clearly i have to find some way for these students to share their knowledge and feel acknowledged while not stealing other students' thunder but...how?
11 September 2008
question...
so i have a few know-it-all students in my oil painting class. they've taken lots of art classes outside of school. from their point of view those classes are more legitimate...the teachers "real artists". they think the way they did things in those classes is the only way. they also answer every question i ask even when i'm trying to help another student learn. this frustrates me...a lot.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Rebecca,
Can the know-it-all students help in another class? Maybe the lunch block class? It might enpower them and get out that know-it-all energy where you could use it and not where it is potentialy hard for others to hear. I used to have students help / sort of TA- they didn't get credit, but could put a note on their transcript with their other extra curricular stuff.
-Sarah
Hey Berts,
In my experience, know-it-all-ism has a long list of causes, a longer list of negative impacts, and only one cure: learning that, in fact, you don't know it all, and that even if you did, that might not be the most important thing.
I'm not going to tell you to crush their spirits with your life experience, vast knowledge, and success as a practicing artist -- though in my opinion, being branded the Expert in the Room gets sort of a bad name in teaching. This room isn't about me, but as a matter of fact, i'm an expert. This isn't condescending, it's reassuring -- kids can smell a lack of content-area competence, and they don't like it.
So I think that one approach is to treat the underlying problem, which is the notion that they know it all. This is a very, very adult lesson -- I only got it, really in college -- but it's probably the most important one you ever learn (if you ever do). I had repeated success riding the know-it-alls hard but collegially, until they got the idea that yes, they're brilliant, and no, it doesn't matter -- there's more to learn about math, and anyway, doing is more important than knowing, and participating in a group is doing.
You're doing these kids a favor if you can get them to humble themselves a little bit in service to their own work, I guess, is what I'm saying. It's authentic, and it's productive.
Post a Comment