Dears RG colleagues,
As a lecturer, I think it is a difficult job since every move should be prepared and organized, over the years, definitely every semester we learned new things related to teaching which made us better than before,
Can you share with us what is the most important thing YOU learned during your teaching journey?
Regards.
How very interesting, dear Alaa !
I rushed to answer you, because I appreciate the concept of "learning from teaching".
Indeed, we learn a lot more when we teach:
1. First, and just the fact of having to explain difficult subjects in a direct and simple manner, immediately adds to our own understanding of subjects;
2. Second, and above all, I also learn daily from my students, as they bring newer perspectives to the subjects I teach, from their bright questions and remarks.
So, to conclude, I am a richer person, the more I teach, the more I learn. And this is good.
Dear Alaa Khalaf,
In my opinion the best thing I've learned is haw to learn. Through my education, for me it is the most helpful. Just because, I use in my lectures active teaching. In my lecture helped me a nice book Alex Moore (2004) The God Teacher, London, RoutledgeFalmer. I'd recommend you to study.
I hope I have been some of help.
Best regards,
Andrija
Refresh the information and give information to people who do not know it.
Dear Alaa
It is a nice and big question , in my opinion , we are leaned how to serve worlds by our field and how to teach other what we are learning.
Regards
The most important thing i learned from teaching is adding more knowledge, and i am always glad to see my students participating in the class work.
How very interesting, dear Alaa !
I rushed to answer you, because I appreciate the concept of "learning from teaching".
Indeed, we learn a lot more when we teach:
1. First, and just the fact of having to explain difficult subjects in a direct and simple manner, immediately adds to our own understanding of subjects;
2. Second, and above all, I also learn daily from my students, as they bring newer perspectives to the subjects I teach, from their bright questions and remarks.
So, to conclude, I am a richer person, the more I teach, the more I learn. And this is good.
Dear Dr Khalf
I agree with you that teaching is a very difficult job especially in universities as it needs preparation of lectures, quizzes, exams, in addition to the research works. Teaching is not only a job it is a total life. If you can't evacuate yourself for its demands you will fail to succeed in this life.
Regards
Hello Dr. Khalf,
Just like what Dr. Miqdam said, teaching is indeed a very difficult job as it requires preparation of lectures, quizzes, exams, in addition to the research works. However, one important thing i learn is how to manage students. In the last 6 years i have been teaching, i meet virtually different types of students with certain peculiarities yearly and, coupled with "other" issues, necessitating tweak in methodology in delivering the lectures, practical sessions and etc. I can tell you, it is not easy managing large class >200 of Engineering and ICT in developing countries. One just have to adapt and be resilient to stress and pressure.
Dear Alaa Khalaf
The taught me teaching time management, problem solving. I try to give my students the same opportunities. Often I hear that although the project was difficult, they are so proud of their efforts, learning, and accomplishments.
Thank you
Dear Alaa,
1. There is no most important thing to be learned but many important sides of new/old experiences.
2. One of them is that the teacher has always a lot of things to learn if s/he will properly teach.
When I was in graduate school, one of my favorite professors would always say, "To make learning easy makes teaching hard. Learning should always be fun, regardless of the level!"
My professor's words are still true to this day. This is the most important thing that I have learned from teaching.
What is the most important thing you learned from teaching?
Dear Colleagues,
Thank you for reminding me about the learned points of teaching. Despite teaching may have been predominantly focused on the students, as it is planned by the instructional tools; the teacher can also take his/her learning points. Like participate in the RG, I has been conditioned to realize that I have to learn continuously.
What little I have learned from my little experience of teaching is the importance of awakening joy in the mind of students for learning and their own expressions, as mentioned in the following quote:
"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." — Albert Einstein
What is the most important thing you learned from teaching?
The most important thing I'd learned from teaching is to be open minded & get prepared to learn something that I don't know from students. I think teaching is 2 ways street i.e. while I teach I learn something as well. So as teacher, we need to be open minded & continue to learn - only continue to learn enable us continue to teach.
The famous Mottos tell: “He who teaches, learns”’ (Comenius); and “Teaching is learning” (Seneca).
Most importantly, when we teach each other, we learn from everyone, and as a result, we both benefit from each other (Duran, 2016).
