Marvin Bartel on tue 28 may 96
At 05:09 PM 5/27/96 EDT, Dannon Rhudy wrote:
My greatest woe and biggest
>challenge is the passivity of so many of the students. It's as though they
>were - spectators, and not participants. I can't MAKE them want anything.
>If I could, then I'd make them want EVERYTHING. But, in the end, the
>responsibility is theirs.
After many years of teaching, I still agree wholeheartedly with this.
To overcome this tendency, my students leave the first class session
with an assignment requiring immediate "outside-of-class" practice resulting
in something we will look at during the second class period. They either
they want to learn how to do it or they drop the class (which is fine for
all concerned). Learning to swim requires deep water, some instructions,
some practice, some anxiety, some successes, and some serious desire to
master the task. Fortunately, for those of us who teach clay, most of our
students can opt to drop the class if they don't want to master the tasks.
On the positive side, I often have students that are so motivated by their
clay successes, that they gain enough self direction to stay in school and
get their degree.
This works at the college level. At the high school level it is a
bit more complicated because of the logistics of homework, requirements, and
so on. However, the educational concepts are still valid. Experiential
learning, not merely being a spectator, is a very important requirement.
My tough task as a teacher is to assess the student's tolerance for
difficulty. When it is too hard, I have to make it easier. When it is
easy, I have to give an assignment or be sure they are aware of the next
challenge to their complacency.
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Marvin Bartel, Art Dept
Goshen College, Goshen, IN 46526
marvinpb@goshen.edu
http://www.goshen.edu
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