Just ten Canadian professors each year win the 3M National Teaching Award. Excerpts from a profile of one of them.
Ryerson University history professor Arne Kislenko … doesn’t use PowerPoint or any other technology. While he makes ample time for students outside the classroom, when lecturing he sees no problem with asserting his expertise over his students. In class, apart from presenting the occasional map, he rarely departs from straightforward lecturing. “Too many bells and whistles takes away from the orator, and I think the professor is the real conduit of knowledge,” he says.
… Kislenko’s lectures are full of emotion—injected with humour, irony, outrage and sadness, depending on the historical period he is discussing…
May 26th, 2011 at 12:54PM
As an adult educator, I subscribe to the philosophy of creating a community of learners. Meaning that although the professor is a conduit of some knowledge, adult students come to the classroom with wealth of knowledge and experience. Their contribution to the class is just as valuable as the professors. Even if powerpoint or no other technology is used, shouldn’t the voices of the students be heard in addition to that of the professors?
May 27th, 2011 at 7:31AM
I’m not sure about “just as valuable.” If they’re taking art history (my occasional experience with adult learners) the students are typically interesting people, well-travelled and museumed-up, but they have seldom made critical comparisons between the things they have looked at. So the voices of students are a genuine contribution, but are not as valuable. Otherwise, why pay me? Why not just have an art-appreciation kaffee-klatsch?
May 27th, 2011 at 11:57AM
As students sink into debt, I feel honour-bound to provide something that they can’t get from each other or from the text, even as I do the less than desirable online course (I teach in the States from overseas). I do provide opportunities for them to share and offer what they have to each other, but I’m quite sensitive to my student working 12 hour shifts on the weekends to pay for her education. Even when the institution won’t pay me a fair wage, I still feel that I owe her. I wish the institution felt similarly about my efforts. It is a dilemma for me, but one for which, so far, I won’t shortchange my students (though some wish I would back off a bit!).
May 31st, 2011 at 1:32PM
I was thinking more of a spirited discussion or debate on the topic. A forum where ideas are voiced and challenged instead of the professor being the all-knowing-of-information. All experts in the field do not mean experts in facilitating a class discussion.