Dear Alaa Khalaf
I am a professor of medicine of clinical cycles in bachelor's degree, in specialty of internal medicine; And master's and doctoral degrees in medicine for 44 years. My long journey as a teacher has left me the following experiences.
regards
Jose Luis
Estimado Alaa Khalaf
Soy profesor de medicina de ciclos clínicos en licenciatura , en especialidad de medicina interna; y maestría y doctorado en medicina desde hace 44 años. Mi largo viaje como docente me ha dejado las siguientes experiencias.
Saludos
José Luis
Our students will grow up in a world decidedly different from the one you were educated in.
I have learned how to related classroom activities to real world problems. My blended experience in Management and teaching/research helped me a lot to link practices and management theories. Classroom teaching, I believe is relatively useless if students cannot relate it to their society or at least contextualize knowledge to their needs.
I learned that human brain has an enormous keys point that we can manipulate them
Thank you all Professors and Doctors for sharing your answers with us,
Actually, it is really helpful answers which need more than upvote :)
Beside that, the answers make the reader learning from your experience.
Greetings to all.
Teaching is a reversible process; you can learn from your students; because of that, I prefer to interact the classroom.
Thanks for the invitation. One of the more important things I learned, is that an inspiring teaching may change a negative attitude of a student towards teaching to a positive one. And this is beneficial for both teacher and student.
Regards
I believe teaching is decent profession that needs lot of patience. Unfortunately I am not a teacher. A teacher can learn life long through their teaching.
Teaching is a profession which I inspired since I was in the primary school in the 1950s-1960s. It is a profession which needs patience, dedication, continuing updating, accountability, justice, equity and sacrifice. In the meantime, you gain a wide range of friendship with people whom you share teaching, you may document some of your work as research articles and books. Lastly, a responsible teacher will be much confident as he/she advance in profession but the confidence gained must be based on honest work and faithful intention
As a lecturer, it's important to update your lectures. Sometimes you think that your presentation is perfect, but then you discover many defects and need to rearrange it again. Teaching needs continuous improvement in your scientific background. Justice, self confidence, personality, good manners are very important factors in teaching.
Dear Alaa,
Like Maria, I do believe in teaching and learning as the two-way process. Teachers also learn from the students. However, all my experience, now I have retired, tells me the teaching, explaining and guiding all are important, but the most important is to inspire students to carry out work and learn in the process.
I am trying to empower my students to be ready to join the work force as leaders from the start. This goes beyond the regular teaching/learning goals. When I write a letter of recommendation for one of my students, I want to be able to truthfully and realistically say "she/he will be one of your best ...". This is a difficult goal to meet, but it is very rewarding that I can try.
Dear all, Dear Raid,
All of you have given well articulated answers from your experiences of what benefits you gained from the job you passionately love to do - teaching. But dear Raid puts an important point regarding what after all the vision and goal of teaching some one specially at the terminal level. The student and the professor are investing their knowledge and time for a return, to see the student lands on employment so that he/she utilizes the fruits of learning. A company which produces products with out any care about the marketability of the products is not after in that business.
By teaching, the students not only learn from you. You also learn from them. For some of the questions they ask I have never thought about before.
That it is not always important to know it all. The lessons you learn in the class observing your students and listening to their thoughts and opinions help to shape your own practice. I've also learned that many of the students, I teach graduate students, are lacking essential non-cognitive skills that are necessary for early career success. My teaching experience has allowed me to integrate those skills into every lesson and every discussion.
Explaining difficult concepts by giving simple examples, hands-on applications (if possible) and illustrated with short videos or pictures.
Some of the most important lessons I have learned in teaching involve not making too many assumptions about the students or their personal home environments.
If the lessons are not progressing as expected, consider the possibility that the student having some difficulty may: 1) have a physical handicap; 2) is too poor to afford the basic necessities of the class; 3) the assumed prerequisites for the class were not fully satisfied; 4) is suffering from psychological problems; etc.
If you can isolate the possible type of problem, then try to help your student or seek experts who can help.
Dear Ljubomir,
One of the secrets of teaching is to teach students to listen.
The teaching is an important job, I think this work makes self –styled and smooth it always for the better. Teaching makes me in continuous learning and seeking to gain skills to find the best means to convey information to the learner. I learned how I maintant quiet and when to be firm and continued stimulation and encouragement.
