Teacher and Student Relationships

After reading the two articles for today, it seems to me that we will have to approach our classrooms with the age old theory that “you can’t please everyone.” That is not to say that we will not try, but as Nelson and Brookfield point out, not everything will turn out the way you intended. I thought it was important when Nelson discussed the role of graduate assistants in her article. Although the majority of us will be teaching our own classes and will never have to experience working as an assistant to a professor, it was interesting to see how upset the students became when they realized they were possibly being treated unfairly. I thought this was a tough subject to tackle because, in a sense, they were being treated differently. Students in the class were being graded by different people, which could come off as unfair if not addressed properly. I never was taught or graded by a TA in my undergrad, but the core classes we had to take, like the freshman writing courses we will teach next semester, were of course taught by different teachers, and we would get upset knowing one class was being taught by an “easy” teacher and another by a “hard” teacher and yet everyone was having their grade show up under the same course on their transcript no matter who taught the course.

Nelson’s study did prove that the ideals we have for our assignments may not translate as well to students. The assignment where the Carnegie Mellon students had to sum up their readings in 200 words was viewed as a waste of time and pointless to the students Nelson was studying. The professors clearly did not intend to create a “worthless” assignment, yet that is the way the assignment was perceived. I directly related with the Victorian literature assignment and Helen’s struggles to comprehend what was required of her for the paper. I have had this struggle in the past and even this semester. It is a horrible feeling knowing you may be writing a paper that you think is correct, and all along the paper may be nothing like the teacher had wanted.

Where Nelson spent the majority of her article discussing her study and the assumptions and outcomes of her results, Brookfield seems to take a lot of the assumptions about classrooms and critiques and discusses them. I like that Brookfield says some things are maybe not the ideal way to approach teaching or a classroom, like lecturing or creating circles, but they are sometimes the best way to approach an even less approachable situation. He assesses the risks of critical reflection and of teaching in general. Brookfield’s article tries to show that it is ok to experiment and try new ways of doing things within the classroom because these are all part of critical reflection. Brookfield wants students to not only be engaged within classrooms, but to trust the teacher who is trying to engage their learning. I think the idea of trust within a classroom is one of the most important things we can instill within our classes.