learning in the sociomaterial context. We do so by juxtaposing ethnographic and historical events that stage electrical and digital stethoscopes. These are not documentations of everyday practices but rather reconstructions of choreographed performances for learning about the body. In these stagings, the novice is taught to focus attention and avoid distraction, when learning the sounds of “the body”. Through engaging with, and comparing, different ethnographic and historic materials and artefacts, and through methodological reflection, we examine the importance not only of attention and distraction in learning a bodily skill, but also of dealing with distortion. We argue that these ethnographic and historic insights into distortion illuminate a neglected aspect of medical training, and more generally, in shaping sensory perceptions.


Author(s):  
David Connor ◽  
Louis Olander

Ideological disputes about what human differences constitute disabilities undergird two very distinct positions that are known as medical and social models of disability. The positions significantly impact how inclusive education is envisioned and enacted, with proponents of each model holding fast to what they believe is “best” for students. Related areas of significant dissension among the two viewpoints include: (a) the concept of disability and “appropriate” placement of students deemed disabled, (b) the purpose of schools, (c) the nature of teaching and learning, (d) a teacher’s roles, (e) the notion of student success and failure, and (f) perceptions of social justice and disability. These interconnected and sometimes overlapping areas convey how medical or social models of inclusive education can vary dramatically, depending upon an educator’s general ideological disposition toward disability or difference.


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