I really enjoyed reading about your experience with your math teacher, Mr. Gonzalez. It
seems as though he had a great impact on you both personally and academically. That is
something that I have seen referenced in our readings for this week- great teachers have
positive impacts on their students. Bernstein (2019) notes that excellent teachers care
about their students. From your post, it seems as though Mr. Gonzalez cared about his
students.
It is unfortunate that your junior college English professor did not possess those same
qualities. Giving prompt feedback is noted by Bernstein (2019) as one of the 7
principles of effective teaching. I have had classes where teachers did not give prompt
feedback as well and it can be very frustrating. As a matter of fact, for one such class,
I submitted my final paper with a comment that noted that since I did not receive
feedback from the teacher on certain questions I had asked, I would expect not to lose
points on that section.
A strength of your post was your statement about allowing God to lead our lives. I
agree that God's calling on our lives should be the most important guide for our career
decisions. Ephesians 4:1 (King James Bible, 1769/2017) implores us to walk worthy of
the calling that God has placed on our lives. May we each strive to do that through our
education and in our careers. Your example of a poor teacher is an excellent example of
a teacher who lets their job become ego based. e It sounds to me like that instructor felt
that they were some form of “gate keeper” rather than a teacher. e This is a great
example of when someone perverts “maintaining high standards” and turns it into an
insurmountable experience. e Rather than concentrating on educating their students, they
instead make the experience a series of unreasonably high obstacles, which means they
are actually failing as a teacher and performing more the role of admissions or a
licensure board.
Its important to remember that schools and academies have admissions offices who vet
out potential students before they get to us, then at the conclusion of education there is
a licensure, certification or board process for a lot of careers. e Our role is to teach, to
attempt to help the student learn a topic and succeed, not to force them into failure. e
There are times that someone may not be suited for a profession and that may come up,
needs to be dealt with. If the standard of the class is dropping out or at most getting a
B, I would say that the issue is the teacher, not the students in this example. e As our
readings state, holding a higher standard does not mean an absurd standard. e I also
appreciate teachers who have clear syllabi and stick to them. On that note, it is nice that
Liberty uses standardized syllabi and curriculum for their courses; this practice likely
would have offered many benefits at other colleges I've attended. The discrepancy from
class to class, from teacher to teacher, often results in widely differing educational
experiences for students, which is a scary thought when one really thinks about it. We
may interact with or receive services from different professionals (think medical
professional for an extreme example) who have had insufficient education, but earned
their degrees/licenses anyway. These professionals may practice their professions in ways
that come from an incomplete and/or misinformed background.
e e e e e To continue, I wanted to note that we see teachers like what I've mentioned all
the time--- teachers who don't know how to educate students, don't know how to work
with certain students (think about some special education teachers for an impactful
example), and/or those who slap on an inappropriate label, such as a mental disorder or
behavioral condition (i.e., behavior analysts, physicians, psychologists, etc., qualified to
do so or not, formally or informally). As a special education teacher and as a parent,
even as a friend or colleague, I've heard many people jump conclusions and label
someone just because of a few characteristics the person at hand may exhibit, temporal
or not. In about 100% of the situations these labels have been misused, undeserving,
and/or inappropriate. Having standardized classes and curriculums that follow the classes'
syllabi is extremely beneficial, and perhaps important. Having teachers who do not
follow their syllabi, teachers that do not understand their own content, teachers that do
not know "how" to teach (i.e., getting students to actually learn and retain the content's
knowledge), etc., hurts many.
e e e e e With that all in mind, I truly respect teachers who operate with a high regard for
their students' abilities. Personally, I found myself aligning to Bernstein et al.'s (2020)
principle of having high expectations for students. As a teacher and parent, my
philosophy is that if you hold your learners to high standards, often higher than what
others may think someone at a certain age is capable of, is essential, as learners will
rise to the occasion of those high standards. As teachers, we must not underestimate our
promising and bright learners!. Your story reminds me of the importance a teacher’s
influence can have on the student’s experience. I have encountered courses in both of
my graduate programs where the material was interesting yet the teacher nearly ruined
the experience for me. I recall one course where my motivation level dropped
significantly due to a poor-quality professor and I had to muster up everything in me to
continue learning a critical topic for my degree and professional plans.
e e e e e e e In the case of my negative teacher illustration, the primary positive outcome
was the decision for me to quit the program. My previous PhD program was at a
supposed “Christian” university, but I longed for a true biblical integration which I
found at Liberty! It also helped me solidify more of a learning orientation, driven by
developing my skills and understanding the course content well, rather than a
performance orientation, driven by grades and winning favor with my professors
(Bernstein et al., 2020). I fully believe this mindset shift was facilitated in part by this
poor teacher/university experience in that the excessive busywork was a tipping point,
causing me to take a step back and reflect on what I really wanted. It allowed me to
recognize my goal in a graduate program was to become a master researcher and
practitioner in my field. I knew I wanted to carry my skills into both business and
ministry and needed a change to accomplish this.
e e e e e e e The Bible tells us in Proverbs 16 that we are to commit our work to the Lord
(v. 3), the Lord makes everything for its own purpose (v. 4), and although we plan our
paths, it is God who directs our steps (v. 9; New American Standard Bible, 2020).
Therefore, I know nothing of my time in a less than ideal experience is wasted, and He
directs my steps toward becoming the best possible teacher.
References
Bernstein, D.S., Frantz, S, & Chew, S. (2020). Teaching psychology: A step by step
guide (3rd ed.). Routledge.
New American Standard Bible (2020). BibleGateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/
Links to an external site.. (Original work published 1971).
References
Bernstein, D. A., Frantz, S., & Chew, S. (2020). Teaching Psychology: A Step-by-Step
Guide. Routledge.
King James Bible. (2017). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1769)
