I owe most of what I am to all the wonderful teachers who have guided me along the way. So whenever I get the opportunity to wear a teacher's hat, I first reflect on 3 things - with all the teachers I have had the privilege of learning from, what worked, what didn't and what should have been.
Over the years I have taught different age groups ranging from secondary school kids aspiring for IIT JEE to business management post-grad students aspiring for great corporate careers to corporate employees to adults aspiring basic literacy and math skills. How you approach the learning process varies based on the audience, the setting and the context, and it's not just about the age.
I am not a professional teacher, nor an accomplished one. But as an amateur experimenter, I have learnt / experienced a few things about the role, and continue to explore the area with curiosity. And which I try to bring to the classroom whenever I get the opportunity. So, here is what I strive to achieve whenever I wear the exciting hat of a teacher.
- Share and Facilitate, don't teach. A teacher doesn't know it all. A teacher is also a learner, except that he/she has a head start on the subject as compared to most of the students. Even that is not always a given, and depends on the students' profiles and unique experiences. A teacher's job therefore is to create a healthy environment for consumption and sharing of knowledge. And there could be many conventional and creative approaches to do that. To quickly set the framework at the outset without losing time or interest of students is an art. And to evolve the framework as the course unfolds, such that students still feel engaged and excited, requires finesse of higher order. A teacher therefore is an artist.
In my course on IT project management, I have attempted to execute a peer learning model, where groups of students are expected to cover a lot of the course content, while I keep pitching in to provide insights from my experience and knowledge. I also selectively cover whole topics, but I'd limit that to those which I believe are deeply conceptual or where I have unique learnings or insights to share from my own experience.
So far, I must admit, in 3 attempts of teaching the same course - 2 of which were remote - I am still working on getting the model right. The recent attempt was in a physical classroom and the feedback was mixed - many students did not enjoy the presentations by other students, and the level of engagement on topics would depend too much on how it was delivered by presenters. The model was intended to facilitate learning from each other. However, quite a few students were unhappy with the fact that there was less of 'teaching' and more of student presentations. Project management is something learnt from practice and experience. We all manage projects in some form in our personal and professional / academic life. I therefore thought rather than covering a lot of theory, learning through case studies and experience sharing would be more helpful. I also stressed on the fact that students so grown up should consume simple and basic concepts on their own, and class rooms should be for further discussions, so as to draw maximum value from the time we had. Not all students saw the merit of this, and perhaps there's a conditioned expectation to just watch / listen to a good performance by a prof. I definitely need to work on improving this model and also make it more engaging and entertaining. It is important to balance knowledge delivery with peer learning. While neither works beyond a point, one has to find the optimum mix of ingredients to get the taste that is irresistible.
In physical settings, there is an obvious unease in some of the participants in having to appear attentive constantly. While there is the human aspect of near impossibility of doing so, a prof looking on makes it worse. In the older times we let our minds wander elsewhere. Now there is the constant urge to retreat to gadgets, which is an unhealthy yet all pervading practice these days. And in remote settings, one can detach with little inhibition or guilt. This could be the reason why the previous 2 attempts - which were delivered and attended remotely - were probably taken more positively (based on limited student feedbacks collected). But I can't be sure, there could be other reasons.
- Don't set boundaries. In my own lectures on IT project management, I don't limit discussions to IT alone. I let my thoughts wander into any area as I speak, e.g. non-IT projects, student projects, cinema, relationships & dating, startups, psychology, careers, etc. etc. Analogies, rather than text books, help drive management concepts deeper. So I also encourage students to reach out to people in various industries and learn from real experiences, and think about how they can apply their learnings within the IT context. I can draw a picture of how it all looks like from my limited experience, but what if we could tap sources beyond the classroom and share, so as to enhance all our knowledge collectively!
I encourage thinking wild and random, with of course some relevance to the topic, and often try to drive this by example. I tap into my sense of humor to help make it fun, and I hope some of it is received in the right spirit.
- Interest is not a given. Especially for elective courses, which have been explicitly enrolled for by students, one assumes, or at least expects, the students to be interested in the subject. However, I have realized that it may not be the case for many students. It wasn't the case even when I was a student, and I do realize 'interest' was not the reason for enrolling for some of the courses that I did. Options, availability, ability to score, ease, grades expected, perception of the prof, demand for the course, what my friends were doing, etc. etc. all played a role. Therefore, when you are teaching a course, your primary effort should still be to generate and sustain interest for the course in minds of all the students. It's easier said than done, especially in the current education system which places greater responsibility of generating learning outcomes on the teacher. And with gadgets integrating more and more with our lives, and finding their way into classrooms, getting students' focused attention has become a very complex challenge.
- Respect. I make it a point to treat business management students as grown-ups, as professionals who must behave responsibly, act with dignity and follow professional etiquette. It is equally important that I conduct myself with the same standards, so that I evoke respect from students and also lead by example. I often feel equal to my students, may be because of not being a teacher by profession or conditioning. And that keeps me humble and grounded. I also make it a point to be fair, honest and transparent, which is part of my duty as a teacher.
