Teachers as entertainers

I try to be myself when I teach. To me, being who you are as a person is just as important as what you teach. But increasingly it seems that, even in higher education, we are expected to be good actors. Like an entertainer, we are to fully engage our audience.

As a teacher, I understand that I need to teach well, but I also realize that, if willing ears are not there, there may be teaching, but no learning.

I know that, as a student or other member of an audience, there are talks and lectures I have thoroughly enjoyed but don’t remember their intended messages very well. A student may remember jokes and interesting stories that a teacher tells but, at the end of the day, what is important is that facts and knowledge required of a trade or profession be gained, not recollection of jokes.

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Who's grading whom?
As I grow older, I have witnessed the gradual invasion of our consumer-oriented culture into all facets of society. Students are now viewed as consumers of educational “services.” As service providers, we teachers must try our best to cater to the needs of these consumers, because they rate our teaching performance in the mandatory Student Feedback Questionnaire (SFQ) and because the SFQ rating is part and parcel of our appraisal as university employees.

What is a teacher? Who is the teacher? Does the teacher teach only what the learner wants to learn? If so, is the teacher a mere facilitator, there merely to guide active, inquisitive minds? I am all for that kind of teaching-learning relationship. I am aware of the modern philosophy of teaching-learning, whereby a child is guided in his or her exploration of the world. Rather than being directly taught, they are facilitated into self-directed learning. Such practice is delightful and enlightening. It takes away the pain of learning, and only the joy of exploration remains. And given sufficient time and resources, such practice is suitable for nurturing young minds.

But given current mass education, where professors teach large classes, funding is limited, and educators have to make do within the prescribed limits of an academic semester, this approach is not exactly feasible. Individuals learn at different speeds and in a variety of ways. If all of a society’s learning opportunities were offered in a facilitated, self-directed mode, it would be extremely costly. Is this necessary in tertiary education?

What they need to know
I regard myself a teacher, not a service provider. I teach what I think is important for students to know about caring for older people, not what they think they need. I do not consider myself a businesswoman who serves clients by giving them what they want. This won’t work, and it is not education. I know that because, a few years ago, when I was leading a team to design a master’s program for community nurses on the topic of community care for older people, I conducted a survey. The results showed that the respondents (potential students in the program) wanted a curriculum plan they could finish in the shortest time and at lowest cost.

To further illustrate my point, our faculty offers an applied ageing studies baccalaureate program. When students were told they needed to study anatomy and physiology of ageing, they questioned why, because they viewed such topics as irrelevant. Yes, I know. It’s hard to believe students enrolled in an ageing studies program would think that way.

What I am trying to say is that education should not be a business, although it can be run using a business model. This is especially important for university education. Universities are supposedly the minds of a society. They are supposed to lead a society in thinking and providing directions as to where we, as a community, should be heading.

When I was a student, recognition of teachers was based on the depth of knowledge they had in the subject matter in which they specialized. Nowadays, much more is expected of a teacher. Not only do we expect the teacher to be a master of his or her field, but also, like an entertainer, to perform well in class. Our PowerPoint presentations have to be interactive, colorful, and punctuated by jokes and stories. Better still, one should show videos—anything that engages the five senses. The teacher has to make classes joyous and take all pain out of learning hard facts, theories, and formulas. He or she needs to have high emotional intelligence, excellent interpersonal skills, and mastery of motivational techniques. Meeting all of these expectations requires, I think, that one be nearly superhuman.

When I am acting out a role or making a joke, it must be for the purpose of trying to get a message across. I can’t act out a role for the entire duration of the class. I know that being a serious person does not fit well with contemporary expectations of a popular teacher, but, to teach effectively, I need to be authentic.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

Friends or family?

I respect and value my students as adults. I treat them as friends. At least, this is what I used to do, most of the time.

There are varying degrees of friendship. With some friends, you can talk openly; with others, you may not be able to spill your heart. But all of them are your friends—unique individuals who may or may not listen to you. We give adequate space to our friends, even very good friends.

As teachers, our students are hardly our best friends. With new batches of students passing through each semester or year, they are more like new acquaintances or new friends.

Having taught at my university for 17 years, I have come to learn that, sometimes, being a friend is not enough. Some students seem to respond better if you speak to them as if they were your adult children. I am not suggesting that we treat our students like young children, but I have observed that some of my colleagues do treat their students like their grown-up children, and, for some, this has worked.

We expect our friends to listen to us, to be good to us. Yet, we know that, no matter what we expect, a friend is not a family member. Family members make demands on us. Family members are connected to us on a deeper level. They are part of us, no matter what.

It is not so difficult to manage expectations of students who take a course or two from you. But what if you are their academic adviser? Being an academic adviser does not mean that the students we advise are close to us or willing to talk to us. So, do we simply provide academic advice about which courses to choose, how to study, and nothing more?

What about research students who work with us for a few years? Do we treat them like friends or family? When they repeatedly make the same mistakes, a friend would probably give up and say no more. But a family member would persist. Where do we, as teachers, draw the line?

When I was younger, my students were my friends. That was the way I wanted it. As I become older, I become less sure, and I realize it is unrealistic to expect from my students what I expect from my friends. Younger adult students are not yet that mature, and, if I were only a friend, I would be frustrated. I would demand that they be like me, that they think and work like me. But if I were to regard my students as my grown children who are trying to master particular subject matter, I would be more patient, more understanding, more tolerant of repeated mistakes.

I cannot say which is right or wrong, to coach my students as friends or as adult children. I only know that, with increasing age, my attributes as a teacher have changed. I hope I am now a more effective teacher. But that is for my students to say.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.