Teachers Are Magicians!

Is there a right or wrong way to educate? Do we educate for our learners or do we educate in a way that we feel is best for us?

I am not a sage on the stage or a guide on the side!

When I first read the "sage on a stage" article, I looked at it as a teacher and I could see how the teachers I was observing put into practice the "guide on the side" role, and while I could see its merit, I just wasn’t sure how I was going to do that. It seemed daunting.

I became intent on trying to achieve this, only to realise this totally conflicted with my personal preference as a student, and for me, I feel like I want to teach how I would want to be taught, because that makes sense to me and I feel I can do it well. What's the problem with that? Well, the problem is that I am a "Sage on the stage" type and apparently education really doesn't want a sage anymore.

As a teacher, this is hard because I feel I need to be sure all the necessary information about a subject is delivered in speaking, Powerpoint, and handouts. There could be no doubt that I had delivered what the specification required. This, to me as a new teacher, is very important. I want to make sure I am delivering content that is required and that will or could be asked for in exams. In doing this, I found that it’s not always easy or even possible to be a guide on the side. As I battled more and more with the two concepts, I came to the realisation that I didn’t like the idea of guide on the side, but I also knew I didn’t want to completely be a sage on the stage either. This is where my realisation of how I want to teach grew.

As a student, I was brought up with lectures and acetates, listening and looking and taking down notes. It put me in charge of my own learning, gave me responsibility. If I didn’t get the information down, I might miss something that I needed to know. To some this is tedious, so I hear! But to me, this is how I enjoy learning. I love hearing people talk about a topic, I admire their knowledge of the subject and ability to lay it out in a way that I can understand and learn from. I don’t think that a guide on the side teaches this way. There is too much "babying" of the students, or expectation that they should just be given something and be able to work it out for themselves. Don’t get me wrong, that moment that you have done something seemingly fun then realised you learned something is a real "ta da" moment, but for me it’s only a small part of the learning process.

Most of the knowledge being delivered to students is new to them. It’s not alien to me that it would require more than a few minutes talking before throwing them a task to help them grasp the knowledge. On reflection, I suppose that lecturing at students is another form of babying them. They are being given everything, not having to look for it themselves. But that is what homework is for, isn’t it? I think that listening, then writing it down, involves deeper thinking. Making sure that you are making sense with your own words entails deeper thinking, and this deeper thinking means processing what you are listening to on a deeper level. It isn’t just words you can float away from because you will be spoon fed a nice task to help it sink in. You are responsible for what you take away from the lesson. I believe that this is how college education should be, because at University you are well and truly on your own. And if students at college are spoon fed their education, how do we expect them to be able to suddenly stand on their own two educational feet in further education?

This is when I started to think along the lines of sage on the stage and guide on the side and I realised that I am a magician! Yes, those fateful words "Yer a wizard, ‘arry" did pop into my head, being that I am a massive Harry Potter fan. But, in my act, I deliver things that have never been seen before to my audience, yet for my act to be successful, I need audience participation. This is where the students come in. This means that I can stand and lecture and put more responsibility on my students to learn, but I can also give them activities to ensure that they are learning. I think this is the perfect blend of both worlds. I suppose it’s something of a mix of the two concepts, and a blend that more fits me, that’s for sure.

If we take a harder approach and only allow students so much rope and ensure we are delivering content in a pure format, I believe students will be forced to think for themselves, made to interpret the information you are giving them, and in doing that they are learning, making sense of things, processing on so many more levels. Being grown-ups!

I don’t want to be a sage, I don’t want to be a guide, I want to be a magician. I want to wow my audience and have them feel the passion for what I am teaching that I do. Until education moves away from the "softly, softly" approach, I am not sure students will really, fully immerse and engage in their learning.

With great power comes great responsibility, so Peter Parker's uncle once said, and I believe that is true. Give someone the power, and they then must take responsibility, and when they take responsibility, abracadabra doesn’t seem such a ridiculous idea after all.