One’s best teachers are one’s students
Lewis Elton, University of Manchester and University of Surrey
 
Context/Situation/Challenge
I had very recently changed my specialism from theoretical nuclear physics to the improvement of university teaching.
 
Characteristics of the situation that engaged me in an immersive way
I had offered my first national and residential workshop in teaching and learning in 1971 and there were about 25 participants. I had been a very traditional teacher (lectures, tutorials, laboratories), although I believe a good one, but I had invited an expert in small groups – Brigitte Eckstein – to do something more revolutionary, from which I could learn. However, my contribution to small group teaching was to be in the form of a traditional tutor-led tutorial (Socratic). I got little response from the group (a common experience) as long as I led the discussion, but as soon as I opened it up to the group and asked them to initiate discussion, the waters burst! I could not stop them and we went on for two hours, when I closed the discussion.
 
Brigitte at the same workshop ran a small group discussion which did not aim to increase knowledge, but develop people. In one, in which I acted as an assistant, she discussed the issue of listening and responding instead of initiating. Suddenly, one of the women present broke uncontrollably into tears and when she recovered some composure, she confessed that she before had never listened. This is not uncommon among men but much rarer among women and realising it, affected her greatly.
 
At the end of the workshop, we invited some university high ups to join us and listen to our experiences. I vividly recall one participant becoming almost incoherent in her praise, until one of ‘high ups’ said, I don’t know what you have experienced, but it was clearly a great experience.
 
How I was changed (or what and how I learned)
I learned and continue to learn that what is important is learning, not teaching. I learned and continue to learn that there is an emotional aspect to learning as well as an intellectual one. I became (I hope!) less arrogant and more tolerant.
 
Descriptions of the immersive experience
Serious,
Unsettling
Humbling
Exciting
Developmental
Empowering
Self-affirming
Emotional
Enjoyable
 
Principles and lessons to be drawn
·Learning goes on until we die; to teach without at the same time learning is arid.
·Informal learning is as important as formal learning, but the two are very different from each other.
·There are so many ways to learn and to teach.
·I never do the same thing twice in teaching/learning
·If teaching has no creative component, it is instructing, not teaching.
·One’s best teachers are one’s students.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 


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