The Obstacle of Teaching
Mastery Impedes Insight
Subject Mastery Isn’t Teaching Mastery
Teachers have one big thing to get past when ensuring that their students learn. And that one big thing is their own mastery of their own subject. Teachers have the obstacle of teaching. Professors have the obstacle of professing. The challenge for any professional is to continue to explore, assess, develop, and refine one’s expertise. That challenge, though, is especially acute for teachers and professors. Because teachers teach and professors profess out of acknowledged expertise, we too easily rely for endorsement and satisfaction on the expertise that we share when professing.
Overcoming Your Own Mastery
Our discipline expertise disguises our novice professing. Simply because we are discipline experts does not make us experts in helping students learn our expertise. Our mastery of our own subject isn’t the same as mastery of teaching and learning. Schools, especially at higher levels, tend to hire teachers and professors for their discipline expertise rather than their skill in teaching.
Teacher, Heal Thyself
Teachers rightly exhort students to adopt a learner mindset. Well, physician, heal thyself. When developing greater teaching skill is the question, teachers could take a good dose of their own medicine in adopting a learner mindset. Experts in one discipline sometimes find hard admitting their novice status in another discipline. You are a discipline expert, a master in your own subject field. Don’t let your mastery of your subject mislead you to believe that you are a master educator, too.
Teaching as a Distinct Discipline
Teaching and learning are their own discipline. Rather than draw reward from your discipline expertise, draw reward instead from the curiosity, growth, and ambition that first won you that expertise. Just as you would urge on your students when they encounter a new subject, take that unease that you feel when exploring new teaching knowledge and skills, and turn that unease into a rewarding sense of excitement and anticipation. Push yourself again, as you once pushed yourself to become an expert in your subject field. But this time, push yourself into that wonderful zone of proximal development around teaching skill. Make yourself a master not only in your own subject but also in teaching.
