One of my constant complaints as a teacher is that I feel I’m assigned to teach material that is irrelevant. It’s hard to make that interesting. In response to that, I suppose, I’ve been exploring the Dogme philosophy/pedagogy that has become rather en vogue in certain ESL circles. The idea behind Dogme, or unplugged learning, is to get away from a pre-determined syllabus, frequently inappropriate in level or content of interest to students, and instead draw on the students’ immediate needs, circumstances and interests to drive the content of the course.
In essence, the problem I face in my current situation boils down to this:
When we tell students to study for the exam or, more to the point, to study so that they can do well on the exam, we powerfully reinforce that way of thinking. While faculty consistently complain about instrumentalism, our behavior and the entire system encourages and facilitates it. (Chronicle of Higher Education)
So I wonder what I can do. I’m in a situation where I’m required to cover a textbook, my students are part of a cohort that takes unified exams, and no one seems to be interested in anything other than going through the motions of education, although I feel very little is actually accomplished that has any value at all to the students.
Please leave any advice or comments you have below.
There is always an answer, our growth on an individual is not always comfortable. So if you are uncomfortable, you are growing! (not much comfort? 🙂 ) Great post – great question!