Learning outcome:
- LO1: Identify what your discipline has to teach students.
What does your discipline have to teach students?
The most effective teachers think about what they are teaching, and why they are teaching it, on multiple levels: not only about the content that they want their students to remember for the exam, but also about what they expect students to be able to do with the skills and knowledge they acquire in their classes a year, or a decade, into the future. At the very highest levels, these instructors are teaching students not only a body of knowledge, but a way of thinking about the world – an approach to asking questions, assembling data, and constructing arguments that is unique to each discipline.
Each and every academic discipline has something to teach students about the world and their future place in it; about how societies set their priorities, about how individuals make decisions, about the consequences of our actions, and about the technologies that will shape our futures. For the most effective teachers, their pedagogical choices will flow from an awareness that, ultimately, these are the things that matter, and they will be able to speak about their identities as teachers in terms of the lasting changes they hope to make in their students.
To get you started on thinking about how your identity as a teacher relates to your home discipline, please answer the following questions:
- What is the value for students in learning about your discipline now (i.e., while at university)? What knowledge and skills can they learn from you that can help them be better students in other fields? Are there things that they cannot learn anywhere else?
- What value does your discipline hold for your students’ future lives? What knowledge and skills can they learn from you that can help them be better citizens out in the world? What are not only the most useful, but also the most unsettling things that your discipline can show students about themselves and their fellow people?
Your reflection should not exceed 300 words.