Realism and the Good Teacher

A good teacher is

1) knowledgeable about the subject matter and/or skillful

2) has the know how to teach the subject matter

3) must employ different methods appropriate to the student's background and situation

4) should not be distracted from their primary task of advancing human rationality

The realist teacher does not stray far from our modern conception of a teacher. A teacher knows about what he is going to teach and also knows how to teach it. A teacher must also then consider where his students are coming from and use the methods necessary to teach the lesson properly. What strikes me most is the 5th item on the list. A teacher should not be distracted from his primary goal which is develop human rationality, which to me translates to: helping the students think and understand the world for themselves.

From my own experience as a teacher, the required curriculum and other the everyday requirements of the school and administrators can easily fill up your day. This, is on top of the fact that you are going to face all of your students each day and be a teacher, hopefully a good one. There are lesson plans to make and submit, quizzes and long tests to prepare and check and grades to compute, each takes a lot of time and can easily be the focus a teacher's every day. What is sometimes forgotten are the state of the students and, at the end of the day, why they are in the classroom in the first place.

In Science, there are countless facts to memorize and processes to understand as well as the reiteration of the scientific method each and every year. It is very easy to get swept up in trying to get the students to memorize and quiz them on how much they've retained from the previous lesson. It is very hard, on the other hand, to teach the exact same subject but keeping the idea that in learning Science, the student can learn also learn to observe, to ask, to infer and to analyze what they have observed. It takes a little more effort from the teacher to connect the lesson to something relevant they see and use everyday. It takes some more effort to tie all lessons together and get the students to see the big picture. In giving this extra effort, the student should develop the capability to see the same world, same phenomena they have seen throughout their lives and see it in a different way and understand it a different way. The scientific method should not just be a concept they think about and use in the classroom. Outside, it can be a new way of interacting with the same world.

In realism, education is not an end itself, instead it is the process by which someone develops their thinking and understanding of the world. A teacher should see their role clearly in this process. A teacher does not just transfer knowledge and check tests but goes beyond the everyday roles and tasks that involve the teaching profession. A good teacher should then constantly strive to make all lessons relevant to each student and help them see the world in new and different ways.