Types of Teachers.
I find it extremely interesting the
way certain teachers just stick in your mind, and no matter how many years have
gone by, you still remember them. And it is even more interesting that in many
cases, you remember them not because of their teaching methods, or because you
like the subject, but for personal reasons as well.
Consequently, I started digging in my
mind, trying to identify the three types of teachers Carl Rogers states there
are. It was not particularly simple, for the concepts in the text are not
always so easy to find in real life. The world is not black and white; there
are shades, and grey areas. However, I think I was able to grasp the main idea
Mr. Rogers tried to explain in his book, and apply it to my former teachers.
The first category is described as
the explainer. For this type of instructor, I thought of Mr. Merker. He taught
History in the 8th grade, in the Normal de Quilmes. As the book
says, he too had incredibly deep knowledge about his subject, but he was a little
rusty regarding methodology. Personally, I believe it was due to his age (he
was over fifty when I was his student, back in 2007). Don’t get me wrong, he
was a good teacher, but he could have been better if he worked a tad in his
methods of teaching.
During his lessons, he was always in
control. Students weren’t allowed to speak unless they raised their hand and
the teacher granted them the right to speak. The rapport between teacher and
student was not the best, for he would always order us, often shouting, what to
do next. In addition, he gave us no agency. Every class, he stood up on the
front of the class and explained the chapter we were supposed to read. Once he
was done, he gave us exercise. Working in pairs was not possible, and talking during
the class was forbidden.
Perhaps, if he were a little bit more
relaxed, and let the students have some control over the lesson from time to
time, most of the students would have not failed as they did.
The second category is involver. I
thought of Mrs. Garbarini for this case. She taught language and literature, on
9th grade. Obviously, she was very well-learned, but not only regarding
her subject, as Mr. Merker. She had a firm grasp concerning methodology too.
On the first class, she made us write
an introduction of ourselves, to see the level of the class. The following
class, she told us that she had read all the introductions and that we would
learn according to the needs and difficulties of the group as one.
From there, her methods varied a
great deal. One day she would give us short texts to read, or even stories.
Borges was one of her favorites, and we would read a lot of his work. Syntax
she taught as well, allowing the students to be part of the lesson. And I
remember particularly that one day she told us that we would act a small play.
As there were not a lot of characters in the play, she divided the class into
several groups, each of one devoted to a task. There was one for the
scenography, one for sounds, one for the small pamphlets you get when you go to
the theatre, one to control that we weren’t interrupted while acting, and so
on.
The point is that she had a great
number of methods for teaching, which made her classes a lot more interesting
than they would have been if she just stood up on the front and explained
everything.
Enabler was the third category. The
moment I started reading about this type of teacher I thought of Roxana, my
private teacher of English. Instead of taking control over the class as Mr.
Merker did, she usually asked us how we would like to proceed. She would point
out the aspects we needed to improve, and different ways of working on them
that were not so common –and why not? So boring-.
We could choose the activities we
wanted to carry out, and sometimes, how we would like to be corrected.
Moreover, when we made a mistake, she didn’t look down on us, or laugh. She would
politely explain where the mistake was and why we were wrong. Also, when she
thought we should write a narrative or an essay, she would let us choose the
theme. She suggested some, but we had complete liberty to opt for whichever we
wanted to.
Roxana was very ecological as well. Some
classes, she looked for articles or stories dealing with contamination, or the
greenhouse effect. I remember one in particular, about a ship that sank in the
ocean, spilling all its petrol in the sea. It may not seem much, but little by
little, ecology made its way through my brain.
