I had a colleague
who enjoyed great respect from his fellow teachers. He would often be the one
who dared come up with a critical and often conservative view in meetings. He
once complained about the practice of having the entire year visible on the
school’s learning platform. “Pedagogy,” he said “Is sometime the art of
withholding things.”
I must
admit I didn’t understand him until much later. On a weekend climbing course, a
participant asked about fall factor, a crucial theoretical concept in rock
climbing. I felt obliged to give a full answer, and a full answer takes some
time. Many of the other participants heard us talking and came over to hear,
necessitating starting anew several times. An outspoken assistant objected to
my explanation and then I really had my hands full with damage control.
The right
thing to do would have been to say: “That’s a really good question. Fall factor
is an important topic, so we’ll talk about it in detail tomorrow.” Tomorrow when it fits in with the progression of the course, tomorrow when I can create a situation that suits the topic, tomorrow when I've managed to awaken their curiosity and previous knowledge in advance. It’s not
about taking things when it suits me, but about taking things when it suits the
students. And the best person to judge the student’s needs is usually …the
teacher.
The pedagogy of fall factor will be discussed in a different post.