Teaching and learning are bidirectional processes.
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether twenty or eighty.
Henry Ford
Three important things:
1. Patience
2. Listening
3. Continuous learning
In my opinion the risk can probably be a danger (probability of having the bad), but the danger is certainly bad.
I've learned how to 1) communicate strategically depending on who I'm interacting with, 2) accept different perspectives, 3) deal with criticisms, and 4) yes, be patient.
Teaching is the process & the beginning of learning from our childhood where our parents are the most useful & effective teacher for our learning , as right from the birth they have observed the behavior ,the attitude,the temperament , the feeling , of their children in a very right manner which may have offer them the direction for establishing the right type of change & behavior from their children .
When the time of children pass thru their primary school leaving,teacher in the initial stage can also find from their observation the necessary culture & discipline of the students. This may also help the teacher to offer them a guideline & also by giving the example of such student to other student , these may also help the line of changing the mode of other students.
This development of the student may help them to select a proper method of their progress in a very right mode for selecting also the worthy life.
This is my personal opinion
Dear Alla,
I always keep in mind what Einstein says that "If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself".. which means no matter how complicated the topic is, you have to be able to explain it in a simple manner. The simplicity of teaching definitely needs a very hard reading and deep learning.
The most important thing is patience becauae patience is learning you how to listen and how to manage the conversation between you and your students which enable to enhance your self learning based on their openions and their questions
The best way to learn is to teach the others. The teaching is always a challenge that keeps us in shape. The teaching provokes with unexpected questions and new ideas, shows a new perspective. I learned many things from teaching and especially not to take myself too seriously, to listen more carefully and to be more patient.
That learners remember most and utilize best points and insights gained through their own explorations. So that as a teacher, one should play more of a facilitator's role than that of a knowledge pump dispenser.
Again
one should talk less but provide as much instructional material as possible, create a stimulating learning environment and give learners more opportunity to make interventions.
Sometimes students are more comfortable learning from each other than from the teacher. Some are slower in uptake than others and that is one of the values of group work.
Dears all Researchers,
Thanks a lot for your answers,
Greetings to all of you.
Dear @Alaa, I nave learned from my graduated students that I have met at different positions in industry, academia..., how important is applied knowledge. They were grateful to me as they have had a chance to apply the acquired knowledge very quickly. Of course, I have stayed in touch with former students and their feedback is very significant.
The most effective tool for learning is teaching, so please give chance for your students to learn by teaching each other.
According to my experience as a lecturer best way for the students to get benefit are to learn from each other as group to understand the lectures that offer to them
What is the most important thing you learned from teaching?
Some of the students really want to learn, and a few of them just want to pass the course, get requiredncredit numbers and move on (even you put a lot of energy and advices for them). An old saying goes " You can take a horse to a water source, but you cannot make it drink."
@ Hisham.
You mentioned: "I learned to be more careful of those close to me." Why?
Classroom is a two way street for both teaching and learning. We must admit that we have learned a lot in classroom. Sometimes, we are not aware of it.
Dear All
We ourselves are students all the time and we need to develop our information and run with the fast creative world. Our information, logic, and science means nothing if it were not useful for others.
Regards
the best thing i learned from teaching how to plane and applied and my mind become think in correct and i can take a good decision.
Like Socrates said, he learned the he didn't know much (the "oracle" ruled that he was the wisest man around). I agree with Socrates.
I understood when your heart is in the something other thing can be solve by itself. just it.
I have learned them that learning is an important process, not the grades. Sometimes, I have made a mistakes in grading exams and exercises, so I have learned from my students to listen their claims and to correct my mistakes.
Patience, when students are bored, not attentive, yawning, smiling; then making them learn is really a skill........
I have learned that I may not have all the answers. I have also learned that discussion, collaboration, and being willing to hear other viewpoints are as important as my lectures.
Which I learned is that the simplest and easiest learning process for students as much as possible.
I have learned that students' feedback is very important for the improving the role of teacher.
When you work hard you can see the results of teaching when the students respect you, specifically when a student after he passed the exam come to me and said " I cheated in the last test and I don't deserve this mark" this result should be our goal in teaching " truth and honest"