Learning is collaborative work that happens between the Student and the Teacher. In a learning situation, the benefit of learning does not go only to a single party but both sides. Someone must learn from someone and that someone in return shares a learning from which he learned that something. Simply put, learning seems to be a “barter” of knowledge that happens between two separate parties. It goes like this; “I learned something from you, and you learned something from me.” Many times, this kind of situation occurs. It just so happen that oftentimes also, we do not realize or maybe we tend to be unaware that we already are in the process of learning mutually. This kind of learning process commonly occurs when we take part in a typical discussion and exchange of thoughts. We share something that the other party does not know and in return, that other party shares a thought we do not know. This kind of learning process can also be observed in the classroom setting. Of course, we know that teachers, aside from being teachers, also are students. They are lifelong learners who seek knowledge day-by-day throughout their careers. That being said, it is within common understanding that teachers still are seekers, and it must be taken into minds that despite being teachers who supposedly are sources of knowledge, there are some things that are still unfamiliar to them or if not, they did not encounter yet. It is a common misconception that whenever we meet teachers, we tend to think that they know everything, just because they belong to the teaching force. Of course, they know a lot, but not everything.
Teaching, on the other hand, is the act of sowing or shall I say imparting a certain knowledge to someone regardless of its scale, may it be the tiniest or the humongous details. The act of teaching, I believe, is not reserved for teachers alone. The act of teaching is an act that anyone can practice, including the students. Now, in that teaching process, I think, I may facilitate the learning process in a mutualistic way through allowing everyone in the class to be teachers.Not that I will allow them to take over my place as their real teacher, only I shall and will enable them to become both teachers and students. Also, as a part of this process, I shall allow myself too, to learn from my students. Hypothetically, this learning process shall create a wide discussion where all possibilities will be considered of higher importance. With this learning process in mind, I expect that the students who are products of this kind of learning setup shall become deep thinkers and are considering every possibility as well as considering their thoughts highly valuable. Also, with this kind of setup, perhaps as a teacher, I may be able to teach them how to be taught. Saddeningly, some students nowadays are not open to the idea of being taught. The prime element in teaching is to allow yourself to learn from others. It would be a sin to dream of being a teacher if you yourself do not recognize the fact that you also should be taught. Perhaps with this kind of setup, I also may be able to produce students who are critical thinkers for despite of considering every possibility presented by the thoughts and arguments their colleagues and I shall provide, they will still chew on that information carefully, determining which thought shall be kept beneficial and which is to be dumped.
To attain these goals that I have set in line with this specific learning process, I may say that I can use debates, talks and discussions or if not, forums that may involve everyone in the class. Debate, I believe, is an effective tool in making the students process ideas presented to them by one another and also beneficial in making them think critically if they will accept the thought from their colleague or not. Talks and discussion as well as forums that are involving everyone in the class also is an ideal tool in opening the minds of them, the students to every possibility that their classmates’ thoughts may bring or offer. Also, I, as a teacher may learn from these kinds of activities in a way that I will be able to listen to the thoughts of my students on some specific topics that may produce lots of possible answers to the numerous questions that I still seek for until now.
In operationalizing this learning method, I may start making my students realize and telling them how important their thoughts are and it should be shared instead of being kept. A lot of brilliant ideas that could have changed some things and potentially made some positive impact on this world have not been able to reach the knowledge of many for in the first place, it has been disregarded and was never taken into consideration. Perhaps I may start into motivating my students to come up with their ideas for naturally, their ideas could possess the potential to causing a better effect to everything. To better push them into developing and sharing their full potential as well as their thoughts, I might as well display my personal characteristics of being considerate and open to various and numerous possibilities around. I always believe that everything has a deeper origin and that includes the ideas of the students. I always think that somehow, he must have a further explanation for why he believes in that specific thought he chose to believe. With that, I might as well teach my students that in exchange of me, accepting their thoughts, they might as well should do the same, at least ideally for same as how I believed in the potentials of them and their thoughts, they should also seek for the further and deeper origins of my thoughts and ideas and how can they benefit from it. It may look chaotic for it is expected that in this kind of setup, lots of hypotheses, thoughts and theories may collide but that is not the main essence of this learning process but the acceptance and the validation of every thought.
Finally, to discuss my plans and goals with regards to what I just have said and discussed, perhaps I can make it possible and attainable first through graduating from this course. From that, I may start my teaching journey and start experimenting on the effectiveness of this setup. Test if I will be able to achieve the goals of this learning setup such as the teacher-student exchange of knowledge and ideas. I should keep in mind that learning should not always come from me. In a classroom that I am the lead, everyone is a teacher, and everyone is a student.
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