What Is Teaching?
Readers of this paper are vitally interested in teaching, and many of them devote full time to this work. Much attention is given to what to teach; some consider how to teach (usually giving emphasis to props or devices for expressing themselves; but few seem concerned with understanding the fundamentals of the act of teaching. What is teaching? What must we do to really teach?
Teaching is not the demonstration of the teachers learning, although obviously one cannot teach what he does not know. It is not the mere presentation of information, for one may present without communicating. Communication takes place only when there is reception as well. It is helping another to reproduce an experience, thus making it common to both teacher and pupil. Knowledge cannot be poured from one mind to another, like water from one bucket to another It must be recognized, and rethought, and relived by the receiving mind.
True teaching is not that which gives knowledge, but that which stimulates the pupil to gain knowledge. TEACHING IS THE AROUSING AND THE USING OF THE PUPILS MIND, TO GRASP THE DESIRED THOUGHTS, OR MASTER THE DESIRED ARTS. ( Seven Laws of Teaching by Gregory, for further study of these principles.) There is no teaching without learning. The teachers function is to create the most favorable conditions for self-learning.
At this point I hear many teachers say, We are willing to try this, but our pupils have no mental appetite. They do not seem to want to learn. Knowing this probably seems harsh, we must insist teaching involves creating that mental appetite. This is the very core of successful teaching.
Dewey said, THINKING BEGINS WITH A FELT DIFFICULTY. We think when our emotional or physical needs arouse in us some doubt or uncertainty. When we consider various solutions (accumulate the evidence) and select or reject until we reach a satisfactory conclusion, we have engaged in reflective thinking. The audience does not think just because the preacher steps to the platform. He must cause them to analyze themselves, see needs, and seek solutions. All explanations and expositions are useless unless they excite and direct the pupil in his own thinking.
THE ACTUAL WORK OF THE TEACHER CONSISTS OF THE AWAKENING AND SETTING IN ACTION THE MIND OF THE PUPIL THE AROUSING OF HIS SELF-ACTIVITIES. We must consider the pupils more, and the sound of our own voice less.