I wonder if students know the difference between a teacher who is "hard" and one that is "unfair"? I had a student tell their parent that I was a "hard" teacher. I think that the parent thought the term "hard" was "unfair". I also was told that lately my classes have been a lot "harder" than before. I think that the student is thinking that school should be the way that it always was. The student is trying to compare my class with other teacher's. I have started to move away from me doing all of the teaching and I am asking my students to do some of the teaching/learning themselves. I know this will be difficult for the students but will they eventually see the worth in this style? I am trying to change the way that students view a class. What is going to be hard is changing the way that students and parents talk about classes.
I guess that I should be glad the student thinks of me as "hard" and not "unfair".(At least, that is what I think....I might need to ask my students.)
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I think we just need to keep having the conversation among faculty, students and parents about why we think constructivist teaching is better than the "old" way. I don't think it will happen overnight, but I do think that the more we can get people talking and thinking about this, the more likely they will end up being supportive. The problem we face is that no one has really asked them to think about it this way before.
I remember having the same kind of conversations about being a "hard" teaching or that a certain concept was "hard." Part of my response was always that "hard" was not the same thing as "too hard"; that they should want it to be hard because that means it was something that was truly challenging them to think and improve. That if all we gave them was "easy" stuff, we were really insulting their intelligence and disrespecting their abilities.
I recently had a discussion with my students about my class being "hard." One student had an interesting observation. She said that students and parents definitely all have different definitions of "hard" classes. Some think that a "hard" class is one in which students are required to turn in massive amounts of homework. Others think that difficult tests define a "hard" class. Still others think that a "hard" class is one that requires students to think and defend their positions. I thought that this was an interesting observation and I think that Karl's comment is right on. If we are not challenging students, we are not doing our jobs. (Although I have a few students who think that I am not doing my job correctly because they are not currently earning As!)
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