Thank you for sharing both your positive and negative learning experiences! Like
you, I spent nine years on active duty and my transition to the civilian sector was
challenging. I was not a “fobbit” during my time overseas and I know those
experiences have affected who I am. I am grateful for you to have found such a
wonderful leader, mentor, and teacher as I am positive the experience has been
mutually beneficial for him as well.
Regarding the example of your poor experience, I find it amazing that you were
able to identify the exercise in patience as being a potentially positive outcome of
what sounds like a dreadful experience. This teacher does not sound like they
embraced any of the seven principles of effective teaching but at the minimum
they did not encourage contact, cooperation, or active learning (Bernstein et al.,
2020). a Your strength to persevere instead of dropping the class is inspiring! It
would have been interesting to read their teaching philosophy and see if it would
have included any of the common themes noted from highly effective teachers
such as: engaging students in learning, maintaining student interest, getting to
know students, assessing student’s knowledge, setting high expectations, and
participating in professional development (Carraway & Burris, 2017). Regardless,
they did not seem to be practicing the key elements of being an effective teacher.
It is awesome to read about the good experience you had with your instructor
from the police academy. I have not been in the military and cannot pretend to
understand how hard it must have been for you to adjust to a civilian lifestyle
after 5 years of active service. The mental health impact of being in the military is
pretty well researched now, with PTSD being considered a public health issue.
(Chargualaf & Elliott, 2019) I believe having people, like your mentor, to help our
military personnel adjust and work through the changes they experience after
service, is essential to helping combat some of the mental health challenges that
are arising.
I also hate to hear about your experience with your professor in your master's
program. It can be quite frustrating when teaching seems to be bias or one sided.
I think you did learn from that experience though! You mentioned that the course
changed for you, and you focused on being patient. Sometimes that is what God
is calling us to do in different moments. I truly believe that God places us in
situations for a reason. You can take what you learned from both the good and
bad experience and apply it to the kind of teacher you would like to be. a Thank
you for sharing. a a I like how you discussed your mentor in police training as the
teacher role for the post; I did not even consider that when writing mine. For my
reply, I wanted to discuss the strengths of your thread regarding your "poor
teacher experience". I have had similar experiences with college instructors that
teach to their own biased agendas. Perhaps the most frustrating part of that
experience for you was the teacher' liberal agenda. I, too, can relate to the
frustration of liberal agendas being accepted as "truth". One of the reasons I had
to unsubscribe from important newsletters from the state teachers union I was a
part of as a teacher, which included their roles in lobbying for teacher rights with
the state (our state has only one department of education which hires and is in
charge of all public school teacher positions in the entire state, as opposed to
each local district having their own powers and protocols), was the advocacy for
liberal agendas they pushed. I found it sad and sickening what our union was
"fighting" for. In fact, it is very scary that the majority of the public education
system across the nation right now is "accepting" as truth about the very essence
of all people (i.e., God has created only two sexes for humans). With this in mind,
I respect your resiliency to persevere in your course aligned to liberal ideas.
a a a a a a I also wanted to point out the fact that teachers should not be manipulating
content to fit their own opinions. This quality, according to Bernstein et al. (2020)
refers to one's knowledge about subject matter. a Knowledge comes from sources
that are peer-reviewed, empirical, testable, etc. In this way, one should not be able
to distort information. It is very tricky this day and age when a community of
people just decide to come together and "agree" on something existing based off
of feelings, and the misuse and misunderstanding of mental illness, propagating it
and making it pandemic so that dysphoria and delusion become the subjective,
socially-constructed reality, which is also then abused and manipulated as peer
pressure across society.
a a a a a a When considering other characteristics Bernstein et al. (2020) recommend
for effective teachers, your teacher lacked the qualities to strive to be a better
teacher, being respectful, and encouraging critical thinking. Perhaps your teacher
did not understand that critical thinking can be done in any subject resulting in
any number of conclusions, as long as the conclusions are rooted in coherent and
proper logic and reasoning. If you were able to defend your assertions with fact
and logic, your teacher, as all teachers, should respect that and find that as the
ideal behavior for students, whether or not your opinion matches his or hers. This
ability to recognize the behavior and process of argumentation, problem solving,
and logic for what they are, as well as to respect, yet not agree with someone's
opinions, is one of the hallmarks of education.
References:
Chargualaf, K., & Elliott, B. (2019). Psychological effects of military service:
Applying research to civilian & Academic environments. OJIN: The Online Journal
of Issues in Nursing, 24(3). https://doi.org/10.3912/ojin.vol24no03man02
