Teacher as Facilitator

we tend to teach the way we were taught
there is a hidden “power barrier” which literally dams up the notion that children might be treated in any way other than as inferior, less intelligent, less knowing - and of course they are in one sense, and yet. . . “ the child is father of the man”
we sense that telling information is faster - which would be true if students were like computers and learned best through direct input
direct linear teaching is easier to plan, evaluate and objectify
researchers in the past suggested teachers learn to teach in one best style and stick with it
it is frightening for some teachers to “let go of students” for there is a sensation that there may be no way to get “control” again, and there isn’t in the same fashion
we have never had a teacher run a classroom using this format or role, so we have no inherent moves to model
one philosophy suggests that people are basically unmotivated and don’t want to be at school anyway, so if allowed to choose they will choose to do nothing
since so many districts use scores to show teaching ability it is frightening to make a change with no assurance that students will score higher

I was so used to having responsibility for learning in my classroom that I had a very difficult time accepting the ideas taught in Cooperative Learning. When I read the part about being a guide on the side rather than a sage on the stage, I laughed. I wasn’t giving up my teaching power a nd sitting on the sidelines. I recall thinking, “I have responsibility to myself and to humanity to see that when these students leave my math class they’ve completed the book and taken every test. Furthermore, how am I supposed to motiveate students to work if they are allowed to spend time talking together. I have enough trouble now, just getting their attention when the bell rings.”

Since then I’ve been involved in the new math programs that suggest working with manipulatives, teaching concepts through realism and as part of integrated subjects. The difference in the enthusiasm and learning that takes place isn’t even quantifiable. Not only do a adhere to the idea of being a facilitator and guide, I’m nearly an evangalist on the subject!

Six characteristics which identify teachers who are high facilitators of personal growth:

1. effective listening
2. genuineness
3. understanding
4. respect
5. intelligence
6. skill in interpersonal communication (Wittmer & Myrick, p. 40)

1. Good eye contact
2. Gives attention to what is being said - particular words, body language and non-verbal expressions, vocal tones, process and timing
3. Try to feel how the person is feeling and thinking
4. Attempt to become involved in how the speaker is perceiving the world
5. Express that you are listening, are following the ideas, are hearing what is being said
6. Send awareness of the person as a being with no judgmental overtones
7. Validate recognition by checking with the person or reflecting what was said
8. Listen to disclosures without rushing the person
9. Work to rescue true meanings and real needs as a part of listening

1. Direct personal encounter, person to person
2. Defensiveness or retreating are minimal and real sharing in maximized
3. Roles are recognized as roles and not used to distance one another
4. Feelings are admitted and recognized, those which are positive and those which are less comfortable but just as real - anger, sadness, weariness, joy, ennui, frustration, peace, need for solitude
5. Because human growth is developmental, there is a peace in letting be, in giving time to children to see things in different ways from our own
6. The right to disagree is valued, honored, offered in peace.

When two men inform one another of their basically different views about an object, each aiming to convince the other of the rightness of his own way of looking at the matter, everything depends, so far as human life is concerned, on whether each thinks of the other as the one he is, whether each, that is, with all his desire to influence the other, nevertheless unreservedly accepts and confirms him in his being this man and in his being made in this particular way. The strictness and depth of the human individuation, the elemental otherness of the other, is then not merely noted as the necessary starting point, but is affirmed from the one being to the other. The desire to influence the other then does not mean the effort to change the other, to inject one’s own “rightness” into him; but it means the effort to let that which is recognized as right, as just, as true (and for that very reason must also be established there, in the substance of the other), through one’s influence, take seed and grow in the form suited in individuation. - Buber, 1967

1. Empathy describes true understanding - becoming immersed in how a student feels rather than how we feel they may feel or should feel
2. Reading the clues and cues another sends and validating them
3. Perceive what is being expressed to eliminate defensive stances or withdrawal
4. Involve the student in learning to understand self, and move toward understanding others. -- (this works better after a child is at least 7 and can become involved in second person perspective more readily)

. . . one ought not to equate social health with total harmony, with a lack of contradictions and strains. Actually, vigor and creative flow have their source in internal strains and tensions. It is the pull of opposite poles that stretches souls. And only stretched souls make music. - Eric Hoffer

1. Accept a student’s experiences as important to him/her
2. Practice respect of others as a part of the classroom system and process
3. Task analyze the times when students do not show respect to each other or the teachers to better set up the procedures, drills and skills which will enhance the use of respect with one another
4. This is often shown through optimism, deep interest and concern
5. Positive regard, warmth and respect will earn the respect of students, while demanding or punishing for respect will lead to anger and misbehavior

There is nothing produced by man more powerful than an idea, yet there is nothing at birth so delicate. An earthshaking idea could be murdered at birth by a smirk. It has been said that nothing can stop an idea whose time has come. The problem seems to be in its surviving until its time can come! - Theodore A. Cheney

1. Extensive knowledge of subjects taught
2. Love of knowledge and learning - with a desire to share the love and the skills
3. Knows when to expedite learning by sharing personal insights and when to allow student exploration and personal discovery
4. Becomes involved in learning about the cultural background of students

Mastery of the fundamental ideas of a field involves not only the grasping of general principles, but also the development of an attitude toward learning and inquiry, toward guessing and hunches, toward the possibility of solving problems on one’s own. Just as a physicist has certain attitudes about the ultimate orderliness of nature and a conviction that order can be discovered, so a young physics student needs some working version of these attitudes if he is to organize his learning in such a way as to make what he learns usable and meaningful in his thinking. To instill such attitudes by teaching requires something more than the mere presentation of fundamental ideas. -Jerome Bruner

Teacher Power

Go back to Teaching Roles

E-mail J'Anne Ellsworth at Janne.Ellsworth@nau.edu

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